Your Inner Wake-Up Call: Your Sankalpa

In September of 2012 I began my days with a sankalpa. I experienced a deep heartbreak and my world as I knew it shattered.  I sought guidance from my teacher and she suggested, among many Ayurvedic practices, to start applying my sankalpa as part of my dinacharya, my daily ritual. Healing myself was my first priority so I embraced all her suggestions. Thank you Dr. Indu Arora. 🙂

Fast forward to today – a year and some later – and I still maintain some of those daily rituals.
I open my big, brown eyes every morning and pause.  I pause in order to connect with my sankalpa. A sankalpa is a daily intention that reminds us of our dharma, our way of life. It’s not merely a resolution that we want to lose weight, quit smoking or start that pesky project, but a calling and a purpose from a divine place heard from deep within. The main ingredient to discovering your sankalpa is the ability to listen to that truest place within yourself.

In order to connect with your sankalpa look at which resolution you started last year and note if you stuck with it. If so, kudos to you! If not, then I would recommend you look at why you are doing that behavior to begin with and why you stopped completing your resolution. What void is that behavior filling? What unresolved issue or fear have you not healed? Why are you unconsciously driven to repeat this behavior that isn’t healthy for you?

I had to look at all these questions for myself back in September of 2012.  I worked hard to discover the truth about what drove my unhealthy actions. From that space, although it was gut-wrenchingly painful at times, I understood myself better which allowed me to move through it and heal. I chose a daily commitment and a vow to behave in a mature and brave way, in order to serve others and myself mutually. In fact, I chose to be in a relationship with myself for much of 2013 since I had never been alone.  Because of this I am now able to observe my emotional triggers to see if my present actions are in alignment with my sankalpa.

My dream is to find lasting inner peace and understand my truest nature of my Self so my sankalpa reminds me of this daily. Swami Parthasarathy says, “He who realizes the Self enjoys infinite peace and bliss. Having lost the infinite state, humans feel a sense of imperfection. Feel a void within. This feeling generates thoughts to flow towards the world to fill the void. To perfect the imperfection felt within. These thought currents are called desires.”

Let’s fill that “void” with Self-love in order to wake up and keep stepping into the light. This Self-love will inspire more Self-love and attract people who are in similar places within their hearts.

See you on the mat… loving yourSelf and fulfilling your sankalpa.