When I need clarity or support a key question that instantly serves as an inner compass to guide me toward wise action is: 

What's the most loving thing I can do right now? 

For myself?

For others? 

A great complementary practice to this question is cultivating the Four Boundless Qualities: friendliness, compassion, joy and equanimity.

These qualities are thought of as boundless because they are capacities we can develop without limit in order to bring more love and healing into the world for ourselves and others. Thich Nhat Hanh refers to these qualities as the foundation of True Love. 

There's incredible depth to each of these qualities and how inseparable they are to each other---cultivating them is truly a practice for lifetimes.

Despite the depth, I want to offer these distilled explanations, grounded in my own practice as they are a helpful guide on how I can be more loving. Most importantly, the foundation of these qualities rests on understanding our inherent embeddedness. 

Unconditional Friendliness - Not sentimentality, but rather feeling a quality of benevolence, goodwill and kindness toward all beings.

Compassion - Not just empathy but our ability to hold suffering with tenderness and engage in thoughtful action to alleviate the suffering we see.

Appreciative Joy - Not just delighting in the good fortune of ourselves or loved ones but relishing in delight and the good fortune of all. Comparison can rob us from experiencing great joy.

Equanimity -  Not indifference but a feeling of solidity, like touching into the roots that can keep you stable.

So, take a deep breath and ask yourself: What's the most loving thing I can do right now? For myself? For others?

Here's a digital card of The Four Boundless Qualities (or scroll to the bottom of this page).

In the spirit the spirit of cultivating love, you'll find a short guided meditation below and my personal practice songs for each of the Four Boundless Qualities.

Finally, there are two intellectually inspiring, soul nourishing events that I'm thrilled to put on your radar - details below.