10-Minute Meditation to Silence Stress and Open Your Heart Chakra

This meditation is a method for developing compassion and is a great one to use when you’re in a place of feeling challenged by, or frustrated with yourself and/or another person. Loving-kindness, or Metta, as it’s called in the Pali language, is unconditional, inclusive love—a love with wisdom. It has no conditions. It does not depend on whether someone “deserves” it or not. It is not restricted to friends and family, rather extends out from the personal to include all living beings.

Instructions:

1. Wherever you’re at, take a seat, close your eyes, and bring awareness to your breath.
2. Breathing in and out from the heart center, begin by generating a kind, loving feeling toward yourself.
3. Feel any areas of mental blockage or numbness, self-judgment or self-hatred.
4. Then drop beneath that to the place where you care for yourself, where you want strength and health and safety for yourself. Choose one of the following phrases (or make one up for yourself) and silently say …
   • May I be filled with loving kindness
   • May I be well
   • May I be peaceful and at ease
   • May I be truly happy
5. Next, choose someone that you care for deeply or, on the contrary, who you feel most challenged by, and repeat the phrase, exchanging “I” with “you.”
   • May you be filled with loving kindness
   • May you be well
   • May you be peaceful and at ease
   • May you be truly happy
6. Then expand your awareness to the entire planet and radiate the loving kindness to all living beings.
   • May all beings be filled with loving kindness
   • May all beings be well
   • May all beings be peaceful and at ease
   • May all beings be truly happy
7. At the end, slowly open your eyes, take a couple moments to center yourself, and continue on with your day.

Thank you to the Chopra Center for this perfect way to recharge your day and your chakra balance.