BetterLife Technique #5

Loving Kindness for 3 minutes

Love is in the air in movies. But in life love is often not in the air.

Do you love your partner? Your parents? Your friends? What about your co-workers? Neighbors? Strangers on the street? Seller person at the supermarket? Call center operator? Probably not. But maybe you should.

Feeling anxious, nervous, uncertain, unquiet, fearful, concerned how others see you, enraged, hateful, complaining. All of these are self-centered. They come from your ego. The ego is activated from a part of your brain called the Default Mode Network (DMN). The DMN thinks about you, how others see you, worries about the future, regrets the past.

From an evolutionary perspective the DMN was great. It allowed us to change our behavior long-term. It activated whenever we were not busy doing other activities. But now, it activates all the time. And being on for prolonged period makes you miserable. Your ego is there to help you survive, not to make you happy.

More and more people are using meditation to quiet the DMN, let go of the ego and be more mindful and content. Mainly they are using breath-focused, guided and/ or transcendental meditation. Which is great and effective.

But there is also another type of meditation. Which is even more effective…