Hi All,

So I discovered this lady on youtube. I don't remember her name, but she has a website called the enthusiastic buddhist. She gave this little exercise which was pretty similar to telling people, "God bless you" or "Have a blessed day" in your head. Basically, the exercise involved mentally saying to people,"May you be happy and live without suffering," or something like that.

I tried doing this today and noticed some interesting things. At first, I just felt like I was saying (in my head), just to say it. It didn't feel like it meant anything. So, instead of just saying it, I tried to imagine the person I was directing this towards being happy and living without suffering. This helped to make the good will seem more tangible.

Another thing I noticed was that I had a harder time doing this sincerely with certain people. There were some people who I was a little envious of or who I felt like didn't deserve to be happy. I didn't out right think, "this person doesn't deserve happiness," but I was reluctant to give my good will away. I was judging people! I don't think of myself as a judgmental person, but this exercise showed me how we can judge people in insidious ways. It really gave me insight on how I can work to be a better person.

I wonder if anybody else has tried something like this. What was your experience? Do you think an exercise like this might be useful in day to day activities? How else, other than meditating, can we grow the trait of or practice loving-kindness?