Modern Science is proving the benefit of this ancient practice. It's one of my favorites. It's one I teach often. It's one that we can all use more of. You can find more, freely offered, meditation practices at www.katieashley.org/meditation 

Interesting Facts about the practice of Loving Kindness Meditation:

• 1. In a landmark study, Barbara Frederickson and her colleagues ( Fredrickson, Cohn, Coffey, Pek, & Finkel, 2008) found that practicing 7 weeks of loving-kindness meditation increased love, joy, contentment, gratitude, pride, hope, interest, amusement, and awe. The results of these positive emotions included many benefits such as increased mindfulness, purpose in life, social support, and decreased illness symptoms, which, in turn, predicted increased life satisfaction and reduced depressive symptoms.
• 2. A study by Shahar et al (2014) found that Loving Kindness Meditation was effective for self-critical individuals in reducing self-criticism and depressive symptoms, and improving self-compassion and positive emotions. These changes were maintained 3 months post-intervention
• 3. A study by (Kang, Gray & Dovido, 2014) found that compared to a closely matched active control condition, 6 weeks of Loving Kindness Meditation training decreased implicit bias against minorities.

Enjoy!