Setting goals or resolutions for the new year is the easy part. Keeping them? That’s another story. So maybe this year, try something different: intention setting.
Intention setting shifts your focus away from concrete goals and toward the bigger picture. The practice asks you to decide how you want to be, live and show up in the world, no matter where you are or what you’re doing. It’s a powerful tool to build inner strength and give you more clarity about your needs.
Listen and learn how to set your own intention. It only takes a few minutes, but its impact can last throughout your life.
Hello. My name is Anjali Sharma, and today we are going to work on setting positive intentions.
Living with intention means living consciously, self-aware. And setting these intentions is an extremely useful practice that allows each of us to decide how we want to be, live and show up in the world — whether at work, in relationships, during meditation or any other area of life.
Think of it not as a goal or outcome to be expected but more as a guiding principle, a certain quality or energy, that you wish to emanate and align with.
Taking time to pause and reflect on what we choose to set as our intentions, allows us to ground ourselves with these positive affirmations, within both our conscious and subconscious minds, so that over time, they become the driving force behind our goals and visions.
Let’s take a few minutes to set an intention today.
As you settle into a comfortable position, I invite you to allow the eyes to close or lower. Relax the eyelids, allowing any strain or tension to dissolve.
Now take a few deep breaths, with full inhalation and complete exhalation. And with each exhalation, sending the energy of the breath into each limb, each organ and each cell of the body, letting it further relax and settle into stillness.
Now, shifting the attention from body, to the mind, allow it to empty out like a pitcher of water, sending any thoughts to the side for now, to make space for your intention.
You may start by asking yourself, what matters most to you at this moment in your life? How do you feel when you are at your happiest and most balanced state? What do you wish to give to others and the world? What words or ideals do you feel most aligned with, or wish to align yourself with?
Perhaps an intention to act with compassion, empathy or kindness. Perhaps an intention to demonstrate strength and resilience despite what the surroundings or external variables might be. Or perhaps an intention of connection and community.
Take a few moments to let your intention surface.
Once you have arrived there, and are able to visualize it, breathe your energy and attention deep into the center of your core, and place your intention there. Your intention is for you, created by you, and is always there for you to revisit often and when needed.
Whether you begin each day, each week or each year with an intention, remember to tap into it regularly, repeat it, write it, post it, meditate with it. Our intentions create our reality.
When ready, slowly allow the eyelids to open and become aware again of your physical presence.
Carry your intention with you throughout the course of your day and always, knowing that at any time you can go within to stay grounded with your personal intention and, of course, reset as needed.
Thank you and stay well.
