A New Year’s Eve Tradition
As we close one chapter and embark on a new one, our energy can shift toward growth. We look at tackling projects in our outside world and within ourselves. Making resolutions and plans. This energy tells us we can take on the world and win. But, what happens when that energy wains? What happens when you don’t adhere to the resolutions you made yourself?
Instead of looking toward the new year with change and criticism in mind, take a breath and know this… you already have within you everything you need to be happy.
“You already have within you everything you need to be happy.”
Consider the yoga tool sankalpa. A sankalpa is an intention birthed not out of judgement or the the need for change, but out of the mindset of wholeness and focus. San means “to become one with” and kalpa means “time”, “subconscious mind”, and “committed intention.” When you set a sankalpa, you bring forth a word or a phrase that centers and grounds you. As you move through the new year, and eventually, inevitably, drift away from your intention, you can use your sankalpa to gently pull your mind back to this focus.
In my family, we began the New Year’s Eve tradition of gathering around our table with several small scraps of paper and one big sheet each. On the small pieces we write down all the things we would prefer to leave in the previous year. We don’t share these thoughts as we write them and fold them up. We then take turns burning our scraps in a fire outside releasing the things we want to let go of.
Next, we close our eyes, take several deep breaths, and consider what sankalpa is calling to us for the new year. We write our word or phrase large on the big sheet of paper and add a bit of excitement and embellishment by coloring it in. Finally, we place it somewhere within our home where we each spend a lot of time and our gaze will travel often.
Last year, as a baby yoga instructor, my sankalpa jumped right out at me–KNOWLEDGE. I hung my intention on the wall in my closet right by the mirror where I get dressed each morning. Throughout the year, whenever I found my focus starting to drift, my sankalpa would gently guide me back. I was privileged to learn to teach several different formats of yoga, I read everything I could get my hands on, gathered invaluable knowledge from each yoga student I guided and every class I attended, and gained quite a bit of confidence along the way.
This year, as I start to listen to my soul’s desires, several different options for a sankalpa are marinating within me. I’m not sure which one I will choose on December 31st, but I do know my family and I will embrace the tradition of a sankalpa for years to come.
Rumi tells us, “I have been a seeker and I still am, but I stopped asking the books and the stars. I started listening to the teaching of my soul.”
You already have within you everything you need to be happy. Just listen… –V
Joy and Soulshine 