Meditation for Unconditional Love

We all have within us, the natural capacity for unconditional love. Feelings of friendship, kinship, kindness, or empathy that is open, supportive, compassionate, and constant, with no expectation of appreciation, return, or even acknowledgement. Unconditional love is the act of opening of our hearts, and wishing for everyone - every being - to be happy, healthy, and content. This unconditional love begins with ourselves, and then extends to everyone and everything around us.

As with all the meditations found on this site, you should read all the way through this page at least once before you try to do the meditation.

Before you start:

Meditation Instructions

• Begin with a few mindful breaths, remembering to notice and let go any distracting thoughts.

• Close your eyes and take two cleansing breaths. Remember, in through your nose, and blow it out through your mouth.

• Next, take three good, deep belly breaths.

• Now turn your focus inward, shutting out the outside world for now, and continue breathing slow, deep, breaths, beginning to envision the white light surrounding and enveloping you.

• As the light surrounds you, it begins to change colour, becoming the most pure, beautiful, and perfect in every way, peace, calm, and tranquillity filling your awareness.

• Now begin to breathe the light in, filling your lungs, and now, from your lungs, send the light into your heart, and begin breathing with your heart also, as though your heart were an additional set of lungs.
Feel your chest expanding with wondrous light. Feel your heart expanding and contracting, infusing your blood with this pure and perfect light, sending it through your veins, and out to every part of your body.

• At this time, look over the last few days, and remember something - anything, even the smallest thing - for which you feel grateful.
Once you have found that one thing, hold it in your mind and recapture that feeling of gratitude. Feel it in this moment. Infuse it into the light and, with every deep and blissful breath, breathe and "heart breathe" that gratitude into every part of your body. Every cell. Every space within you. Deep into your Core.

• Now, as you continue breathing the light throughout your being, think of the one you love most in the Universe. It can be a person, a pet, a spiritual entity - any being - as long as you love them absolutely, without reservation, no matter what. Think of all the things you wish for them. Focus on how you feel about them, knowing that there is nothing they could ever do that would make you stop loving them.
This is unconditional love.

• Take a few minutes now to focus on how it feels to wish all the good things you wish for them - the sense of wishes for well-being emanating from you to them, connecting you to this person or being you love. Now imagine them wishing these very same things for you, knowing that they have your well-being in their heart. Hear or sense them saying to you:

          • May you be happy, healthy and whole.
          • May you experience love, warmth and affection.
          • May you be protected from harm and free from fear.
          • May you be engaged and joyful in all things.
          • May you experience inner peace and serenity.
          • May you be filled with unconditional love.
          • May you be held in unconditional love.
          • May you love and accept yourself exactly as you are.
          • May you know the joy of simply being alive.
          • May you feel my unconditional love now.

Let those feelings wash over you. Feel their unconditional love and caring for you, knowing there is nothing you have to do to deserve these feelings and wishes, that they are given freely, without condition.

• Now, allow yourself to open up to your own basic, innate goodness. Recall times you have been kind or generous. Times when you have given of yourself in any way.
See yourself through the eyes of someone who loves you unconditionally.
Picture yourself as a young child standing before you - perhaps as a toddler or a preschooler, no older than five years old. This child who craves, needs, and DESERVES unconditional love and care. Feel that unconstrained and endless love for that little child.

• Now realise, fully, that this deserving and worthy child is you. The you that you are now - it is still you. Extend that love - that love without conditions, and all those wishes for the ones you love to yourself. Say to yourself:

          • May I be happy, healthy and whole.
          • May I experience love, warmth and affection.
          • May I be protected from harm and free from fear.
          • May I be engaged and joyful in all things.
          • May I experience inner peace and serenity.
          • May I be filled with unconditional love.
          • May I be held in unconditional love.
          • May I love and accept myself exactly as I am.
          • May I know the joy of simply being alive.

• Now, bring to mind someone who is dear to you. Someone you care about and who has always been supportive, who easily evokes feelings of warmth and love, it could be a spouse or partner, parent or family member, a pet, a mentor or close friend. Reflect on their basic goodness, and your appreciation for this loved one. Imagine saying to them:

          • May you be happy, healthy and whole.
          • May you experience love, warmth and affection.
          • May you be protected from harm and free from fear.
          • May you be engaged and joyful in all things.
          • May you experience inner peace and serenity.
          • May you be filled with unconditional love.
          • May you be held in unconditional love.
          • May you love and accept yourself exactly as you are.
          • May you know the joy of simply being alive.
          • May you feel my unconditional love now.

• It is easy to imagine sending wishes of well being and happiness to those we love dearly, but now I want you to open that circle of unconditional love by bringing to mind a "neutral" person. This may be an acquaintance, someone you know of but don't have a personal relationship with, someone you see around town, a neighbor, a grocery clerk or maintenance worker - Any random person about whom you have no strong feelings one way or another. Bring one or more of these people to mind now, and repeat the wishes born of unconditional love to them:

          • May you be happy, healthy and whole.
          • May you experience love, warmth and affection.
          • May you be protected from harm and free from fear.
          • May you be engaged and joyful in all things.
          • May you experience inner peace and serenity.
          • May you be filled with unconditional love.
          • May you be held in unconditional love.
          • May you love and accept yourself exactly as you are.
          • May you know the joy of simply being alive.
          • May you feel my unconditional love now.

Even if they aren't yet filled with the same warmth and care as they were with a loved one, do your best to extend them without any expectation that it will or should make you or them feel in any particular way. Connect with the love these wishes represent, keeping these people in your awareness, and appreciating whatever small parts they may play in your life as you send them your good wishes.

• Next, bring to mind someone who's difficult for you right now - not necessarily the most difficult person in your life - just someone for whom there's been some sort of frustration or misunderstanding, perhaps causing resentment on one or both sides.
Now remind yourself in your mind that, whatever your differences, or whatever may have caused a rift, they are still a person deserving or love and compassion - of your love and compassion, and most of all, for your own sake as much as theirs, your forgiveness. Hold that forgiveness in your beating, light breathing, loving heart, as you say those words to them too:

          • May you be happy, healthy and whole.
          • May you experience love, warmth and affection.
          • May you be protected from harm and free from fear.
          • May you be engaged and joyful in all things.
          • May you experience inner peace and serenity.
          • May you be filled with unconditional love.
          • May you be held in unconditional love.
          • May you love and accept yourself exactly as you are.
          • May you know the joy of simply being alive.
          • May you feel my unconditional love now.

• Now to open your heart even further. Bring to mind someone you actively dislike, or for whom you have difficulty feeling sympathy or compassion. Perhaps it is someone with views or beliefs anathema to your own, or who has wronged you in some grievous way, or who you simply feel has brought all their troubles on themselves, and do not deserve your care.
Reach into yourself - into that brilliant, beautiful light - to your loving heart, grasping that love, and bringing yourself to see this person as a whole being, deserving of love and kindness. Realise they too feel pain, anxiety, suffering, loneliness, fear. Remember that, just like you, they want to be loved, to have peace in their life, to feel happiness and joy, to know their loved ones are safe and healthy. And just like you, they are doing the best they can with what inner and outer resources they have in each moment. Resolve to let go of feelings of resentment, dislike, contempt, or disregard for this person, and extend to them the same words of loving kindness:

          • May you be happy, healthy and whole.
          • May you experience love, warmth and affection.
          • May you be protected from harm and free from fear.
          • May you be engaged and joyful in all things.
          • May you experience inner peace and serenity.
          • May you be filled with unconditional love.
          • May you be held in unconditional love.
          • May you love and accept yourself exactly as you are.
          • May you know the joy of simply being alive.
          • May you feel my unconditional love now.

It may be difficult, and you may not feel sincere at first, but the value is in noting what it is like to extend the wishes, recognizing that you are not condoning their actions, but seeing them as a fellow being with the same needs as you - to be loved, to be safe, to be at peace. As you continue to repeat this exercise, you will find the ring of truth and sincerity ringing clear and clearer in your intent. You will feel your capacity to love ever expanding, and, at the same time, discover yourself feeling more and more worthy of all the same love, kindness, compassion, and care. The circle that began with you will come back around to you every time, at every level.

• Now, allow your awareness to open out in all directions - to yourself, your loved ones, the neutral and the difficult, and even hateful people in your life, and to all beings - humans and animals everywhere. Those living in richness, poverty, war, peace, hunger, abundance. Become aware of all the joys and sorrows that all beings experience, and pass along those wishes once again:

          • May all beings be happy, healthy and whole.
          • May all beings experience love, warmth and affection.
          • May all beings be protected from harm and free from fear.
          • May all beings be engaged and joyful in all things.
          • May all beings experience inner peace and serenity.
          • May all beings be filled with unconditional love.
          • May all beings be held in unconditional love.
          • May all beings love and accept themselves exactly as they are.
          • May all beings know the joy of simply being alive.
          • May all beings feel my unconditional love now.

• Truly feel that beautiful, unconditional love infused in your heart light. Allow it to radiate completely through you, vibrating your love and light, making it even more beautiful and strong. So strong that loving light rays expand out from you, all the way out into the Universe, where they connect with all the other beautiful, pure, and loving light. Feel yourself filled with a sense of all-encompassing, unconditional love and connection to all the other positive loving light in the Universe.

• Realise now that this is your normal, natural state. This beautiful, loving light is your true self, and you can tap into this connection to the Universal web of loving light at any time. It is always there. All you have to do is open your heart and breathe it in deeply, allow it to naturally flow through you and radiate out, connecting you to all the loving Universal Energy that is always there. You are a natural part of this loving Universal Energy.

• And now, allow yourself to stay connected to this loving energy, as you take a nice, big, deep, belly breath, and begin to gently bring your attention back to the present moment. Become aware of your physical body and surroundings. As you come closer to the surface of the rest of the world, gently move and stretch your limbs, back and neck. Allow yourself a joyous smile as you open your eyes and continue to bask in the bliss created by unending, ever-reaching, unconditional love, universally shared.

• Now, as you return to the course of your day, take this bliss with you. Allow it to radiate from your pores everywhere you go, to everyone you encounter, and in everything that you do, and your day will be well and truly Blissed.