A Meditation to Connect With Loving-Kindness (Even When It's Hard)

Loving-kindness seems like a practice that would feel good—but in times of tension, uncertainty, pain, or anger, it can be one of the most challenging mindfulness tools to apply. How do we love when it is most difficult to love?

This week, renowned teacher Sharon Salzberg offers a guided practice to connect us to the deep heart and transformative courage of metta or loving-kindness meditation.

Sharon Salzberg is a meditation teacher and New York Times best-selling author. She is the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, and has played a crucial role in bringing Asian meditation practices to the West. Sharon has been a student of meditation since 1971, guiding retreats worldwide since 1974. She is a weekly columnist for On Being, a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and the author of many books including Real Happiness, Lovingkindness, and Real Change.

The transcription of this guided meditation will be online and in our app at Mindful.org next week.

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Show Notes

Find more from Sharon Salzberg here.

Go Deeper

For more resources on accessing and practicing loving-kindness, check out these articles on Mindful.org:

• How Practicing Loving-Kindness Helped Me Find My Place in the World

• 12 Minute Meditation: A Loving-Kindness Practice to Anchor in Compassion

• The Gift of Loving-Kindness

• Why Loving-Kindness Takes Time: Sharon Salzberg

• Wise Engagement with the World: What to Do When You Wish Things Were Different

We have dozens of metta or loving-kindness meditations available for free on our site. Here’s a good place to start: 3 Guided Meditations to Deepen Into Loving-Kindness

And more from Mindful here:

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