A Guided Metta Meditation for Healing the Mind

Learn How to Practice Metta Meditation

Metta meditation is a beautiful way to heal your mind so fear, sadness, and pain melt away. I have used this practice at various points in my life to regulate my emotions, and return my mind to tranquility. So, here are some metta teachings and a guided meditation that you can use today, to attain peace and happiness.

Metta Meditation

What is Metta Meditation

Metta meditation is a traditional Buddhist practice that has been used for thousands of years. It softens the heart to liberate us from suffering and heal our minds from fear and anger. In addition, it is different from other practices like breath meditation.

Mettā is a Pali word derived from the Sanskrit word maitrī, which means loving-kindness, benevolence, and goodwill. Furthermore, maitrī is found in the ancient scriptures of the Upanishads, and its meaning is at the heart of many spiritual traditions.

While this practice may be different in different traditions, the common goal of metta is to develop positive feelings towards oneself and others.

Why Practice Metta Meditation

Sages and mystics like the Buddha and Jesus taught and embodied love, kindness, and compassion, reminding us that these qualities are at the core of our very nature.

When we forget that we are beings of loving-kindness, we suffer deeply and succumb to the delusions of hatred, fear, anxiety, greed, and sadness.

For this reason, the practice of metta meditation reminds us of our inherent goodness. It opens our hearts and heals our minds, to release us from māyā (illusion).

It is a way to cultivate positive feelings to ourselves, people we love, strangers, and even people we don’t like.

Benefits of Practicing Metta Meditation

Metta meditation helps:

  • Release anger, anxiety, and sadness
  • Decrease pain, migraines, PTSD, and symptoms of mental illness
  • Promote feelings of compassion, kindness, and love
  • Improve sleep and reduce nightmares
  • Slow aging and makes your face more radiant
  • Clear your mind and bring peace
  • Decrease judgments about yourself and others

Lastly, when you recognize the love and happiness within yourself, you will rejoice in the well-being of all those around you

Metta Meditation

How Metta Meditation has Helped me Manage my Anxiety

During a dark period in my life, I felt anxious all the time. One day, I was at a gas station and felt pangs of anxiety and fear sweep over me. As I looked around, I felt very vulnerable.

As a result, I began to perceive everyone and everything in my environment as hostile, and my anxiety increased.

So, I began practicing what I learned from metta meditation, and within seconds, my experience shifted from fear to love, and I felt happy and free.

In fact, I had a lot of anxiety whenever I was out in public, and this practice helps me whenever I feel uneasy.  I still call on it whenever I experience fear.

I realized it was not the world that needed to change, rather, it was my own mind that needed healing. Moreover, when the mind is healed, the body heals, and life flows in union.

Love is the opposite of fear

True joy delights in the joy of the whole. We live in a world where we can send people to space, build massive structures, and many of us carry around devices that connect us to the whole world.

Yet, famine, corruption, and violence continue to exist, and many people reject their true nature in service to their ego.

You can perceive the world through ego and fear, or you can see through the eyes of love, which strengthens the joy within you. In truth, our species has made huge advancements in science, but we do not fully understand our inner world.

Consequently, hatred, anger, fear, and greed continue to plague society and our egos turn us against each other.

If we open our hearts, however, our minds can evolve and heal, and we can be free of ego. Otherwise, technology may continue to advance, but poverty, inequality, and war will also persist.

From Fear to Love

The ego uses fear, criticizes, places blame, relishes in guilt, and is riddled by doubt and confusion. So, the ego seeks to change the world and other people, but human evolution cannot merely be scientific and technological.

Rather, the minds of human beings need to change to undo the perceptions that divide us. For this reason, when we practice metta meditation we begin with ourselves first, and not with others or the world.

Practicing Metta Meditation with a Guided Meditation

Find a comfortable and quiet space, where you will not be disturbed and can give your full attention to practicing your loving-kindness meditation.

If you are not subscribed to this blog, you can Play the Guided Metta Meditation from SoundCloud:

– If you don’t have an account or the SoundCloud App, look for the option to play in browser

If you’re a subscriber, Download my Guided Metta Meditation mp3 File to play anytime.

Maintaining the Practice and Healing the Mind

This practice does not always need to be formal; we can use the lessons of metta meditation at any time with affirmations and acts of love and kindness. So, stay in this space of loving-kindness as you continue your day.

Whenever you feel anxious, angry, or depressed, practice metta meditation to heal your mind and to be happy. In addition, be aware of the mind’s tendency to drift towards fear.

Fear wants your attention, but it cannot have it unless you give it. So, find your center and investigate where the fear arises from, and remember this is not who you are.

Furthermore, remember this lesson of metta meditation; show loving-kindness to yourself first because it is only when you are strong that you can truly help others. As you let go of your own suffering, you will radiate with love and joy, and embody the peace of maitrī.

The Return to Peace with Metta Meditation

It is the false belief in separation that divides us from our environment and other sentient beings. We are not merely a spec in the universe with a finite existence.

True perception recognizes our oneness with all creation and does not borrow time because it is timeless, united, and in perfect harmony with everything and everyone.

Metta Meditation Opens and Softens the Heart

Metta meditation returns the mind to truth, by allowing the love and compassion within us to flow freely. The happiness that comes from universal love is incomparable. From practicing metta meditation regularly, people are often surprised to realize their true capacity for love towards themselves and other beings.

In truth, inviting grace into your life is really an affirmation to turn away from the ego and the delusions it brings. Grace is always present, and everything in this life is here to liberate us and bring us home to love.

Love is the breath of creation.

Likewise, although we say ‘opening our hearts’, this implies that they can be closed, but this is impossible. To believe that your heart is closed is a belief in the ego that engenders feelings of unworthiness, guilt, and shame.

Truly, you are light, and you are love. Your heart is ever open, and kindness, compassion, and love are your true nature.

So, surrender your fears and turn toward love, and your mighty heart will beat with such joy.

With Endless Love,

Ravelle

If you found value in this post, let me know in the comments.


Related Articles:

Letting go of Judgment

Oneness

Breath Meditation: Sustaining a Fruitful Practice

Deepening in Compassion and Wisdom


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4 Replies to “A Guided Metta Meditation for Healing the Mind”

  1. The Guided Metta Meditation was beautiful. I’m glad I took the time to sit, listen, and meditate, I may return to it in the future.

    Thank you, for sharing this powerful wisdom.

    1. Thank you, Paul! I’m thrilled the meditation worked, it was my first time using SoundCloud 😊 I am also delighted to hear you found it beautiful, I appreciate your kind words. 🙏❤️

  2. Thank you for writing and sharing this article. I look forward to opening my heart and trying your guided Metta meditation. ♥️♥️

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