Purposeful Intention

If there’s anything I learned in the last year, it’s that setting an intention is extremely powerful. I was introduced to the concept of intention setting by listening to some powerful meditations in my daily practice. At first, I was only setting intentions when the meditation guide instructed me to do so. Sometimes the intention was rather broad, encompassing my whole being, like I intend to be a good human. Other times, the intention was to release energy, emotions, and thoughts that were no longer serving me. What I quickly began to notice was setting these intentions was like closing my eyes with a paintbrush in hand, hoping to get paint on the canvas, and yet I would open my eyes to a masterpiece, exactly as I had envisioned.

An intention is like planting a seed. You desire to have a plant that will bud flowers or bear fruit, and thus, you plant the seed in some soil, water it, and wait for it to grow. Sometimes the seed you planted grows bigger than the pot can withstand. Sometimes you need to water it less than you expected, but nonetheless, eventually your plant appears. The purpose of putting the seed in the soil and watering it was to grow a plant. Similarly, an intention is planting a purpose, or aligning your life to the energy, attitudes, and principles you wish for yourself.

Setting an intention activates your manifestation powers; it puts out into the Universe everything you wish to attract in your life

Setting an Intention

While setting an intention is simple, I would be doing you a disservice if I didn’t tell you to feel into the intention and allow the appropriate words to come to you naturally. Intentions are all about surrendering to the process. It’s not a goal, but the energy you hope to bring to your life. It’s important to know you should never force an intention. For example, your spouse tells you that you need to do better at picking up after yourself. It annoys you that your spouse finds so much displeasure in your bras and socks on the bathroom floor. Rather than setting an intention to get them off of your back, lean into what you really want. Is it a closer relationship with your spouse? Do you want them to see you as a respectful person? What matters the most to you in this situation?

The first step in creating an intention would be to gain clarity into what you truly desire. Listen to your intuition. What messages are you receiving during meditation when you ask for help with your intentions? If you are meditating, and an idea comes to you out of nowhere, or you begin to feel a certain emotion, become curious about that. You can ask yourself, “what does that mean for me?” Upon further investigation you could be receiving divine inspiration into the intention you should be focusing on, rather than relying on your best friend’s advice.

Once you have clarity about your intention, all you have to do is announce it to the Universe!

Announce your Intention

Your intentions may be for an upcoming interview with a promising employer. Maybe you are struggling with how you are going to talk to your son about the vape you found in his room. Or maybe your intention is for the next few months in manifesting the love and compassion you deeply need for yourself. Whatever you intention is, you gotta tell the big badass Universe what it is. You can do this by writing it in an intention journal. Or perhaps you like to send out your intention during a meditation. You could even step outside and shout it to the sky if that’s what floats your boat. It doesn’t matter how you do it, what matters is it brings a strong emotion to the surface and you feel into it and believe with all your gorgeous might that you will be blessed with this intention.

Once you’ve made your announcement, express gratitude for it. I call this Grateful Expectations.

Grateful Expectations

Grateful expectations is an interdependent concept. You are grateful for your intention (expectation) and you are intending to (expect) to be grateful for the outcome. When you express heartfelt gratitude for your intentions, the Universe recognizes your trust and blesses you. Putting yourself in a state of gratitude is putting yourself in a receiving mode. You aren’t chasing or grasping for what you want, which is a state of scarcity. You are sitting back, patiently waiting for (expecting), and watching that little plant bud through the soil. It’s like it has already happened and for that you are so grateful. Gratitude is the icing on the cake when setting an intention. If I’m meditating and I am setting an intention, at the end of the meditation I always give thanks to the Universe as I know She will bless me in ways only She knows.

Resources

Here are some of my favorite intention-focused meditations. These links will open you up to Insight Timer. This is a free app that can be downloaded on iOS or Android.

For more meditations on setting intentions, you can visit Insight Timer. I do not receive any monies or support from Insight Timer.