Loving-kindness
Best if you are hard on yourself or want to feel more connected.
Loving-kindness, or metta, is a practice from the Buddhist tradition where you quietly extend goodwill: first to yourself, then to people you love, then outward, sometimes even to people you're struggling with. It's usually built around short repeated phrases ("may you be well, may you be at ease"), and the warmth grows the more you sit with it. Over time it softens the inner critic, and the warmth tends to spill into how you treat everyone else, including yourself when no one's watching.
You matched here because you're hard on yourself in a way that's starting to cost you. The voice in your head wouldn't be tolerated from a friend, but you've been letting it run unchecked for years. Loving-kindness works on that directly, gently, without forcing positivity. A guided version in a warm, nurturing voice makes a real difference, because the tone is half the medicine.
Worth knowing
- Loving-kindness softens the inner critic over time, and the warmth tends to leak out into how you treat everyone else.
- It comes from Buddhist tradition but needs no belief to practise.
How to start
- Offer yourself one phrase, like "may I be kind to myself today", and let it repeat.
Meditation, matched to your moment, with a journal that remembers.
StillMind can guide compassion-focused practice in a warm, nurturing tone.