The practice of loving kindness

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The above link is a guided session to help induce a greater ability to practice and experience loving kindness.  Previous guided imagery and relaxation sessions have been simple and easily accessible to most people, but I found this one particularly aggravating.  The concepts were difficult for even me to grasp.  I am very good at meditative practice and controlling my mental and spiritual state but the instructions for this particular exercise were far to vague to follow effectively.  The exercise instructed the listener to acknowledge negative feelings and thoughts and give them your loving kindness...isn't the point of the exercise to teach you how to develop that in the first place?

And I disagree with that practice!  Do not acknowledge negative feelings and thoughts.  Do not put love into negativity.  Instead I believe it must be dismissed quickly and completely.  Do not let negativity linger.  Acknowledge it yes, and understand it for what it is but then remove it from your mind!

Loving kindness starts with yourself.  If you do not love yourself for who you are, then you cannot love others for who they are.  To practice loving kindness, you do not need guided training.  You simply need to remove negativity from your life.  Do not let it affect you.  Surround yourself with a barrier of positivity and love.

This is where the idea of a mental workout comes in.  You have to train your mind to focus on the positive, just like you have to train your body for a sport.  It needs to be a daily task and does require conscious effort.  Research shows that, in time, you can control your mind and your feelings. 

I've personally done this with my life although I did not know what I was doing at the time.  I have practiced dismissing negativity and focusing on the positive for the majority of my adult life after being a pretty negative and emotional child.  I learned how to not just internalize (because that alone is unhealthy) but dismiss my negative feelings.  It is not always easy to do and at first you may agitate people (not expressing negative emotions tends to make people think you don't express any), but in the long run the emotional and spiritual payoffs are fantastic.  Imagine being able to brush aside anger, sadness, and disappointment.  It just takes time, patience, and practice.