Welcome back!
As we return to classes this week, we will have a chance to consider our Sankalpa – the spiritual seed. Sankalpa is a sanskrit word, its about your heartfelt intention.
At a time of year where our resolutions may already be fading into the background this is the perfect time to create or re-evaluate our Sankalpa.
San – an idea that is formed ion the heart,
Kalpa – “This is the rule I will follow above all other rules”.
“The purpose of Sankalpa is to influence and transform the whole life pattern, not only physically but also mentally and spiritually” Swami Satyananda.
So I urge you to take some time and consider your sankalpa which we will use each time we practice Yoga Nidra and can also be repeated upon awaking and just before sleeping but as this article says it doesn’t have to stop there:
“With a Sankalpa, the conflict between our intention and our behaviour is not a failure, but where the practice really begins. The power of the practice is right there in that dissonance.
When we find ourselves engaging in behaviours that seem to oppose our Sankalpa and our true natures, we have a very useful opportunity for practice. At those times, we can take a moment to pause, breathe, reconnect with ourselves, and recall our Sankalpa and the positive feelings it is charged with. This can be a very practical and effective way to both break habits and super-charge our Sankalpa even further.”
As we progress through the term we will look at the Yamas and Niyamas, which can be seen as yogas’ moral and ethical guidelines to create harmony in our lives.
These handouts may be helpful to print off and refer to as we work with them through the next 10-12 weeks.
I hope that you enjoy the philosophy aspects of yoga, to me yoga is so much more than the physical practice so I bring this theme to you this term in the hope that it may inspire you to delve a little deeper into your own relationship with yoga and perhaps find ways of using this ancient practice to further enhance your life and those of the ones around you
Namaste,
Emma
