Happiness Break: Wishing Others Well, With Anushka Fernandopulle

The Science of Happiness

PRX and Greater Good Science Center

Science, Social Sciences

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2023

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Cultivate a sense of compassion for yourself and others by trying a meditation rooted in loving kindness, called "Metta."

How to Do This Practice:

Find a comfortable place to start this meditation.
Start taking deep breaths, focusing your attention on what you feel around your heart and chest.
Turn your attention to someone who immediately brings a smile to your face. Try to sincerely wish that person well. Some phrases you can mention include, “May you be peaceful and happy. May you be strong and healthy. May you be safe from harm. May you live with ease.”
Think of someone you don’t know as well, and repeat step three. After that, you can try directing well wishes towards someone you struggle with, if you would like.
Slowly begin to shift your attention away from others and direct those well wishes towards yourself.
Complete this practice by sending out goodwill for everyone around you, including yourself, using the word “we.”

Today’s Happiness Break host:

Anushka Fernandopulle is a Buddhist meditation teacher and leadership coach.

Learn More about Anushka: https://www.anushkaf.org/about/

Follow Anushka on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anushka_dharma/

Follow Anushka on Twitter: https://twitter.com/anushkaf

More resources from The Greater Good Science Center:

Greater Happiness in 5 Minutes a Day: https://tinyurl.com/2p896av4

Are You Getting Enough Positivity in Your Diet? https://tinyurl.com/59d56w5d

Feeling Connected Makes Us Kind: https://tinyurl.com/dbv86969

You Need More Than a Book to Learn Loving-Kindness: https://tinyurl.com/5aatw6hw

We love hearing from you! Tell us about your experience of practicing loving-kindness. Email us at [email protected] or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

Find us on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/2kfcdj8e

Help us share Happiness Break! Leave us a 5-star review and copy and share this link: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

We're living through a mental health crisis. Between the stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, burnout — we all could use a break to feel better. That's where Happiness Break comes in. In each biweekly podcast episode, instructors guide you through research-backed practices and meditations that you can do in real-time. These relaxing and uplifting practices have been shown in a lab to help you cultivate calm, compassion, connection, mindfulness, and more — what the latest science says will directly support your well-being. All in less than ten minutes. A little break in your day.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Think back to everyone you've said hello to today.
0:07.8	Maybe family, co-workers, a barista.
0:12.2	Now ask yourself, did you wish that person well?
0:15.9	Did you say something like, have a good day?
0:20.4	What would it be like to feel a little bit more compassion for the people around us
0:23.9	during each passing encounter?
0:29.6	I'm Dacker Keltner, welcome to Happiness Break, where we take a small break in our day to
0:34.9	try practice design to support our overall well-being.
0:38.7	Today's Happiness Break has been shown to help us relate better to one another and savor
0:43.2	the connections in our lives, big and small.
0:46.8	It's a meditation called meta, which is often translated as loving kindness.
0:53.0	Researchers have found that when people practice meta regularly, they tend to react more
0:57.0	positively to other people and understand them better.
1:01.4	And that understanding makes their social interactions and close relationships stronger.
1:06.8	Guiding us in today's meta practice is a Nushka Fernandu Polly, a Nushka is a meditation
1:11.6	teacher and mindful leadership coach who studied Buddhist meditation for over 30 years.
1:17.9	Here's a Nushka.
1:27.3	Today I want to introduce you to a practice of cultivating the intention of wishing well.
1:33.8	In the Buddhist tradition, this is called meta, having a sense of kindness towards oneself
1:39.6	and towards others.
1:45.2	You can find a place where you feel at ease and then we'll begin.
2:03.0	Take a deep breath in and as you exhale, just try to relax into being present here.
	...

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