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Inside the experience of a loving-kindness sadhana to Day 20
July 30, 2009 By 4 Comments
About Kara-Leah GrantKL's the founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Yoga Lunchbox, mother to a toddler and passionate about both writing and yoga. She lives in Wellington, teaches yoga and is excited about heading make into the workplace. She also loves to cook while blasting dance music and reliving her go go dancing days.
I think so many of us start practising Yoga and expect that suddenly, overnight, we will become this calm, Buddha-like person. Alas, we’re still the same person we were, with the same problems and the same emotions. But Yoga gives us the tools to deal more effectively with these tricky parts of ourselves … eventually!
I’ve been doing the loving kindness meditation for five days. I’ve adapted it slightly for myself. It’s a little too early to see results for certain, but I do find myself automatically saying it to myself in stressful situations and it calms me down. Of course, the real test will come when I’m pre-menstrual.
Hey Anne-Marie,
You bring up some great points!
Anther quote I love from Jack Kornfield is “True spiritual maturation requires that we discover the depths of our wounds.”
Starting the path of yoga means sometimes we have to delve down into the darkness before we can un-earth our Buddha Nature… which is there, no doubt.
Great that you’re already using it in stressful situations. How long are you doing for each day?
Thanks for sharing!
Kara-Leah
Hi Kara-Leah, I am currently doing about 10 minutes but hope to practise for longer this weekend. My variation is:
May I be happy
May I be peaceful
May I be brave
May I be loved
May I know God
[I am in need of courage, which is why I added that one!]
Another thing I do with this mantra is a 10-pose sun salutation, which means I can say the mantra twice with each sun salutation. Nothing better than doing sun salutations on a sunny, deserted beach while saying this mantra …
Rangimarie,
Anne-Marie
Hey Anne-Marie,
What a fabulous way to work it into sun salutations – I love it! May have to use that with my class on Saturday.
I love too how you’ve identified something else you want to work on and added it in there.
It’s so fascinating hearing back from different people how they’re using it, and how they’ve modified it.
Blessings,
KL