Create Your Powerful Intention for 2018!

As we count down the last few days of 2017, we may find ourselves reviewing the many “highlights of 2017” that are shown on TV or the internet.  We may also be conducting our own personal year-in-review.  This last practice is often helpful to create our new ‘plan’ for the New Year… yes, the dreaded New Year resolution!

I say ‘dreaded’ because I personally have stopped making New Year resolutions as I find them to feel punishing and negative.  Instead, I have chosen to deepen my resolve each year around my personal sankalpa (heart-felt intention, desire or state of being.)

The assumption behind the typical New Year resolution is that something is missing or needs to be ‘fixed’.  Or in other words, it comes from a place of lack.  Contrastingly, in the yogic tradition, a sankalpa assumes we are already whole and complete and that what we are striving for is to re-align ourselves with the true essence of who we are.

For example, some common resolutions such as “I want to exercise 4x/week” or “I want to eat healthier” or “I want to lose 10lbs”, etc. suggest that we are currently ‘incomplete” and must achieve something in order to feel happy with ourselves.  Certainly there is a desire here… a desire to experience better health and well-being and improve the quality of life.  However the energetic quality of these statements is negative… they just don’t FEEL good!  And when something doesn’t feel good, it feels like a chore…. or worse, punishment!  And if something feels like a chore, we will eventually lose the will-power to do it.  Sound familiar?

But what if we shift our perspective so that we approach our desire not from a place of lack but from a place of fullness and re-alignment.  In this example, our personal sankalpa could be “I am a healthy, happy being” or “My true nature is one of unlimited health and happiness”.  Can you feel the difference in energy when you hear yourself making these statements instead?  They just FEEL better.  They FEEL positive.  And because these statements feel positive, we are more likely stay committed to re-aligning ourselves to them and making choices to pursue the feeling of well-being (whatever form of action that may require.)

Now some may say that the sankalpa statements don’t feel authentic.  And perhaps they don’t at this time.  However, one thing I know for sure is that we cannot create a new reality by regurgitating our old one (or even our current one)!  You’re the author of your life, so start telling the story you REALLY want to live.  🙂

In this type of yogic practice, we harness sankalpa shakti, the power of heart-felt intention.  While the practice is pretty simple in concept, it does require clarity of our true heart’s desires and the courage to hear and honor these desires.  And of course, yoga, meditation and mindfulness are ways to promote our sankalpa shakti.

Intrigued?  Curious?  Interested in learning more?  Then I invite you to join me at West End Yoga on Saturday Dec 30th from 3 – 4:30pm for a new workshop:

For those of you that may not be familiar with yoga nidra… this translates as “yoga sleep” but it is actually a guided meditation/visualization practice that deepens awareness and relaxation in the mind/body.  During yoga nidra, we create the ideal environment for our mind/body to internalize our personal sankalpa thus making it easier to bring it into our external experience.

If you’d like to join me to ‘ring in the New Year’ with this powerful practice, register at West End’s site or feel free to contact me for more information.

Here’s to harnessing our sankalpa shakti and creating powerful change in 2018!

Wishing you Joy and Peace,

Sheetal