Episode 40 – your intention

• What is your intention for your life?
• What is it you wish for yourself in this life time?
• how you want to be, live, and show up in the world?
• An intention is something we often forget.
• We think about the purpose of life from time to time
• Often, for the first time, when we are young, and life unfolds in front of us in all its colors, with is limitations that we experience for the first time, its constraints, and its challenges
• Hormones kick in, we want to conquer and change the world, so we question it
• We rebel, in many different forms
• In doing so we hope to get answers to our questions
• But soon we come to our senses, and we learn to be reasonable, and logical, and just do our thing
• College, a first job, family, children, and most of us become responsible citizen
• And we forget about this important question of purpose
• Often – never to return, until we are old
• Sometimes, in the midst of our so-called happy life, life jolts us, rattles us out of our comfort zone
• And then many of us return to the question of purpose
• In an effort to make sense of the crumbles, trying to fit the broken pieces together again although hey don’t quite fit anymore
• We wonder, we ask, we seek answers again

• An intention can get you closer to these answers
• An intention is a softer approach than the huge overwhelming question f What is my purpose in life?
• You often find to your purpose through your intention
• Its an inkling of what lies ahead,
• Intentions set the direction towards your purpose
• So it is important that we talk about them
• an intention is not a goal—it’s not something you attach an expectation to
• Goals help you achieve your place in the world
• An intention is a direction you decide to align with in your life.
• Its driven by your heart,
• In the process of becoming
• You are setting intentions with a sense of wanting a better and more fore fulfilled life
• And setting them helps you ground in life
• goals can take us off track because we often attach an outcome to them
• more money, more things, less weight
• these are fleeting objectives
• happening or not, they are not getting us much closer to our purpose
• Setting an intention is a way to bring your heart and mind into alignment.
• The intention is the starting point on your journey to a fulfilled life
• Its where you begin to define the direction you want to go into
• You set your intentions based on understanding what matters most to you
• you make a commitment to align your worldly actions with your inner values.
• Setting intentions is intentional
• An intention is your reason
• It is what you are looking to create
• But what happens afterwards often takes place in the background, and over time
• And that is where the magic of intentions lie
• Being grounded in intention provides integrity and unity in your life.
• Over time, you will see the changes in yourself, and in the world around you
• As you move closer towards the person you aspire to be and the life you desire to live
• I have 3 recommendations for you so you can begin to incorporate intentions into your day
• You will find them to be very beneficial in getting you in touch on a much deeper level with your inner world
• They will help you attain the balance you are seeking

But

• Before you start with intentions, discover what you stand for.
• What are your values? What is important to you?
• Re-listen to some of the episodes where I talked about these matters
• Give it some thought before you dive in
• Take time to understand your unique perspective in the world and who you want to be
• It can be as simple as a better person if you don’t know more beyond this
• Its ok
• .
• Now that you have an idea of what you want to center your focus on and know how you want to make it part of your daily life, decide what your intention actually is.

1. Set your intention based on what your heart tells you

• Good daily intentions are inspirational and motivating for you because they support your values
• Intentions can be short sentences or simply words that embody where you want your focus to be, such as “let go of fear”, “I want to be kinder to people,” or “I wish to speak confidently,” or single words that resonate with you such as  “Peaceful” or “Love.”
• If you listen to your heart, then your intention will always be something positive, uplifting, and inspirational
• you want to focus on what you want to do or be, not on what you don’t want to do or be
• always keep your intentions action-oriented and in the affirmative
• once you have thought about your values and what matters to you, you don’t have to think about intentions every single day.
• To me it just comes in the moment
• Depending how I feel and what my heart is telling me, my intentions come to me
• Its almost like my heart is whispering them to me

2. Set your intention daily, ideally first thing in the morning during your quiet time

• Meditation and quiet time will help you gain insight into your heart
• I cant say it enough how important it is to become still
• That’s when your body and your mind are speaking to you
• With all the noise around us all day and all the distraction we never hear our inner voice
• And since you want your intention to be honest and sincere, its best set after you settled down,
• You can also set it before you practice yoga, in fact many teachers of yoga prompt you to set one right before practice
• Yoga is a practice that gets us in tune with our bodies, so its helpful to set your mind up with an intention that it then can use to guide you through your practice

3. Keep your intention in the back of your mind for the remainder of the day

• This is difficult
• We are bombarded by things constantly
• Every morning when I get to work I always plan to have 15 min for myself, to breathe, to ease into work, maybe read something inspiration at my desk before I dive into the day
• You can take a guess how often I am actually able to accomplish that
• The world today moves fast, and we move with it
• Inspiring Instagram posts show up more frequently in my feeds, and no matter how moving or helpful I find them, or how many times I read them, I don’t retain them
• So I know – holding your intention for even just a few minutes past your practice is almost impossible
• But try
• Maybe write it on a sticky note and put in on your laptop before you head out to work
• Small reminders refreshed in your brain a few times will engrain themselves into our inner world
• Soon you will notice how your intentions appear in your life in the form of new actions you take, or the person you are slowly becoming
• You will find it becomes easier to act from your intentions
• To be kinder, to show more love and patience towards others, to express yourself with more confidence
• Whatever it may be

• Try not to just set your intentions and then forget about them; try to live them every day.
• Through the skillful cultivation of intention, you learn to make wise decisions and attain a deeper sense of meaning in your life

• Of course, life will continue with its ups and downs, but by staying committed to your intentions you remain strong even in the presence of pain and fear.
• You become more comfortable in our own skin.  We realize we are in command of our own happiness, that we can be joyful regardless of external events.