What is a Resolution?

Updated on 12/7/2022 by Lara Hocheiser

What is a resolution?

Let's talk about yoga resolutions...they are called Sankalpa in the yoga tradition.

Your sankalpa is a positive statement declaring who you are becoming in the next 6 to 18 months. It is a heart centered truth about your path.

When you go into a deeply relaxed state and your heart speaks to your purpose, what does it say?

Hello New Year, 2023. We see you.

2022 has come and gone in a flash, but let's consider how it helped us all call on our inner resources to grow.  From the challenges this past year, consider what you learned and what helped you grow.

When we are challenged, we can come out with greater compassion, awareness, and love. Let's leave behind the darkness of 2021 and call on our inner light to shine into 2021.

How can we look at the change of year and the turning of time to help shape our lives and how can we frame these concepts for the children we love and nurture?

Reflection

Reflect on who you have been, what you have done, how you feel about it.

Did your behavior align with your goals and with your true self? If not, how can you live more in alignment with yourself? If yes, how can you take a breath into your heart and thank yourself?

Tip for looking into your future:

You may want to look at the decade if you’re an adult reader, but working with kids keep it to 1 or 2 years maximum, or if it’s seniors in high school or college, you can do 4 years.

We can forget how much we accomplish if we don’t take stock.

We can CELEBRATE our victories, hard work, achievements, relationships, and dedication when we reflect on the timeline of our year (or decade).

We can mourn and accept the things and people we lost and reflect on the lessons we learned from them. We can gauge our growth based on our relationship with loss and the opportunities we make from loss and grief. There is no shame in feeling the hurt of life’s challenges. There is a great triumph in finding opportunities in hardship.

Take some time to create a timeline of the year or decade, marking the memorable events in your life.

Project: Who am I becoming and how am I going to make sure that happens?

Brainstorm some words and examples that describe how you want to feel in 2023 or in the decade spanning from 2023-2033.

Plot out a plan to go after your goals and aspirations. It can help to get clear on what you want to do and then to create actionable steps to achieve them. Remember this doesn’t have to be all achievement-oriented tasks. You can have a goal to be kind every single day. Your goal can be about loving yourself more. Your goal can be about your consumer habits.

Resolve/Sankalpa:

A resolution set in deep rest that comes from our heart, not our mind, to show us our path and our trajectory. 

I recommend a regular Yoga Nidra practice to get in touch with your subconscious so your conscious and subconscious mind can become aligned. This helps us make sure our actions match the ones we imagine our best self doing.

Our Word of the Year: Practice

When you have a personal yoga practice, you have a foundation for teaching, a sanctuary you carry with you wherever you go, and can come to rely on yourself more and more. 

Be the change you wish to see. Develop a personal practice that aligns with your resolve.

Loving Kindness meditation:

Repeat these words mentally or aloud when you meditate.

"May I be happy, may I be healthy, be I be free from suffering.

May you be happy, may you be healthy, be you be free from suffering."

Fun Love Meditation For Kids and Adults

A fun LOVE mediation you can repeat:

Which activity did you love best?