Samskara (deep emotional impressions)

Samskaras are accumulated impressions in the unconscious mind (chitta). The things that we experience in life produces samskaras. Most of these impressions are formed in our early years even starting in the mother’s womb. The literal translation of samskara is ‘sam’ means to come together, and ‘kara’ means ‘the action under-taken’ or ‘what comes into being’. We could translate this to mean ‘the impression left behind from an intended action’.

Samskaras are the roots of our physical, mental, and emotional conditioning and habit patterns. The more we repeat an action the more it becomes ingrained within us and that becomes our default reaction, and we don’t even know where it comes from.

Samskaras can often be the root of our self-sabotaging behavioural patterns which can impact our self-worth, self-esteem, confidence and behaviour in our relationships. These negative samskaras are what hinders our positive human evolution and based in the Yoga Sutra (3:16), sage Patanjali expresses our purpose to be ‘Heyam duhkham anagatam’ - Avoid future suffering. Self-awareness and ‘doing the inner work’ as far I can understand in a modern context is what we truly need to make shifts in our negative samskaras.

Patanjali described several types of obstacles that hinder progressive enlightenment or create negative impressions within us. These included physical illness, lack of enthusiasm or attention, indecision, carelessness, procrastination, sexual indulgence, excess confusion, inconsistency, and lack of concentration.

What we are strongly attracted to or repelled by, or superficially like or dislike create positive or negative attachments. They are so deep in our mind and it’s not just as simple as removing them with our will or with physical discipline, or imposing indoctrinated religious beliefs etc.

To clear negative samskaras, like everything in Ayurveda and yoga, we need to go to roots of the emotional impression. You cannot just remove them through sheer will, desire or thinking.

We can do this by immersing in deep meditation where we are able to go beyond the body, senses, thoughts, emotions, intellect and go into deeper parts of our unconsciousness and ultimately into samadhi (blissful expansive state of being). We could call this a form of inner child healing and shadow work. For me, it is like doing a deep cleansing of emotional debris that has accumulated in our unconscious mind.

Self-hypnosis for example allows us to bring the trauma to the surface so we can observe the situation and allow it to gently dissolve by accepting it and rewiring our impression. Working with practitioners that you connect and resonate with can be really useful.

Other forms of meditation such as vipassana allow us to quieten and sharpen the mind so that we can observe and feel the samskara in the form of body sensations and once we accept that the energy is not stagnant, we can again allow it to dissolve and disappear. Some may experience visualisations where they allow the samskara to come up and out.

Sometimes we can just be consciously aware of the samskara in our day-to-day activities and slowly change our karma (actions) to influence our vasana (established tendencies or habits) and subsequently create deeper shifts in the unconscious mind.

Not all samskaras are negative. It is possible to build positive samskaras where we engage in selfless acts for example. Various vedic, shamanic and other indigenous spiritual practices all encourage us to cleanse our mind-body and emotions with rituals that focus on the use of the elements (space, air, water, fire, earth).

8 conscious steps to transform negative samskaras

Step 1: Sankalpa (Sacred Intention).
A sacred vow to our ‘self’ that gives meaning and purpose to our desired change. It is our spiritual calling to create conscious shifts for our evolution – the beginning of letting go of the old self and sowing the seeds of a new conscious version of you.

Step 2: Tapas (Intensity)
We require perseverance for disciplined change, resisting urge to fall back into an old pattern that feel comforting in the short term - this is a commitment to ‘doing the intended work’ in thought, emotional behaviour, and actions in alignment with our sankalpa. The illumination of our soul path comes from tapas.

Step 3: Shani (Slowing down)
Slow down enough to increase awareness so that one can shift from reaction to response. Acting with guided intent and intuition rather than impulse or instinct. Slowing down means we can see and explore the detail and apply ourselves with more consciousness.

Step 4: Vidya (Awareness)
This brings deeper clarity into the negative thoughts, behaviours, emotions, and movements and identify them as samskaras. We move away from the passive happenings of life and realise we are an active co-creator.

Step 5: Abhaya (Fearlessness)
Be brave into stepping into the unknown that can subsequently create positive habits patterns. Sometimes saying yes now and coming into our power can melt away the familiar old version of you.

Step 6: Darshana (Visualisation)
Giving prana, new life force energy to our new self, making it real in our thoughts and emotions allowing us to experience the new pattern internally– in essence becoming a limitless being. This is the essence of manifesting – aligning to our passion, purpose and desire without attachment

Step 7: Dhyana (meditation)
Sitting daily to meditate can bring about profound changes to our neural pathways, and this time can hold space for the inner healing to take place at a conscious and subconscious level.

Step 8: Abhyasa (Practice)
Bringing in practice a new habit pattern in a tangible way into our day-to-day life. Staying committed to our rituals that align to the earlier inner shifts, especially when being lured by old self-sabotaging patterns. Really understanding the triggers and consciously moving away from old habits.

All of this is only possible if you commit to setting aside time daily for your sadhana (spiritual, self-awareness practices. It can also be useful to have a small network of people that are supporting you on a shared journey and most of all be gentle and kind with yourself.