Take a moment and consider, how has setting hard goals worked or not worked for you?
It’s easy to come across varying opinions on how effective setting hard resolutions or goals for ourselves really is, and I will leave it up to you to decide, but here in this article, I would like to invite you to explore goal settings’ spiritual cousin, Intention. If you have in fact set some clear goals for yourself recently, I’m so happy for you, and you may still benefit from weaving intentions into or alongside those goals.
The defining characteristics of a goal vs. an intention may vary, so I’ll give you my take on what an intention is up-front and I’ll leave you to define what a goal entails in your own terms. An intention is a personal mission statement that emerges from a deeper process of self-discovery, uncovering true desires and turning that into self-loving guidance that fuels personal progress.
An intention, when cultivated properly, in my humble opinion, should feel as if it is unifying all parts of the self and creating a framework for personal growth. Within this framework, an intention allows space for fluidity to be a present element, and for the soul to be the creative director, making amendments along the way. This should account for our humanity and the ability to be wrong or to accept redirection.
None of this is to say creating a goal cannot meet your needs and help you to elevate, but I am postulating that there may be a deeper work that can be done to discover an intention for yourself that may have more sustainability, holistic benefits, and promote a rich self-love vs. shame or guilt. You can still hold yourself accountable and return to the anchor of the intention at any point in your journey upwards; accountability is paramount to our wellness maintenance, and I would be remiss to leave that out here.
Here are my favorite tools to use for the Intention setting process:
Get clear on your WHY; Embodying your true essence is no easy feat- some may say it is a lifelong pursuit but through meditation, we can allow our minds and hearts to express their true desires, and through that work, we can tap into our essence, some may call this working with Prana, or life force energy. Follow what you love, what ignites passion or inspiration in you, and ride those waves.
Meditation; To begin this work we want to cultivate a meditation practice that allows us to feel free, rejuvenated, and even luxurious. Allow this to be natural, totally unforced. Having a journal nearby can be helpful for some, and not for others but if you are worried you may forget something special that comes up for you, I recommend keeping the journal handy, especially when looking to cultivate an intention.
Timing; You want to set aside a time for intention setting where you can be as undisturbed as possible (no harsh rules here). Choose a time of day that simply works best for you, avoid cramming this process into one of your busiest days. We want to allow our brains to actually ‘dump’ during this style of meditating, it’s a beautiful function that our brains have, so let’s use it!
Breathing; Ahh, literal Inspiration, breathing is that ongoing flow and presence of lifeforce always with us. Notice how your breath may change during the process of getting clear on your intentions. Consider breath as a dear friend, or simply as a solid anchor there for you to provide feedback, support, and love. It’s okay to take a step back from your process to check in with your breath and ask, “what am I loving about my breath at this moment?”
Accepting our desires; Desires can often be cast aside as frivolous or even taboo, when in reality we all have them, and they do provide insights from a very direct source: your inner world. If we can come to trust the brilliance of our mind-bodys’ miraculous processes, we can play with our desires and bring them into the work of creating intentions for ourselves. Now, uncovering and constructively utilizing desires is a practice all its own, and I don’t want to gloss over this topic, but it is worth mentioning here that welcoming and learning to embrace our richest inner desires can be a game-changer for intention setting. I believe keeping this in mind helps guide us towards intentions that have much more potency for us vs. more generic statements that we may think we need but come to find out we cannot embody fully.
This outline of tools can be used for more than Intention setting, all of these elements can be present in a daily meditation practice as well, but I do find creating more of a ‘ritual’ for cultivating new change or growth patterns is potent medicine!
Have you worked with Intention setting? What was the outcome for you? I would be overjoyed to hear from you on this. Together, we journey through many mysterious wonders, teaching each other along the way.
You Are The Medicine.
With Love and Gratitude,
Kayla