” What causes us to make the decisions we make and to evolve in the way that we do?  In Sanskrit, Sanskaras are known as impressions and they are karmic motivational forces that continually arise in an individual’s consciousness. They affect the decisions we make, our perceptions, and how we handle situations.  Everything we perceive in life is based on our own experiences, past or present. The way in which we interpret a piece of art work will differ depending on our own subjective experience of it. Quantum physics supports this idea by stating that our perceptions affect the reality of any given situation.  For example, one person observing a train from one direction has a different impression of it than someone who witnesses it from the opposite direction. The wave particle changes and therefore, reality is never fixed.

From a yogic perspective, any Sanskara, either good or bad, keeps us bound.  We can only move beyond them by freeing our mind from the limitations of our impressions and habits and by experiencing ourselves as unbound.  The quieter the mind is, the more clearly we can read the motivation in our life and respond to it.” – Yogiraj Alan Finger