Have you wanted to bring more direction into your life? You read ideas and blogs about setting goals and maybe you follow through for a short bit, but then the momentum leaves and inertia sets in. You are right back where you started and possibly, your awareness of the goal has slipped entirely away.
Recall from the Mindful Intention blog post the question, "What do I really want?" What was your answer? Did you find a core value or set of ideas that excite the wow factor for you? Did it feel electrifying to have reached the deeper place inside yourself where meaning is born? That is a taste of inner-surfing. Riding the waves of self-reflection to find purpose, direction and meaning.
Setting lasting intentions requires that something important be behind the intention. In other words, the intention is your what, but what is your why? Why are you choosing that intention? If your intention is born from a core value, a deep personal place, what you really want, you are more likely to relate to your intention more frequently.
And after all, relating is the human way. We relate to each other, we relate to our work and we relate to our inner aspects as well. An intention born from this inner-relating is likely to be strong and purposeful and to infect you with drive, will and sustained momentum.
If you want to see results for anything, ask yourself why you are doing it? If you cannot find a good answer, pick a different direction, a new word or idea with a why that makes your heart leap, your joy flow and your spark light.
Then draw the word, contemplate it in meditation, dance the feeling, journal about it, sing about it, and let that word and feeling lift your daily mood and be available at times of challenge. If you are willing to make this a morning practice, even for 5 minutes as you wake daily, you will quickly notice the self-reinforcing nature of this approach to setting intentions.
Have fun, be playful and most importantly, do what sings to your soul.
Practice Offering
Over several days play with the following guidelines and see what surfaces for you. If you take 3-5 days to explore this, it will percolate in your awareness and you will find that the process unfolds and offers some insight.
DAY 1
Make a list of your values.
Day 2
Doodle and draw some of the words from your list – release the need to simply write the list. Let the list unfold, possibly like a concept map, where ideas are relating and are interconnected.
Day 3
Refine this list to achieve a smaller list of core values. These concepts, ideally, will be talking right to your heart. If you are feeling enthusiasm or excitement, your on the right track. That is the feeling or feedback when the heart is engaged in the process. If your not there yet, just stay with this step for a bit longer, or start over with a new list and see if the spark surfaces.
Day 4
Pull a few keys areas or ideas from your core values list and explore these more fully by journaling, contemplating, meditating or just being with the concepts identified.
Day 5
Choose one key area to direct your focus. Close your eyes and place the idea in your heart. Visualize this process, bringing the value or word directly into your heart space the way you would bring a gift to a loved one. Create a ceremony or visual set of actions and stay with them until the core value lands in your heart space. Place your hands on your heart to hold the intention there with LOVE.
Once you feel deeply connected with your intention take a few full, deep breaths feeling the abdomen rise, the ribs expand and the clavicles lift upward. Surrender the breath effortlessly and release into your intention deeper.
Let this process serve you anytime you are ready to engage a new intention. Intentions are organic and malleable tools. Release them and embrace them in the flow.
Copyright 2018
