The Art of Intentions: Its Difference With Goals + 5 Tips How To Start This Practice
Spirituality
“Whatever you put your attention
on will grow stronger in your life.
Whatever you take your attention
away from will wither,
disintegrate and disappear.”
I usually begin my daily evening ritual with setting my candle/burner, a few drops of Spa Ceylon Peace essential oil or my organic clary sage essential oil and smudge my space with either sage or palo santo. This immediately puts me in a calm, grounded state. I would put solfeggio frequencies meditation or low-fi music at the background while I work. Ideally, I would switch off my phone to airplane mode by 10 pm as much I could- though there are days that do not fall through. Right before I sleep, I would meditate on reflecting on my gratitude for the day (read more here) and create my Most Important Task (MITs) list.
This list reviews the physical tasks I have seek to achieve the following day and focuses on mono-tasking (I will write about this soon!). My daily evening ritual is designed for deep rejuvenating rest and sets me up for the best rest for the following day.
My morning ritual is designed for maximising productivity and proactivity and primed for the best start of my day. It involves my morning hydrate, morning spiritual practice, deep work and breakfast before I rush off to my daily commute. Recently, I have added an Intention Setting Practice as part of a daily morning ritual and it definitely primed my day with more presence. My daily rituals are something very personal to me and if you are interested to adopt them in your life, I have written about it here at My Daily Morning and Evening Rituals + 5 Tips How To Stick To it.
Presence.
Have you ever truly wondered what this word means to you? ⠀
For me, it speaks very closely to the core of my being and the teaching of mindfulness. So often in our daily life, we could be next to someone we love physically and yet our mind is distant and lost in the ember. So often in the day, our mind and body are involved in a rat race for achieving tasks and goals. Sometimes, that leaves us feeling an emptiness and rid us of the importance of presence. And this is why an intention setting practice is such a powerful self-reflective tool to optimise emotional and spiritual fulfilment within us.
⠀Intention and Goals
Recently, the hype is all about productivity hacks and how to be more successful, disciplined, and productive in your career and life. Goal settings, morning rituals, deep work are the cornerstone of productivity.
A goal is defined as an envisioned and desired result, accompanied by an effort to be accomplished within a specific time frame. An intention is defined as a conscious expression of what you want to happen. It is a guiding self-reflective tool to help us show up in areas of our life that are aligned with our values and potential. It infuses purpose, inspiration and most importantly, with deep presence. It is a roadmap to intentional living.
I love my goal setting practice as it keeps my priorities and task on track. However, an intention is not to be confused with a goal.
Example 1,
A goal: “Move on from this heartache with time.”
An intention: “I am joyful in love.”
Example 2,
A goal: “Quit smoking by this month.”
An intention: “I nourish my body with what is best for me.”
An intention seeks no timeframe but rather, a tool to live your life more purposefully. It is infused with positive energies for you to emanate to yourself and others around you. An intention is designed to be expansive as it reminds you to recreate the present moment mindfully. It also allows you to work on yourself with patience and reclaim your inner peace. Intention setting is a lot to do with what your values are and not what you aim to be. An intention does not set you up to feel like a failure if you do not achieve it, it just leaves a room for progress the following day. Remember, we are all here for growth and exercising intentions towards a purposeful living is the right direction. Intentions can also be used as positive affirmations (vocalised statements read to yourself) throughout your day too.
There are many kinds of intentions and so many ways to go about an intention practice. There are ceremonial intentions, new moon intentions, new year intentions and daily intentions. I personally prefer practicing daily intentions. I do however also heavily follow the lunar cycle and make a deeper intention practice during every new moon and right before the start of the new year.
“You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.”
Intentions and Manifestation
The art of intention is an extremely important step in the law of attraction for manifestations. By declaring our intent to the Universe, we are verbalising our desires and wishes. We always write intentions in the present tense like, “ I am, I attract, I have…”. Write as if it is happening in the now, visualise and soak in its positive energies. Remember that our thoughts and emotions are the drivers of our realities. The idea is to bask in the thought, speak and feel as if you have already attained it. In this way, we allow ourselves to remain in the positive energies and allow the Universe to unfold its work for you. The last part is the most difficult, it is the law of allowing. It is removing yourself as a block with expectations, outcomes, timelines and negative habitual responses. Allow yourself to be separated from the intention with ease. Allow the release and let go. You do not let go of the intent, rather you channel that energy elsewhere which grants you the same positive energies and allow the Universe to do the work for you.
5 TIPS ON HOW TO START THIS PRACTICE
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Time of The Day
I personally enjoy my intention setting practice right after I meditate during my morning ritual. At this time of the day, my mind is calm, clear, concise and in a high vibrational state. This makes a perfect time to sit with myself for a few minutes and channel automatic writing as I sit down with my book and pen. (I will write about automatic writing soon!) As a rule of thumb, gratitude journaling and Most Important Task (MIT) list are written the night before I sleep in the evening ritual and intention setting in my morning ritual. Pick a timeline that works best for you. If you prefer to do a monthly intention practice during the new moon, that is fine too.
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Keywords
Your intentions should be closely aligned with your personal values in your life. It is meant to be expansive for you to recreate every present moment. I begin my intention setting practice by first identifying and defining keywords that are important to me. I always begin by setting 3 keywords.
Ask yourself questions. What matters to you? What are your strengths and qualities? What are your weaknesses and growth points? What do you want to let go of? What are you working on mastering? What words align with you right now? What would you like to release?
Presence. Softness. Compassion. Authenticity. Discipline. Kindness. Courage. Boundaries. Self Love. Abundance. Growth. Communication. Strength. Balance. Embrace. Vulnerability.
These are some examples of keywords I personally use, which you can borrow. With the keywords defined, you can proceed to the next step and put them in a sentence like below,
I am kind towards my body, my mind and my soul.
I embrace courage in every element of my life.
I intend to be compassionate to myself and everyone around me.
I choose to be kind.
I am joyful in love.
Writing in the present tense as if it is happening is a powerful technique. It infuses positive energies and creates an invitation for the Universe to act for you from a space of abundance, not lack. Get clear and concise with what you want. Set them from a space of authenticity not blocked energies. Let them be your guiding statements/ keywords throughout the day, month, practice or ceremony.
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Be Creative!
Intention Setting is a beautiful guiding reflective tool for self-discovery and expression too. Use your crystals. Hold each of them and vocalise your intentions and let it go. Sit at your sacred place or the favourite corner of your house, put on a calming or your favourite music! Get creative, colour and design your intentions with different markers and pens. Create with ease. Let the rhythm flow into your pen automatically. Remember, this spiritual practice is a tool designed only for you and do not feel like it has to look or written in any specific way. Most importantly, make sure you do so with a smile on your face.
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Live Your Reality
Once you have made your powerful intentions, imagine living and embodying that in the present right now.
What would your life look like right now? What clothes are you wearing? What words are you speaking? What thoughts are you emanating?
Everything is vibrational. Our intentions itself are already manifesting before we have written it. Speak to yourself with love. This is the time to get in the highest vibrational alignment for them to come to you.
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Reflect And Let Go
The hardest part in life is to let go. This goes with the intention practice too.
Release. Remove yourself from the attachment to the outcome and timelines. Trust. It is not about forgetting your intentions, keep it at the back of your mind but do not be fully consumed by it. Often, we are tested and triggered. Reflect and check in on whether you have met them with resistance or ease. When this happens, it only means the Universe is testing you on whether you are true to your path. It is here we are reminded the true value behind our intentions and our motivations behind it. The obstacles are just doors for you to look beyond what is waiting for you on the other side. Stay in high vibrations and trust everything that is happening is for your highest good. Recite, “ This or something better is coming to me.”
It is easy to be absorbed with our daily goals aka endpoints, but a daily intention practice is like the roadmap to get you there in this journey called life. You are never really lost rather, where you are meant to be. I hope you enjoyed this article as much as I did writing this. If you do incorporate this spiritual practice in your life, do let me know how this magic has unfolded for you.
Mindfulness and presence are the cornerstones of Arawme and my personal life and I hope I empower that in you too.
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I am Sylvia— the founder, writer, intuitive healer, and human design reader of Arawme. “Arawme” is basically, a raw me put together.
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