We’re continuing to explore “Rules of Yoga, Rules for Life.” We’re now on the fourth “rule,” so be sure to go back through the posts to remind yourself of rules one through three. Setting an intention is a common suggestion in a yoga class, but what does this actually mean?

The Sanskrit word for “intention” is sankalpa. It comes from two roots: kalpa means “vow” or “the rule to be followed above all other rules” and san which means “connection with the highest truth.” Sankalpa is a vow or commitment we make to support our highest truth. A sankalpa practice arises from the radical notion that you don’t have to fix anything within yourself; you already have everything you need to fulfill your life’s purpose. The challenge for most of us, however, is recognizing and claiming our sankalpa.

In a yoga class, our intention can be quite simple, such as “be present today,” “move in my pain-free range of motion,” “give in to relaxation and rest,” or “have fun” (please see rule #1). An intention can also be linked to big-picture living, such as “recognize when I am not listening to my body and gently bring myself back” or “live more fully in the present moment now and every day.”

My favorite time to work with intention is during the transitions in class. After I finish some writing and I sit down on my yoga mat, I pause in the transition between activities to set an intention for my practice. When I rise from savasana at the end of the class, I pause again to set my intention for how I want to show up for the rest of the day.

If you’re alert, you’ll notice that your day is full of transitions. As you move from one activity to the next, take a moment to pause and honor the transition between activities. If you set a simple intention at each transition, each activity becomes an expression of your vow and your whole life begins to support your highest truth.

We’re continuing our series on “Rules for Yoga, Rules for Living.” If you’re just joining us, please scroll down to see Rules 1 and 2. This week we explore “Listen to your inner teacher,” something we hear a lot in yoga classes but which may need a bit more explanation.

I believe there are three levels of listening: hearing, remembering what we hear, and receiving what we hear and making it our own. Our traditional educational system trains us pretty well in the first two—hearing and remembering. How many times have you dutifully copied down everything your teacher said and wrote on the board, memorized it and then regurgitated it for an exam? Yeah, we've all been there.

But the best type of listening goes a step further—we receive what we hear and make it our own. It becomes a part of our being and it informs how we live our lives. We’ve all done this too when our teacher talked about something that really piqued our interest, such as an exotic animal, an exciting historical event, a curious philosophical concept, or a career we just knew we would be well suited for. This type of listening goes pretty deep because it touches something inside of us that helps us to know ourselves better. It sets our life on a trajectory that may surprise us, but also feels right at the same time. When this happens, we have come into relationship with our own Inner Teacher.

In yoga, the inner teacher is like intuition, an inner knowing of what is best for us. When a yoga teacher instructs us to move this way or that and we feel uncertainty inside, this may very well be our inner teacher saying, “not so fast, buddy.” When the yoga teacher talks of compassion and love, karma and consequences or struggle and triumph, we may also have an inner knowing that this is True, even if we have no philosophical background in the Vedic tradition.

So how do you get to know your own inner teacher?
•    Honor your intuition by trusting your gut more.
•    Spend time in meditation to get to know your inner landscape, especially your uncertainties and fears.
•    Know what you love and what you do well and make space for these things in your life every day.
•    Practice yoga with teachers, with other students and by yourself too so that the gifts of the tradition can build and bring blessings to your life now and into the future