Just recently I have been given a yogic practice that requires me to be very regular in developing certain skills. By the nature of the practice and the immense influence my state of mind has on its success I am better off doing it every day at ideally the same time. Now, I have had practices given to me before and sometimes I carry them out over the period of time I am supposed to them and sometimes I don’t. I have found that for me it can at times be a real challenge to keep my practice up. Especially if my schedule gets a bit more hectic.
Looking back I noticed that when I successfully followed through on a practice I started the practice off using some common elements. First off, I started the practice immediately the moment I was initiated to it. The second thing I noticed was that the first three weeks play a major role in if I will sustain the practice till the end, or not. Third, I created the ideal conditions to the benefit of the practice. Either keeping my energy levels at a certain height, creating a quiet space or preparing in any other way that made sense for that particular practice. Preparation is everything!
However, I also realized there is one other essential underlying principle that truly determines the success of sticking with a practice… sankalpa shakti.
As stated before, that which will help you most to advance in your practice is tenacity in regularity. Most of yoga’s benefits and effects come in small increments over time. Developing the habit of practicing at the same time every day is useful to build the necessary conditioning in your body and mind which helps you to advance in your practice and to carry momentum. There will come a time where the momentum you have built will start to sustain you by itself. A new habit has been born.
The way to build this tenacity is by cultivating sankalpa shakti, the power that is born of resolve, will and determination of achieving something you have committed to. You practice sankalpa, or resolution, by affirming a positive statement of something you want to achieve in the next six to eighteen months. As with any form of goal setting or manifestation discipline you begin by cultivating the quality of gratitude for what is already there. You then mentally repeat the positive affirmation and vividly imagine that which you want to achieve as if it already has happened. Feel the outcome of what you desire, seeing what you’ll see, hearing what you’ll hear and so on, using as many of your sense perceptions as you can creating a rich internal experience while steeped in that deep sense of gratitude absolutely certain that your resolve will come to pass.
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