Love is one of the greatest feelings we can experience, not only towards others but towards ourselves and everything around us. Throughout our lives we learn to recognize it, develop it and demonstrate it. This balance allows us to transform the way in which we see things from the affectionate side and also the way in which the state of mind can influence all the actions that we carry out every day.
There are methods that help us enhance that ability to give and receive love that we all possess, such as «Meditation», which consists of an ancient technique of relaxation and deep thought in harmony with our inner being; managing to calmly approach our mind and emotions.
This is how we let love flow widely, thanks to a type of Meditation called Metta Bhavana, whose purpose is the cultivation and development of Universal Love. This ancestral technique aims to consciously develop what we feel through the use of words, memories or imagination; to then cultivate it in our being (inner self). The Metta Bhavana allows us to mentally work on positive energies, promoting our affective relationships with others and our surroundings, based on love for ourselves; thus avoiding conflicts and discarding our internal debates.
The development of emotions through Metta Bhavana consists of five stages or stages:
- First stage, love towards ourselves: throughout the meditation we will first concentrate on our body and feelings; mentally repeating a positive phrase that makes us feel happy.
- Second stage, love towards a friend: At this stage we will think of a good friend, someone we value, respect and love; thinking about his qualities and strengthening the bonds of friendship, wishing him to be happy.
- Third stage, love towards a neutral person: here we will bring to our mind a person with whom we have no special feelings, who is neither our friend nor our enemy; wishing him with some positive phrase that he is well and that everything flows positively in his life.
- Fourth stage, love towards a difficult person: this stage is to think of a person with whom we have a conflict or that we do not like their behavior; we will explore our feelings for her and wish her all the good that the universe has to offer.
- Fifth stage, love towards all living beings: we will concentrate on all living beings capable of feeling emotions, projecting towards them all our feelings of solidarity, love and tolerance.
In short, by applying this meditation daily, we drive away negativity and we will be able to go through life in harmony, feeling whole and at peace. Life is one and it is better to live it from love, because that is how we transform the world.