When we practice lovingkindness, traditionally, we recite phrases of well-wishing to ourselves. We might feel loving, or we might not. We might feel kind, or we might not.
If you don’t feel particularly kind or loving, then you have to proceed on faith. In mindfulness, faith has a different meaning than it does in traditional religions. There, faith can mean blind acceptance of unprovable beliefs. Blind faith. But here, I’m talking about a very small step of faith. The faith that kindness or that love already resides in your heart.
Perhaps this is not a big stretch of faith for you. Or perhaps your own native kindness is unimaginable. Faith means that you practice lovingkindness with the assumption that you will eventually find it.
I personally will guarantee that after a month of daily lovingkindness practice, you will notice a moment of open-heartedness where you’ve never before seen it.
When this happens, your faith is verified. You see that your assumption is true. There’s no magic here. Nothing unprovable to be believed. Prove it to yourself. Kindness exists in your heart. Then you have no need of blind faith. You simply have the direction experience of kindness.
Here are some traditional phrases. Test them out, and tweak them until you have phrases that you resonate with.
May I feel safe.
May I feel happy.
May I feel healthy.
May I feel peaceful.
May I be free from anxiety.
May I be free from ill-will.
May I be free from affliction.
May I abide in well-being.
May I be free from inner and outer danger.
May I have mental happiness.
May I be as strong as I can be.
May I have ease of well-being.
Sit down now for a little while, and whisper these phrases to yourself in your mind.
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The phrases that work for me are______________________________________________________.
