We've been focusing a lot on the yoga of connection with others, and I want to shift for the next month or so to connecting to what we sometimes call purpose. One of the main practices of yoga is learning to channel our energy to what matters most. It doesn't take take a great deal of will power, just intention. The difference between will power and intention is really one of trust - if you try to use will power, you are basically saying that you don't trust yourself to do what is in your best interest. This dynamic all but guarantees you will continue to struggle. Setting intention is a way of directing your energy and trusting yourself to act for your highest good. You connect to the part of you that wants to take care of you and guide you.

This week, I offer you a practice based on the yogic idea of bhavana, or using imagination to set an intention. This practice has three parts. 

1) At the beginning of your practice, identify some intention in your life that you would like to cultivate or express. 

2) In your asana practice, *imagine* practicing a pose or vinyasa before you practice it. Sun salutations are an excellent practice to try this with. Close your eyes and imagine each movement with the breath. Imagine the feeling of the movement, and the quality of the movement. In your imagination, it can be exquisitely smooth and matched to the breath. Then practice actual sun salutations, and notice how imagining the practice seemed to influence how the actual practice feels. 

Hopefully, this exercise will illuminate how intention and imagination prepare us for action. You can weave this pattern of imagining and then practicing throughout your asana practice, for each pose or for a sequence of linked poses. When you  are imagining, be in a very relaxed, comfortable pose - either savasana, an easy sitting pose, or a steady tadasana.

3) At the end of your asana practice, in relaxation or meditation, imagine yourself taking the first steps toward your intention. If you can imagine specific actions, that is fine. If it makes more sense to cultivate a specific attitude or feeling, that is fine. As best as possible, feel what it will feel like to take action.

Take care,

Kelly

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