Maria Connolly, LPC
When you’re setting intentions you’re telling yourself and the world 1) who you want to be, 2) what you wish to contribute, and 3) how you choose to touch the lives of others. There are no limits if you consciously base your intentions on positive choices. In the process, you’ll find that you become much more productive, especially if you voice your intentions out loud to an accountability partner or coach. It puts the power of change back in your hands.
How do you set intentions?
Perhaps your intention is: “I want to feel nurtured today so I have abundant energy to fulfill my purpose in life.”
So you forgo your usual coffee laden with sugar. You eat a nutritious breakfast and pack energizing snacks for later. You plan on having a delicious salad at your favorite restaurant for lunch, but your co-worker says, “Why don’t you come with me and we’ll go to the local taco stand.”
Your internal dialogue connects to your intention to be nurtured by asking yourself, “Will I feel nurtured if I eat a meal that’s full of carbs and grease? No, it’s going to make me sleepy this afternoon and bloated. I’ll have a terrible time getting through that meeting. If I want to feel nurtured, I’m going to stick with my plan to get a salad.”
So you turn to your friend and say, “Why don’t you come with me to my favorite restaurant. We’ll grab something to go and sit in the park and enjoy this wonderful sunshine?”
Do you see how your intention empowers you to say “no” to what doesn’t serve you and at the same time you make a positive contribution to your co-worker’s health?
What are some of the benefits of setting intentions? Setting and living your intentions allows you to:
Goals tend to be structured and one-dimensional. Intentions are as expansive as you want to make them. You have the freedom and the power to become whoever you want to be.
Because of the demands of today’s fast-paced world, people who seek personal growth find that setting intentions is a powerful practice for transformation. However, there’s a crucial distinction between setting intentions and embodying intentions.
Let’s explore the story of two sisters, Sarah and Emily, to illustrate the difference between setting intentions and embodying intentions.
As you review this last year, did you accomplish most of what you set out to at the beginning of the year? Every New Year people make resolutions they don’t keep. Why is that? Often it’s not the resolution that’s the problem; it’s that the intention behind the resolution wasn’t powerful enough. Consider why setting powerful intentions is the way to guarantee you keep your resolutions…
A parent asks the child, “What are you doing?” Her response “I’m thinking.” The parent comes back with, “Don’t you think it would be better if you got up and did something constructive like cleaning your room instead?” We’re trained at an early age that “doing” and ‘’checking off tasks” is what’s important. We certainly aren’t taught a formula, system, or reflective practice to unpack our experiences. But I’m here to do that for you and we’ll get to that in a moment.
As a result, we’re caught up in the whirlwind of daily tasks and responsibilities. We race through life, rarely pausing to reflect on our actions, decisions, and experiences. However, cultivating a reflective practice can be a transformative journey that brings clarity, self-awareness, and personal growth. One of my favorite quotes helps bring this into perspective…
We all know that every year people set goals, yet relatively few of them actually make significant changes in their lives. Why is that? I’ll let you in on a secret…when you’re setting goals you’re not fully engaging your power. Learning how to set mindful intentions instead allows you to tune into your innate superpower! And here are the reasons why I say that…
Goal setting is often based on a negative premise…”I’m not skinny enough,” “I’m not rich enough,” or “I’m not organized enough”. Do you see how each of these thoughts tells you that you’re “not enough”? How could something that says you’re a failure result in anything good? It just can’t.
“I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.” ~ Anne Frank
Chris (not her real name) came to me feeling out of control. She described herself as always being in a hurry. She had to hit the ground running every day. Chris had minimal self-care. She had no time for deep relationships. She never got enough sleep and couldn’t remember the last time she sat down to eat a decent meal. A vacation? What’s that! And at the end of the day, she couldn’t say what meaningful things she had accomplished. She felt empty and lost. She needed to gain clarity of mind.
As we talked, I could see that her mind was ablaze with new ideas, which were quickly being extinguished by her many self-imposed obligations. She spent a lot of time just trying to retrieve information from her brain, notebook and computer files. She often didn’t know if she’d completed a project, because she was already on to the next. Then she’d have to retrace her steps and recreate mentally what had been done. Can you relate?