Yesterday, we ended our yoga practice meditating on how to love and accept ourselves as well as people who have wronged us. We practiced the act of forgiveness. The instructor told the class that the meditation might not seem real at first, that we may not feel the emotion of forgiving, but we must commit to going through the motions and hope that grace will allow our emotions to catch up with the motions.
Sound familiar? I remember being taught this in Sunday school about not only forgiveness, but prayer and worship. If yogis can practice this without the Spirit of God, I can definitely commit to obedient acts of prayer and worship toward God and trust that God will grant me the grace of allowing my emotions and feelings to catch up with my actions.
We ended with a mantra spoken toward someone who had wronged us:
May you be safe and protected
May you be free from suffering
May you be healthy and strong
May you be able to live in this world happily, peacefully and with joy
I didn't like this mantra so I found myself repeating instead:
May God keep you safe and protected
May He carry you through suffering
May He keep you healthy and strong
May God grant you His happiness, His peace and His joy
