Have you come up with a sankalpa? Hopefully, as this year is coming to its end, you’ve found some time to look back at your past and evaluate your mistakes and achievements, and then to look forward and think about the improvements you want to bring up into the 2012. By the end of the process described in the Part 1 of this post, you should be able to formulate a perfect Sankalpa for yourself. Next, you need to know what to do with it to get your dream come true.
When and how to use my sankalpa?
- Let’s start with WHEN. It’s not just repeating it with a glass of champaign at midnight on the 31st of December.
We want to repeat sankalpa as often as possible. However it’s essential that the seed of sankalpa is planted deep into the subconscious. That’s the MAIN SECRET: to be successful, a resolution should be repeated when the mind is relaxed and ready to accept and absorb it. In the receptive state of mind we are able to correct the negative patterns already existing in the brain and install the positive ones. Only this way sankalpa can be powerful and effective, and unlike most resolutions or affirmations, will always get fulfilled. Each of us has the power to remould our own mental structure in order to achieve our goals, no matter how impossible it may seem at the beginning! - l got to know about sankalpa when I was learning yoga nidra in an ashram of the Bihar School of Yoga, and I’m ever so grateful to Swami Satyananda Saraswati for his empowering teachings. Yoga Nidra, or yogic sleep is one of my favourite practices ever! All you do is just lie down comfortably in Shavasana, and relax your body and mind very deeply. For more on yoga nidra click here. When we practice yoga nidra we achieve a very relaxed and receptive state of mind. We traditionally repeat sankalpa 3 times at the beginning of yoga nidra practice, which can be compared to sowing a seed in the bed of our mind, and then 3 times at the end of practice, when the mind is receptive and sensitive to autosuggestion, which can be compared to irrigating it.
William Wordsworth said: “Your mind is the garden, your thoughts are the seeds, the harvest can either be flowers or weeds.”What do you choose?:) I love growing flowers! - I also repeat my sankalpa 3 times before and after any other yoga practice. Yoga ia all about building up awareness, and being aware of the thoughts allows us to control them so we can get rid of «weeds» (negative or empty recycled thoughts) and encourage the growth of «flowers» (positive powerful thoughts). Sankalpa comes as a yogic tool to plant and nurture a beautiful seed into the mind field. Let me just make it clear that by practicing yoga I don’t mean fitness yoga but yoga practice as it is meant to be – mindfully performed asanas, as well as pranayamas (breathing techniques) and meditation.
- Receptive and meditative state of mind also occurs naturally when we are waking up and falling asleep. So it’s a good idea to repeat sankalpa in bed. At night, my sankalpa lets me smile and go to sleep in a positive state of mind (read the next point and you’ll get why), and in the morning it helps me to refocus my energy of the day.
- Now about HOW. We usually pronounce a sankalpa 3 times aloud or silently. However, it’s not just about the words, the sankalpa must be supported by our positive emotions in order to create a powerful binding mechanism within our subconscious. It’s more about the vibrations that we project out into the Universe, so an inner smile, symbolic positive images and/or pleasant physical sensations in the body will rise our vibrations and therefore increase the power of sankalpa. When repeating your sankalpa, always feel what you will feel when you achieve the desired outcome and see yourself in a new desired state.
- You should have sincere faith that your sankalpa will be effective. The result does depend on your sincerity, as well as on a deep felt need to attain the goal of your resolve. Knowing how this works is irrelevant compared to knowing that it does work. Your faith strengthens the effect of the sankalpa on your subconscious mind, so that the resolve will become a reality in your life.
- Don’t expect results overnight – flowers don’t grow this fast! Depending on the complexity of the request the manifestation will take shorter or longer time to come into full being. Don’t give up! If you slip up a couple of days or weeks, just let it go and get back on track. To see the flower growing and blooming, we need to take care of the flower seed by regularly watering it, providing fertilizers, air and sunshine. The same way we have to keep practicing and continually repeating sankalpa every day with conviction and passion till the goal is achieved. The sankalpa when practiced correctly never fails!
If you know what you want to achieve in life, sankalpa can be the creator of your destiny. That’s what it’s become to me – my sankalpas (as I’ve been reaching my goals I’ve changed quite a few of them throughout these years) helped me be more clear, more self-confident, more loving, more disciplined and more accepting which ultimately has allowed me to live the life of my dream. I use my sankalpa all the time as a reminder, an uplifting and motivating force that keeps me content and joyful, that helps me to manifest all I want into my life. And I have dozens of stories from my friends and students about their changed lives, great achievements and beautiful experiences that were brought to life thanks to sankalpa practice.
You still have a couple of days before 2012 kicks in. Choose your sankalpa and make your new year a memorable one! Thank you for reading!
Zoya
29th of Dec 2011
