Think it Forward

Fifty years ago when my kids 4 and 6, we’d often walk a couple of blocks to the Student Union of the nearby college where I taught if there was a children’s program early afternoon. My favorite – be fun to check with them to see if they remember – was Uncle Vinty. For the kids he’d sing appropriate songs and maybe a few that were more challenging. My favorite was his Theme Music played at the start of the program and before breaks, “What are you going to do about tomorrow, when you don’t know what to do about today.” You can find it on YouTube if you’re curious.

We’d get chips and for the kids, sodas – a treat since they didn’t get sodas home, and for me, a beer, which I did have at home. The theme, the uncertainty of it all, resonated with me then and still does now. We all get kicked in life, have to make changes, adjustments – both minor and major. Fired or downsized from a job; married and divorced. Illnesses: colds to COVID, cancers and broken bones. But humans have proven themselves to be resilient. We get knocked down and we can get up again, often in a better position than before.

But it’s still nice to have something in mind, a goal, or a glimmer of an idea of where you might wish to be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

Not infrequently I don’t get things quite right and have learned to laugh at my goofs. On June 5th, I wrote about “Paying It Forward” and a few days later remembered when I began to write seriously and how difficult I found it both to get started and to set realistic goals.

My wife and I were training to be yoga teachers at that time and took several workshops. One was with Dr. Richard Miller. Part of the training included sessions on Yoga Nidra, deep meditation. At the start of the meditation one was told the think of an intention, a heart-felt intention of what you wished to be or accomplish sometime in the future. The intention is called sankalpa. My sankalpa was to publish a book within a year. I worked hard and two years later published my first novel. (Shucks, I luckily forgot to include with that intention that it should also be a best-seller!) The nice spin-off is that I now also share these essays on The Havok Journal.

I thought it would be nice to share the practice of Yoga Nidra and sankalpas sharing a way that others could also reach up and achieve their own goals so I went back to the internet and started reading. Oops… as I wrote a couple paragraphs back, I often get things not quite right. But if a tool helps you get a job done, maybe it’s not that important that it’s the perfect tool for the job?

Here’s what I found about sankalpas. The root comes from a Sanskrit word meaning connection to the highest truth. In context it’s a resolution to achieve a higher spiritual state working to correct one’s own limitations. I don’t think even writing a best-seller would qualify (unless of course it was uplifting). The practice holds that this resolution is heart-felt and deep seated and can be discovered though meditation.

I’m suggesting that we can all benefit from this practice each in our own way. We don’t have to go off-grid or sit for hours cross-legged on a pillow. All we need do is THINK IT FORWARD. That’s our tomorrow when we start from today. Simple things, nothing necessarily earth shattering. Not to be a grouch in the morning. Being more considerate when you interact with family and friends. Returning library books. Not being reactive when you’re driving.

When you have a few quiet minutes and can be alone, sit down on a comfortable chair or couch. Think about one thing that you could do better, even a little better. It doesn’t have to be a plan for world peace or saving the earth from global warming. Close your eyes. Let that thought fill your mind and spread out through your body to the tips of your fingers and toes, the top of your head. Picture yourself sometime “tomorrow” where you have achieved that goal. Stay with that feeling of success. It’s yours and you deserve it.

It’s a way of taking uncertainty from today and thinking it forward to success tomorrow. And yup, I probably should have taken a spiritual goal for my sankalpa decades ago, but perhaps, unwittingly, good has come from “writing” if this or another essay helps someone else tomorrow.

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Ken was a Professor of Mathematics, a ceramicist, a welder, and an IBMer until downsized in 2000. He taught yoga until COVID-19 decided otherwise. He continues writing, living with his wife and beagle in Shorewood, Wisconsin. He enjoys chamber music and mysteries. He’s a homebrewer and runs whitewater rivers. Ken is a writer and his literary works can be found at https://www.kmkbooks.com/

He welcomes feedback on his articles and can be reached at havokjournal@havokmedia.com.

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.