INTENTION SANKALPA GROWTH AND EVOLUTION
MARCH 10, 2010: As you know I just put my house on the market. As part of this process the experts encourage you to simply, streamline, neutralize and otherwise declutter your living space. So I had this big indoor plant that got moved into the garage, then a week later I felt bad so moved it into the basement from the garage (mostly because you know plants do like light) well then I forgot to water it because it was now in the basement. This all went on for a month, just last night with the help a dear friend finally moved it outside in our 60 degree temperatures today. It finally got light, water and is not forgotten.
This plant had a strong intention and desire to LIVE! After all I put it through and changed about its surroundings it kept steadfast to the intention of surviving and thriving. I have to believe that if a plant can stay single minded in its intention we can too. So today ask yourself: HOW DOES THIS CLASS INSPIRE YOU TO BE MOVING TOWARDS MEETING YOUR EXPECTATIONS?
When we begin class and take our hands together at our hearts we create SANKALPA MUDRA a Mudra of internal commitment, a gesture of commitment in outer form and everything that goes into it is our intention. Intention is defined as setting an expectation for yourself, an expectation to your OWN GROWTH AND EVOLUTION.
Take a moment to think about deepening your breath into the commitment you've made to grow. The breath expands our connection to this promise we have made ourselves. And what I wish someone had told me a long time ago was to expect that there will be times that will be a little challenging – this is part of the growth process. Spiritual maturity comes as a result of using our expectations as little markers demonstrating our progress. And we have all COME A LONG WAY ALREADY. So on the mat we keep breathing to deepen our commitment and our intention whether the poses are easy or hard or whether we hold them a breath or a long time. We stay focused on experiencing ourselves.
The power of our intention is that focus on one clear thing. Not 50 things at the same time. It is like the Buddhist parable of how to dig for water: it is not fruitful to dig 100 holes when instead we should focus and dig 100 times in the same place and then for sure we'll strike water. So we took time to think about one pose from this practice that we woudl want to develop mastery of and promised to do it for 1-2 minutes per day for 28 days, a minimum of 28 minutes total to see if we could develop mastery in this pose and stay with one intention for this period of time.
So today, refocus your promise to yourself and the kind of life you want for yourself. And with Spring approaching let's really grow in our lives what is most important to us, to our health, to our hearts, to our peace of mind. Love the day! Silvia
PS - My plant is doing great!