Loving Kindness
copyright plbandymd 2022
Loving Kindness
Loving Kindness gets a bad rap.
Just the term.
Touchy. Feely.
Suggesting to many
Signs of weakness.
Well-worn doormats.
Naive at best. Stupid--even dangerous--at worst.
Exploitation just waiting to happen.
Vulnerability guaranteed for those who buy into it.
It's an incredible list of assumptions and fears
Surrounding the simple practice of wishing others well.
May you be happy. Happier people are more resilient, productive, successful, connected, live longer and healthier lives, and tend to experience greater life satisfaction.
May you be healthy. Healthy people tend to have greater independence, increased mobility, improved capacity to work and innovate without the distractions or stress of aches and pains, disease and disability. In turn, health and is an important part of well-being.
May you be safe. Safety is a basic human need like shelter, food, belonging and intimacy. When we feel safe and our core needs are being met, we have the space create, innovate, explore our potential and ideas, be ourselves and live at ease.
May you live with ease. When we are happy, healthy, safe and living with ease, suffering and pain diminish. Everyone benefits.
When we practice loving kindness towards ourselves and others, physical changes occur within the regions of our brain governing empathy, compassion, and understanding.
More importantly, in a world embroiled in negativity, violence and anger, loving kindness offers an alternative to being consumed by hate or swallowed by despair.
Lest you conclude that this borders on insanity, remember you have three options. You can: 1. Join the rage. 2. Do nothing. Or 3. Be the change and lead with compassion, love and kindness.
This does not mean that we sit back and condone wrongdoing or regress in the face of injustices. Loving Kindness is anything but passive. Rather, it encourages us to maintain our integrity, to cling to good, to act with intention, to rise above and become an oasis of peace in a world of pain and suffering.
Simple practice. Profound change for you and others. Not as easy as you think.