Why Sankalpa is better than a New Year's Resolution

Transcript

have you ever set a New Year's resolution only for it to feel overwhelming or to give up on it entirely within a couple of weeks what if there was a more meaningful way to align your resolutions or your intentions with your inner values that way you are really making progress toward the things that matter most to you and you're able to see meaningful progress even over a length of time today we're diving into the concept of sankalpa sankalpa is a yoga philosophy that can help you set intentions in a way that is more meaningful and empowering and sustainable in the long term so what is aopa in yoga sanala means a internal intention or a vow it is different from a traditional goal or resolution because it is rooted in your inner values rather than some external achievement a sunala is not about fixing something that you might think is wrong with you instead it is about understanding your real truth and aligning your goals to that truth so that you may embrace yourself more fully for example a common New Year's resolution might be to lose weight or get healthier whereas a sopa example of that might be something like I honor and love and cherish my body and through that honoring and loving and cherishing of the body you want to take care of it and make it healthier and perhaps weight loss or you know healthier eating might be a result of that but that is not the true intention the intention is to love and honor and cherish your body so why is sunala more transformative than a regular New Year's resolution well unlike resolutions that might stem from a place of being critical or wanting to fix or change something about ourselves sopa is rooted in self-compassion and trying to understand yourself and your True Values more deeply sanala also encourages flexibility and compassion for yourself so it's okay if you fall off track of a goal or intention because as long as you're coming back to who you truly are and what you truly want then there's no time limit on when you May achieve it you're always working towards that brute intention sinala is something that's going to evolve over time as you evolve over time as your priorities shift so it's okay if you need to take a pause or change it all together as long as you are truly aligning it with what is honest in your heart this is especially helpful for busy months moms who throughout their lives have a constant shift of priorities depending on what age their kids might be at so how do you actually set a sunala how do you know what your true heart's desire is and how to align your attentions to it well first you have to practice with starting to listen to your mind and trying to hear what it is that you do truly desire and how you actually think and feel about yourself and your values so if you are new to meditating I do encourage you to practice getting still getting quiet and listening to your thoughts and your feelings and just seeing what comes up for you allow yourself to start to notice what really matters to you sometimes it can help to understand what doesn't matter or what what frustrates you to kind of rule things out and then begin to narrow it down to understand what is it that matters most to you right now in this season of life and how do you get more of what matters most while trying to block the things that tend to get in your way so in this practice um I would recommend that you practice just taking a few moments a day and just getting quiet and still and listening to your breath and allowing that to guide you but if you have that practice and you have done that in the past then start to ask yourself in those meditative sessions what really matters to you allow your heart to answer and try to refrain from imposing any judgments or opinions on that answer just see what comes up and then start to journal allow those words to flow through you to get to the page and when you start to get some words on paper see if you can find a sentence that sums all of that up in something that is positive and say it in a way that's in the present moment so for example we talked about the you know weight loss resolution before as an example if that's something that is a value to you you know you really want to cherish and honor your body and that's something that comes to your mind and your heart a lot then perhaps rephrase that to a sanala in the present moment that says something like I honor and cherish my body and allow that to be your intention as you wake up in the morning and um you know anytime you're starting a yoga class you might be guided to or asked to set an intention for your class and sometimes a teacher will give you an offering of a potential intention just in case you don't have one or in case they want to offer inspiration I know I do that for a lot of my classes but if you have a sanala if you have an intention in mind using that at the beginning of any of your Yoga practices is a really great way to reinforce that as being a priority in your life you can also recite that intention every morning when you wake up whether or not you do any kind of morning routine or yoga practice that can be a way that you start your day by living in your intention and allowing that to guide your actions and your behaviors throughout the day and if at any point that no longer feels authentic or in alignment with your True Values allow yourself to reassess find what it is that matters to you most and find a way to make that a top of- mind priority that guides your actions and behaviors throughout your everyday in a way that allows you to feel empowered and Powerful in your actions and your decisions so there you have it there is a brief overview of of what sanala is and how it's different from a New Year's resolution but how it can really help you live a transformative and aligned life that takes you even closer to your greatest desires I would love to hear how this has resonated with you if anything stands out please share with me in the comments what your sopa is or if you are still on the path to f figuring that out what here do you think resonated the most to help you get there thank you so much for joining me if you enjoyed this content please do and I encourage you to share this with a friend I think that it's helpful to be on this path with community so um I would really appreciate it if you pass this along thank you so much and have a great rest of your day