How to Create Your Sankalpa
'Be silent, hide away and let
your thoughts and longings rise and set
Fyodor Tyutchev,
the Russian poet and statesman may never have heard the term Sankalpa but in
this extract from his poem he understands instinctively what it is to listen to
the heart, to find the heart's desire.
Losing heart
I feel sometimes
that we have lost our way. The modern age makes machines of us all, dictating
our waking hours, our rest and sleep; educating us to fit into an industrial
landscape. And in this rush to produce, to advance, to be busy, we have lost connection
with the inner life of the heart, the very part of us that makes us so
beautifully human.
The power of the heart
How many times
in your life have you heard the message of your heart but ignored it only to
find out later that it was right all along? I know I have. It's as if your
heart is your champion, your knight, there to protect and to guide your best
interests, a place of wisdom. We know intuitively the power of the heart; our
language, literature, art, music is heart-focussed. It is the place we feel we
really reside and the place from which we connect with our fellow beings.
The heart as a second brain
In recent years,
scientific research too has discovered that it's not just our brain's that
control us, the gut and the heart are much more influential on our being than
previously thought, just like a second brain the heart communicates with the
rest of the body and brain via hormones, nervous system and electromagnetic
field.
What is a sankalpa?
Sankalpa is a
deep resolve, the word literally means vow and a connection to the highest
truth, the rule for you to follow above all others; it speaks of your true
nature, and it is there to guide you on your particular path through life, a
simple statement, individual to you, that reminds you of your purpose, so that
you can make choices in accordance with your highest. Through the practise of
Sankalpa, the yoga tradition offers a way to access the heart's wisdom to bring
about your heartfelt desires. When you uncover your sankalpa your life can
begin to flow and you can blossom into the full expression of who you really
are. A sankalpa is a simple positive statement, personal and private to you, in
the present tense, here are some examples:
“I am healthy”
“I take time for
myself”
“I feel at peace”
“I am courageous”
Sometimes you
may be lucky enough to uncover a statement for yourself that serves you through
your whole life, or perhaps your sankalpa can feel like a step along the way. If
we take the example above “I am healthy”, a person may currently be a smoker
but feel this doesn’t align with who they truly are. Instead of vowing to give
up smoking, the greater underlying truth is that they are healthy and then this
vow informs the decisions they may take along the way which would include stopping
smoking.
So how do you find your sankalpa?
Uncovering your
sankalpa is a process of listening and not to impose this on yourself with your
conscious mind.
A good way to
start is to write down all the things in your life that you hold most dear or
that you feel are most important to you, or if there are things you feel you
want to change in your life, make a list of these, read back through the list
and ask yourself why you want to make those changes, is there are common thread
here when you strip it away?
It may be that you
already have something that you tell yourself, that is positive and helps you
to make choices in your life.
Using yoga nidra to uncover the sankalpa
In the satyananda
tradition, this waiting and listening, tuning into the heart's desire to
uncover the sankalpa, is achieved through the practise of yoga nidra, yogic
sleep; a form of deep relaxation where the conscious mind (and your ego) can
take a back seat. (Take a look at www.yoganidranetwork.org
for lots of information and resources on yoga Nidra or at www.northstaryoga.co.uk videos on
demand for recordings). In the practice of yoga Nidra you are invited to repeat
your sankalpa 3 times at the beginning and end of the practice, in this way,
you are much more likely to make and act in accordance with this deeply held
resolve in your day to day life.
So take time for
yourself, have patience and perhaps the
song of your heart will make itself heard. And when you find your sankalpa hold
it dear. Above all, listen to your heart, it never lies!
http://www.yogamag.net/archives/1999/esept99/sankther.shtml
https://www.heartmath.org/research/science-of-the-heart/heart-brain-communication/
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