Resolve vs Resolution

The New Year arrives!!!

The Yogic practice is to set Sankalpas.   Sankalpas are Resolves, not Resolutions.  

There is a difference between the two.    With a Resolution, it is all too easy to fall off the wagon, break the Resolution, feel bad about yourself, and leave the Resolution lying broken in the dust.

A Sankalpa or Resolve is not something you can break.   It is something you can build on.   You can resolve to only put good food into your body or to take better care of your body.   You can renew that Resolve daily, just the way you renew yourself daily.

New Year's Day is just the same as any other New Day ... a fresh start ... a brand new YOU!!!

There is a lovely old poem in Yogic writings:

Sankalpa

 "I am an invisible child of a thousand faces of love that floats over the swirling sea of life, surrounded by the meadows of the winged shepherds, where stillness of midnight summer's warmth pervades. Strength lies in the magnification of the secret qualities of my own personality, my own character, and though I am only a messenger, I am me.

Let me decorate many hearts and paint a thousand faces with colours of inspiration and soft silent sounds of value. Let me be like a child, and run barefoot through the forest of laughing and crying people, giving flowers of imagination and wonder, that God gives free.Shall I fall on bended knees and wait for someone to bless me with happiness and a life of golden dreams? 

No.

 I shall run into the desert of life with my arms open, sometimes falling, sometimes stumbling, but always picking myself up, a thousand times if necessary. Often life will burn me; often life will caress me tenderly. Many of my days shall be haunted by complications and obstacles, and there will be moments so beautiful my soul shall weep in ecstasy.

I shall be a witness, but never shall I run or turn from life, from me. Never shall I forsake myself or the timeless lessons I have taught myself, nor shall I let the value of divine inspiration and being be lost. My rainbow covered bubble shall carry me further than beyond the horizon's settings, forever to serve, to love, and to live simply and at peace"

Many Happy New Days to You!!!

Namaste'

Kate