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Mettá Bhavana The Development of Loving-Kindness

Mettá Bhavana is a meditation practice that balances the Insight Meditation. During Insight Meditation we are mostly concerned with purifying the mind and making insights into a more profound reality. In Mettá Meditation, we are concerned with the development of wholesome qualities of mind and to share this merit with all beings. Mettá, indeed, can be developed only if one gives it to boundless beings without discriminating and without expectation of some thing in return. It should be free of selfishness or attachment. The object of Mettá meditation should be infinite beings. Therefore Mettá should be extended towards all beings without exception. May all beings be well and happy, it embraces all living beings.

This meditation simply uses the power of positive thinking and self-suggestion. As soon as I say to myself "I need a holiday", I have made a suggestion to myself. I thing it over and then I make a decision to organize one. This is positive thinking. Soon enough, I go on holiday. That's the outcome, the result of suggesting a holiday to myself, of thinking about it and then making a positive decision. 
This meditation uses these techniques to develop good qualities we already have and introduce new wholesome qualities. Once I feel established in these qualities, I can easily share them with others. We are all too familiar with the negative side. If I'm depressed, for instance, and I go out with some friends, it isn't long before everyone whishes I hadn't come. I make everyone miserable. Depression is catching! 
I'm sure you have experienced walking into a room where there has been an argument and felt the 'atmosphere'. But in this meditation we try to develop quite the opposite states of mind --- friendliness, compassion, joy and peacefulness. It is these we try to share with others and this is called the Sharing of Merit. Here is a simple formula, but once you feel you understand it, you can add to it or make up your own if you wish. 
Before we send out wholesome qualities to other beings, we have to develop them in ourselves, so we should given Mettá to ourselves. 
Firstly, therefore, one should give Mettá to oneself:-