This week, I’ll be leading a Metta Meditation (also known as loving-kindness meditation) with the Queer Meditation Melbourne group. Metta is a simple yet profound practice that awakens the brain circuits of compassion and empathy—qualities that uplift mental health and nourish our sense of connection. They are to the mind what breath is to life.
Empathy is more than just understanding someone’s behaviour, emotions, or intentions. It’s the capacity to feel with—to step into another’s world while still knowing we can never fully know their experience. It’s the heart’s way of reaching across difference, making space for complexity, and affirming our shared humanity.
Practising mindfulness and loving-kindness has been shown to physically change the brain. It increases neuron density in the prefrontal cortex—home of empathy—and strengthens the neural pathways that support emotional regulation and social connection. Compassion meditation, particularly when practiced without agenda or self-focus, is also associated with increased gamma wave activity in the brain: high-frequency brain waves linked to his level cognitive function, integration, and deep states of well-being.
🪷 When we intentionally inhabit states of empathy and compassion, we’re not just being “nice”—we’re rewiring our nervous systems for greater connection, resilience, and care.
Come sit with us.
Join the Queer Meditation Melbourne group on Meetup or Facebook for event details.