Love yourself and reduce suffering.

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Hello,

I've recently discovered 'Loving Kindness meditation' also known as Metta. It comes from Buddha, but you don't need to be a Buddhist to do it!
A recent study into the effects of 'Loving-kindness' meditation conducted by researchers from Stanford university showed that even just a few minutes of loving-kindness meditation increased feelings of social connection and positivity towards others. These results suggest that this easily implemented technique may help to increase positive social emotions and decrease social isolation (something that people with AS and the like could benefit from I think).
Researcher Barbara Fredrickson at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that loving-kindness meditation can help boost positive emotions and well-being in life, fostering the personal resources that come from experiencing positive emotion.
I will post up some exercises that I have had success with recently with loving kindness meditation soon from a book I've been reading about it.
There are some exercises and guided audio meditations on various websites online.

In the meanwhile, heres some more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mettā
http://spl.stanford.edu/pdfs/Hutcherson_08_2.pdf

Here is a great guided Loving Kindness by Sharon Salzberg who has taught this form of meditation for many years.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3uLqt69VyI[/youtube]

I thoroughly recommend trying this out. It is difficult but the benefits are well worth it. I have recently started to do this twice a day and it is decreasing my feelings of social anxiety, increasing my courage, my connection to others and reducing the effect of some of the less desirable characteristics associated with AS.

Thanks for sharing. I just tried the guided meditation and liked the intention behind it. I've been trying to learn to use meditation, guided imagery exercises, etc. as a tool for dealing with chronic pain and think I might start doing this type of meditation sometimes, too.

i find the video interesting
but i've hard time not to be impulsive to do something else and not listening

Good to hear your feedback.

If you find you get distracted, its OK. Just bring your attention back to the meditation. Meditating requires persistence. Due to the momentum of thought it is likely that you will experience drifting away.
I think this loving kindness meditation could be particularly beneficial to those with AS as it can help to build empathy with people. As can insight meditation (such as breathing meditation etc..).

If you'd like to try a guided 10 minute, easy to follow, breathing meditation here is one I recommend:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67SeR3LxtdI[/youtube]

i do love myself, but i wish i did not. i kept ignoring myself and telling myself to go away, but it did not work. it only made me love myself more. i started stalking myself, and one day i was overcome with desire, and i broke into my house and i brutally raped myself, and when i reported it to the police, they took no action.
then i raped myself again (with smug indemnity) and i again reported it to the police, and still they did not care ! !!.
i have no protection or sympathy, and so all my suffering stems from the fact that i find myself irresistible. i may splash acid on my face in order to make myself less attractive, but why should i disfigure myself simply to halt my advances?.

thank you very much
i'm trying to do this 10 min thing (not while doing it )

Just to say that I am still doing this meditation and am noticing real benefit.
I recommend this to anyone with AS or not.