15 Reasons To Try Loving Kindness Meditation That Are Backed By Science

There are so many different ways to meditate, and there are different kinds of meditations and different mantras for them.

Each person will have their own unique reason for meditating and bring their unique style to the practice.

But, its benefits are universal.

Loving Kindness meditation is a form of meditation that is quite powerful – and it’s simple.

Loving kindness meditation focuses on developing feelings of goodness towards others. It works towards being warm and kind to ourselves and those people around us.

There is research showing that this form of meditation has significant benefits. Here are 15 reasons that you should try it, today, that are all backed by science.

Increase In Positive Emotions

Loving Kindness meditation is found by research to increase feelings of love, joy, contentment, pride, hope, gratitude, and awe.

These feelings promote life satisfaction and decrease other symptoms of depression, sadness, and anxiety.

Increase Feelings Of Social Connection

Loving Kindness meditation increases positive feelings, as discussed above, and promotes kindness and love towards others prompting us to feel more connections socially – and because loneliness is so devastating to our health, this is a very positive benefit.

Decrease Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder are decreased from meditating in this loving and kind way.

A study focused on veterans who experienced PTSD and committed to 12 weeks of Loving Kindness meditation and found their symptoms were reduced.

Reduced psychological distress will assist people in living better, more full lives.

Decrease Anger

Another study found that individuals participating in this meditation practice had less anger than those who do not.

Nobody wants to feel angry and it has really negative consequences on our health.

This in itself should be a reason to start Loving Kindness meditation today.

Increase In Emotional Intelligence

The development of emotional intelligence is positively affected by regular meditation practice in this form.

It strengthens the part of the brain responsible for both empathy and emotional intelligence, and this will assist in relationships, both intimate and platonic, as well as almost all other aspects of lives.

Increase In Emotional Regulation Skills

Loving Kindness meditation is biologically changing the brain, research has found.

It is increasing the brain’s grey matter, thus increasing the activity in the area responsible for emotional regulation skills. (Emotional regulation skills include our ability to manage anger, frustration, happiness, and other emotions, and are so important to our overall functioning.)

Essentially, this allows us to think before we act.

Relaxing Effect

Nobody wants to be stressed out. It’s a terrible feeling.

The benefit of this practice is that it can sometimes relax you, thus decreasing the experience of stress.

It also slows down our respiratory rate and therefore makes us feel calmer and able to relax better. This in turn assists with better sleep and our ability to accomplish tasks.

Slows Down Aging

Telomeres are pieces of genetic material that are a marker of aging.

A 2013 study found that women who were practising Loving Kindness meditation had longer telomere length than those who were not practising. Thus they were experiencing aging at a slower rate than their counterparts.

Maybe adding in meditation to your daily word puzzle practice to promote slower aging is the right step for you.

Becoming A More Helpful Person

There are plenty of opportunities in societies for us to help our neighbours, although how many of us are actually doing that is unclear.

However, if we were all practising this meditation, we would be more helpful in society as a whole.

This is evidenced by the fact that a study of those who practised Loving Kindness meditation had more social behaviour and helping behavior towards their peers compared to their cohort who did not practise the meditation.

Decrease Symptoms Associated With Schizophrenia-Spectrum Disorders

A 2011 study found that individuals experiencing Schizophrenia-Spectrum disorders who practise this meditation had fewer negative symptoms and an increase in positive emotions and recovery, psychologically.

This simple experience of decreasing negative symptoms can literally change lives.

Decrease Biases

Anyone who claims that they don’t have any biases is full of it, unfortunately.

While we want to always work towards recognizing biases and breaking them down, it isn’t necessarily our fault that they exist.

However painful bias is, Loving Kindness meditation can help. A 2014 study found that just six weeks of meditation practice decreased implicit bias towards minority groups.

This is perhaps the most important effect of Loving Kindness meditation. Imagine what the world would look like if we all engaged in such behaviour.

Decrease In Migraines

If I could take away migraines for everyone who experiences them, I sure would.

The pain from a migraine can be debilitating and lead to people missing work, school, and other important life activities. I found out the hard way that it can even trigger vomiting.

Loving Kindness meditation is found to reduce this pain for individuals experiencing migraines, thus promoting returning to normal life functioning.

This is very important – we shouldn’t have to live with such severe pain if we don’t have to.

Increase In Empathy

Witnessing others in distress should have all of us concerned, simply because we are all humans.

Unfortunately, this may not always be the case.

Loving Kindness meditation is found to increase the empathic responses to witnessing other people in pain, thus making us more likely to assist or find ways of decreasing the witnessed pain.

It also increases the experience and feelings for us when we assist others.

Increase In Self-Love

This should not be a surprising effect as it is literally included in the name.

Loving Kindness meditation improves our abilities to love and care for ourselves by increasing feelings of self-worth and decreasing feelings of self-doubt.

The effects of this practice are long-lasting and therefore will be very helpful over the course of our lives in continuing to love ourselves.

Easy To Benefit From Because Of Time

What is really great is that this does not have to take up large chunks of our time, because, let’s face it, we do not all have an hour or more a day to sit down and meditate.

Loving Kindness meditation can require as little as ten minutes per day of practising to offer us these benefits.

Even just a few minutes has been found to increase positive feelings and promote social connections towards complete strangers in the community.

I am sure that most people have ten minutes to commit to this.

Conclusion

There are so many different reasons to be participating in Loving Kindness Meditation:

1. It will make us better versions of ourselves by loving ourselves more and experiencing less anxiety and depression. This will help us function better in every aspect of our lives.
2. It will also make us be better community members and friends by loving each other more, decreasing our biases, and assisting when our neighbors and friends are in pain.
3. It is also good for our bodies physically by decreasing pain and increasing strength.
4. It will decrease negative symptoms associated with mental health.

So, pull out your meditation pillow and candles and even background music, if it helps you, and start practising today, because there are too many benefits not to.

May your meditation practice be full of life and love and wellness!

Additional Resources

These are suggestions for those who wish to delve deeper into any of the above:

1. Loving-Kindness In Plain English: The Practice Of Metta
2. Loving-Kindness: The Revolutionary Art Of Happiness