Developing intention with yoga \u2013 the Yogic practice of Sankalpa.<\/strong><\/p>\nOften during yoga class, maybe at the beginning of the class, or during an extended relaxation practice of yoga nidra, I invite people to make a \u2018sankalpa\u2019, or resolve.\u00a0 I also call it an affirmation, prayer, wish or thought.\u00a0 However none of these terms do justice to the importance and the effectiveness of the practice of sankalpa.<\/p>\n
Working with intention can feel like a bit of a paradox.\u00a0 Much of mindful yoga encourages us to be in the present moment, the here and now.\u00a0 Why then would we use practices where we set an intention \u2013 which we may think of as about the future?<\/p>\n
Sankalpa means heart felt view of who we are<\/strong>, from the Sanskrit,\u00a0 San <\/em>meaning highest truth, and Kalpa<\/em> meaning idea or view. \u00a0It is a tool to tap into our specific gifts, strengths and desires; a practice to help us be the best we can be in every moment.<\/p>\nRichard Miller, a yoga nidra teacher and psychologist says there are two forms of sankalpa; a heart felt desire – a broader mission statement if you like, and a specific intention or goal.<\/p>\n
The heart felt desire is literally a statement of who we are, which offers deep guidance for the arc of our lives, such as \u201cI am content and at peace\u201d.\u00a0 A specific sankalpa or intention, is a way of aligning our choices on a moment to moment basis in alignment with the heart felt desire.\u00a0An example of a specific sankapla might be, \u201cMy yoga practice supports my sense of calm and contentedness with my life and study\u201d<\/p>\n
The language used in formulating a sankalpa is extremely important.\u00a0\u00a0Because we already have everything we need to be ourselves, our sankalpa reflects this by using positive current language<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0For example, \u201cI am happy and healthy\u201d<\/em>, rather than\u00a0\u201cI wish for health and happiness\u201d<\/em>, which puts our health and happiness somewhere into the future, rather than in the present.<\/p>\nGiving voice to our intention during relaxation practice allows the sankalpa to be felt on all the layers of our being: physical, emotional, cognitive and our energetic bodies. For example if your heart felt desire is\u00a0“I am healthy and active”<\/em>, the sankalpa taps into the will power that you have and leads you to make choices and actions that support being healthy and active. \u00a0You can also more easily access the wisdom to notice the choices you make which lead away from and the choices that lead toward your intentions.<\/p>\nPractising with intention, or Sankalpa, reminds us that now, in this very moment we are already our best selves.\u00a0 This yogic understanding -that we already have all we need within us – is easily lost in our achievement-based living.\u00a0 Even in our yoga practice we strive to be better – more flexible, stronger, even more relaxed!\u00a0 Sankalpa then is a great practice tool for self-compassion and helps us to make choices in alignment with our core values.<\/p>\n
Tips to establish an Intention:<\/strong><\/p>\nMethod one:<\/span><\/p>\nWrite down your core values- the values if you were living your life by them would give you the greatest sense of meaning and purpose.\u00a0\u00a0 After brainstorming these values, order them in terms of your current priorities?\u00a0 Notice which particular words have the highest resonance for you.\u00a0 Often these values can form the basis of your Sankalpa, and can be written like a positive affirmation.<\/p>\n
Method two:<\/span><\/p>\nUsing a yoga nidra (deep relaxation) practice, allow words to come automatically, without too much effort.\u00a0 Maybe there are images, colours or sensations rather than words which also reflect your heart felt intention. Many yoga nidra practices can be found on meditation apps such as Insight Timer and can range from 10 minute to 40 minute practices of deep relaxation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Once created, sankalpa can be visited at a range of\u00a0 times and places, such as waiting for traffic lights, while practising a yoga asana (posture), or before going to sleep each night.\u00a0\u00a0This re-visiting acts as an ongoing re-setting of our intention – which will help keep us on course to living it as truth, moment to moment.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nWe will practice this intention setting at the next Mindful Yoga class, Tuesday 12 noon at Oasis.<\/p>\n
All welcome.<\/p>\n
Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Counsellor and qualified yoga teacher Maureen has penned the next in the Yoga Insights series: Developing intention with yoga \u2013 the Yogic practice of Sankalpa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":492,"featured_media":3225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3039,12156],"tags":[12157,3873,12158,12159],"class_list":["post-3224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-posts","category-yoga","tag-intention","tag-mindful-yoga","tag-sankalpa","tag-yoga-insights"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/492"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}