Today, I’d like to take a moment to share some loving kindness with you. I ran across the Loving Kindness Meditation – I used to recite it quite often, but I let that beautiful habit slide. It came across my newsfeed recently and stopped me in my tracks!
If you’re like me, trying to meditate is like attempting to bathe a cat. There’s wiggling all over the place, it’s frustrating and nothing really gets accomplished.
Sigh…
But this I can do!
Maybe meditation or prayer just isn’t your cup of tea, but you’re looking for something to ease into your day when you wake up.
It’s a short and sweet mindfulness meditation that takes all of 15 seconds to say either out loud or silently.
The benefits of meditation are proven to promote health in many ways. Just think – meditation may keep you off pills down the road, and yes, aromatherapy is perfect for this.
Benefits of Meditation
Even if you can’t sit down and meditate for 20 minutes at a pop, there are benefits to meditating for even a few moments.
- Meditating reduces stress. When you’re stressed, your body releases the hormone cortisol. Too much cortisol and you invite inflammation and increase your blood pressure which could result in cloudy thinking and a whole host of problems.
- Meditation relieves anxiety. Less stress usually translates into less anxiety. And anxiety causes more stress which creates an endless loop.
- Meditation promotes emotional health. The Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine conducted a study and the results showed that a regular short mindfulness meditation enhances brain and immune function.
- Meditation increases your attention span. Y’all, social media has trained us to have the attention span of a gnat. The US Library of Medicine says that even a short mindfulness meditation such as the Loving Kindness Prayer above helps your attention span (and a whole bunch of other things, too) in as little as four days.
Aromatherapy and Meditation
The use of pure essential oils is proven to help with anxiety and stress and can help you relax enough to meditate for a few minutes at a time. Even though I’m not real good at meditating, I keep at it. This is the blend I use to help me quiet my mind and it’s also good before bedtime:
Meditation Blend 
- 10 drops Frankincense
- 5 drops Oppopanax
- 3 drops Myrrh
- 1 ounce Jojoba Oil
Combine all ingredients in a small bottle and apply to your temples, inner wrists and heart area. If you’d rather diffuse this blend, simply add two drops of each essential oil (omit the jojoba oil) into your cold mist diffuser.
If you’d like this blend but don’t have the oils on hand, simply to to Custom Blends in the Aromatherapy Shop and specify Meditation Blend. It’s $19.95 plus shipping (and tax if you’re in North Carolina).
This simple Loving Kindness Prayer is also good for self-care. I’m sending out many blessings to all of you today:
May you be happy
May you be healthy
May you be safe
May you live with ease
Blessings,
Melissa
