What Is A 'Sankalpa' And How To Create One For Yoga Nidra

What is a Sankalpa?

It could be defined as your heart's desire, intention, conviction, growth, willpower, seed, highest truth, to manifest the highest truth, heart speak, true north, determination or intentional creation of your life.

“Awareness of and a commitment to a heartfelt resolve that leads you to your highest truth.”

A sankalpa is not a goal/timeline, spoken for another person, a material thing
A sankalpa is affirming your innate wholeness and the desire to create and live your highest values... Here are the steps you could use to help define your sankalpa (shared with me by Kamani Desai):

1) Must “click”, resonate
2) Spoken in the positive, present tense
3) Concise, clear and simple
4) It’s about you

I hope this video helps you understand sankalpa. But if you have any additional questions, feel free to leave me a comment!

Transcript

Hey, I'm Kumari, If you haven't met me before, And today I wanted to share a little bit about Sankalpa. Now, If you've been doing Yoga Nidra meditations, You have undoubtedly come across this word, Sankalpa. So, In essence, A Sankalpa is an intention. We could also call it our heart's desire, Or our highest truth, Or something we'd like to manifest that we live every single day. So, It's not a goal, Because a goal has this tangible outcome, And usually there's timing involved with it, Whereas an intention is a direction you're moving in, Something you're moving towards over time. So, If we are to break down the actual Sanskrit word, Sankalpa, The word San means born from the heart. And you could translate it, And you could even break it down a little further to Sat. So, Sat means truth in Sanskrit. So, We're talking about, Like, The heart's truth. Kalpa means time. How much time does it mean? It actually means an eon. So, An intention born from the heart opening up over time. We're coming into an alignment with it over time. So, This isn't a quick, Fast thing, Bing, Bang, Boom. We're going to get our intention. This is actually something we could be working with our whole life, Or it's even been said that we're working with our Sankalpa lifetime after lifetime after lifetime. Another way we could describe Sankalpa is our heart's true north, Or our true north. This is the ultimate direction we are headed in our lives. And we could think of it like sometimes we might go east. Sometimes we might follow a detour west. So, We can get off track. But if we have this intention set in place that represents our heart's truest desire, Then no doubt are we on that trajectory, And we can affect great change in our lives through the use of Sankalpa. So, Before we get into how to create your own Sankalpa, Let's talk about the profound effects a Sankalpa can have in the Yoga Nidra practice. So, Not every single Yoga Nidra will include the opportunity for a Sankalpa. I've been hearing a lot lately where they're offering you an intention, And that's great too. They're both potent. But when we're using our own Sankalpa in general in our practice, We're going to state it soon after our initial relaxation. But then we're also going to state it again later in the practice, Once we have aligned with our most subtle layer of beingness. And this is really where the magic happens. So, Yoga Nidra is a process that guides us through our layers of consciousness. They're called the Koshas, And I can do another video on that another time. But we're journeying from our most physical layer to our most subtle layer. And as we align with that most subtle layer, This is where the Sankalpa is planted again. And this is where the subconscious mind is most open and receptive to suggestion. So this is why it's always planted a second time as we practice. And the practice really has a cumulative effect for a lot of reasons. But with the Sankalpa, We start to embody it more and more each time that we practice Yoga Nidra. So this is why it's important to really take some time to discover what your personal Sankalpa is, So you can really use it effectively as a tool in your life. So in an earlier video, I talked about the difference between a goal and a Sankalpa. So the goal is something on a timeline. It's a little more associated with an egoic endeavor, Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's just different than what a Sankalpa is. A Sankalpa is an intention that we're placing regarding the trajectory of our life, What we are looking to accomplish in our life, Or a way of being in our lives. It's really about acknowledging that we're already perfect and whole. But as humans who got this opportunity to live this life, What else can we do to really align with our true nature, With our true path, With our true reason for coming here? So how do you choose a Sankalpa? How do you know what your heart's desire is? Well, First of all, This should never be rushed. This is an activity or an assignment to yourself to get quiet and really tune in to the messages you're receiving from your higher self. And this could happen during a Yoga Nidra or during a walk in nature or during your daily meditation. But here are a few guidelines to help you choose your personal Sankalpa. So the first step in choosing a Sankalpa for yourself is that it must really resonate. It should invoke a sense of alignment. It should really feel like, Ah, Yeah, That's it. Like you feel it in your whole body. You have a positive feeling from thinking about your heart's desire, Your personal intention. But this could take time. So allow that time. Sometimes you might think of a Sankalpa and just sit with it for a few days. And then it might morph into something else. Or maybe just part of the statement becomes your actual Sankalpa. The second step is it's got to be in the present tense. It's got to be in the present. Like right here, Right now. It's shining a spotlight on what you do want right now. For example, I love and accept my body just as it is instead of I really want to change my body so I look better. Right? Can you kind of feel the difference? Like I love my body right here, Right now just as it is versus I'll love my body once it changes. The next step to creating your Sankalpa is that it should be really concise. It could be a word or it could be a short statement. It could even be a feeling that you have. So the reason it should be concise is that sometimes if they're longer, You might forget it. It kind of loses its energy if it's this two-sentence statement. So something just simple and concise is ultimately the best. And one more step to creating and choosing your Sankalpa. It's got to be about you. It's not about someone else that you want to affect you. It's not about the future or the past. It's right now, Right here about you, Your life, And what your heart's desire is. An example to kind of define that would be, Let's say you wanted to find a career that really resonated with you that paid really well. And what's prompting that is that you're not getting paid well right now. Or your boss doesn't respect you or any number of things. But really the core essence of that desire is that you're worthy of that. You're worthy of having a great career. You're worthy of getting paid what you're worth. So try to break it down as much as possible. This Sankalpa, The word Kalpa actually means an unfolding over time, A long period of time. Specifically in that translation, A Sankalpa is an eon. That's like a billion years. So some people are wondering like, Oh, Do I have this? Am I working on this my whole life? Here's your answer. You will work with this same Sankalpa until you have this inner knowing that you have moved into alignment with your heart's desire. And there is really no timeline on that. Another thing is, Too, Your Sankalpa might grow and change over time. So it might start out as one statement, But then it might morph into like maybe some of those same words, But just said in a different way or a different feeling. So the Sankalpa can grow and change over time. And you'll have to trust and know when you're ready for a different Sankalpa. No one else can really tell you that. Now, There is such a thing as a secondary Sankalpa. So the secondary Sankalpa is more about current events, Current urgent matters that you're working through. And we can do another video on that sometime. So we chatted about the power of Sankalpa during a Yoga Nidra practice. But there's also great power in using your Sankalpa in your daily life as well. For instance, Let's say that you're in a situation where you're starting to feel stressed or frustrated. You could bring your Sankalpa there. And just two things. It could help just change the energy, Change the focus. The other thing is it could help you just come back to your own personal alignment. So using your Sankalpa in daily life is a great practice as well. Another reason Sankalpa is so powerful in the state of Yoga Nidra is because we're in that most subtle layer of being. We are speaking directly to the subconscious. We don't have layers and layers and layers to permeate. As in like if we were just saying an affirmation, I love myself exactly as I am. We're just saying that in our daily life. It's a great thing to say and it can be helpful. But we're having to move through our physical layer, Our energetic layer, Our mental layer. Whereas when we're saying it deep in this state of Yoga Nidra, We've already moved through those layers and we're at this place where we are in the closest connection that we know of to our true nature. And this is another reason why Sankalpa is so powerful in Yoga Nidra.

Reviews

Fascinating, I never gave this much thought to the process of intention setting

Thank you for helping me understand what a sankalpa is.

That was super helpful! Thank you, Kumari! I asked a question about sankalpa in your live today but got disconnected during your reply. 🙈I’m grateful you mentioned this track. It helped clear up a lot of confusion. Thank you! 🙏