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The benefits of mindfulness meditation are well-known, but one type of mindfulness meditation, loving-kindness meditation, works particularly well when it comes to sharpening your capacity for compassion and empathy. The beauty of this meditation is that it shows you that you can practice being loving and kind just as much as you can practice a headstand or your latest balance pose and you can become far better at it, too.

A UW-Madison studyfound proof of this when they took fMRI scans of the brains of Tibetan monks and meditators who had at least 10,000 hoursof practice meditating on loving-kindness. The scans showed that brain circuits used to detect others emotions and feelings were far stronger in those who had practiced loving-kindness meditation than in those who didnt. Whats more, the longer they had practiced, the stronger the connections were. Meditators displayed a heightened capacity for positive emotions (read: happiness!) as well.

In particular, the insula a region near the front part of the brain linked to bodily representations of emotion exhibited significant activity during loving-kindness meditation. The strength of its activity measured even higher in those who claimed to be meditating more intensely. The temporal parietal juncture linked to the perception of others mind states and emotions lit up as well. Both areas are linked to ones capacity for sharing emotions and empathizing with others.

So, what does this mean, exactly? According to Dr. Richard Davidson, psychiatry and psychology professor at UW-Madison and the director of the study, People are not just stuck at their respective set points. We can take advantage of our brains plasticity and train it to enhance these qualities. In other words, compassion can be learned. And who couldnt use a little more compassion?

What makes loving-kindness meditation so powerful is that it increases your capacity for wholly unconditional love. Often we reserve compassion and love for those closest to us family and friends but with loving-kindness meditation, that love extends much further to oneself, strangers, and the whole world. Perhaps most difficultly, this meditative practice requires you to extend love and compassion to those youre struggling with, too.

Heres how to do it, according to the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.

May I be freefrom inner and outer harm and danger. May I be safe and protected.

May I be freeof mental suffering or distress.

May I be happy.

May I be freeof physical pain and suffering.

May I be healthy and strong.

May I be ableto live in this world happily, peacefully, joyfully, with ease.

As loving-kindness practitioner and Buddhist monkMatthieu Ricard said, Meditation is not just blissing out under a mango tree. It changes your brain and therefore changes what you are. With loving-kindness meditation, you have the power to hack into a more compassionate and happy life. Because this practice requires no special time, place, or tools, its easy to fit it into your daily routine. Next time youre sipping your morning tea, relaxing into savasana, or even zoning out driving down the highway, consider addingten to 30 minutes of loving-kindness to your day.

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Lauren Krouse is an autodidact, travel addict, amateur Buddhist philosopher, and proud black lab mama. She believes in sounding her barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world Whitman-style and is frequently found writing in the woods perched on a log or reading on the coast with her belly in the sand.

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This is How Loving-Kindness Meditation Transforms Your Brain - Organic Authority