An intention or sankalpa can be viewed as a resolve. A sankalpa goes deeper than a goal. A goal may come from your reasoning mind rather than your soul. A sankalpa is a heartfelt desire which influences your day to day decisions.
Kelly Gonigal from Yoga International summarises sankalpas in her article How to create a sankalpa.
Stryker explains that kalpa means vow, or “the rule to be followed above all other rules.” San, he says, refers to a connection with the highest truth. Sankalpa, then, is a vow and commitment we make to support our highest truth. “By definition, a sankalpa should honor the deeper meaning of our life. A sankalpa speaks to the larger arc of our lives, our dharma—our overriding purpose for being here.” The sankalpa becomes a statement you can call upon to remind you of your true nature and guide your choices.
I wrote my sankalpas at the start of the year and pinned them on my bedroom door. One of my main sankalpas that I pinned on the door reads “I serve with heart, service and discipline”. This drives my decisions with regards to my place of work, the causes I volunteer for and my interaction with the world.
Setting your intentions with regards to your mental health is a huge step in expressing what you need and planting seeds for good health to grow.
Here are some sample sankalpas that may help you begin to plant seeds to nourish yourself and move towards making healthier and positive choices for yourself.
Self-Care and Self-Love sankalpas from Luna Nidra
- I feel at home in my body
- I listen to my body
- I appreciate my body for all it can do
- I respect myself
- I treat myself with love and compassion
- I am a friend to myself
Does that make sense to you? Let me know if it doesn’t in the comment section below and I’ll jump in and elaborate further!
Set your sankalpa! Allow yourself to move towards the fullest expression of who you were born to be.
Roxy xo
Thank you Billy Huynh and Unsplash for the image!