Living with intention is an extraordinarily powerful way to live your life to your fullest potential.
Intention is a way to focus your thoughts and actions as you create the life you really want.
Intention is energy It could be a state of mind you want to embody, an action you’d like to take, a wellness goal or a business goal… Whatever your intention is, it's always grounded in a vibrational energy that we can understand through our emotions.
Intention also helps you to be aware of your emotions and to raise your vibration. And you attract whatever matches your vibration.
In other words, you have control over your reality because you have control over your emotions and your intentions.
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Speaking of emotional awareness... there are emotional scales that you can work with if you wish, and here is an ultra-brief introduction.
Law of attraction teachers (ie Gabby Bernstein) often refer to the Abraham-Hicks Emotional Guidance scale. This is a scale of vibrations, from our highest vibrational frequencies (joy/love/gratitude/empowerment) to our lowest (insecurity/guilt/unworthiness). Of course our emotions are always changing, up and down. The point of this scale is to help you to see the levels of emotion, and to be able to work your way up the scale, from one emotion to the next. Like climbing an emotional staircase.
Other teachers refer to different scale created by Dr. David Hawkins in his book Power vs. Force. He calls it the Map of Consciousness (or the Scale of Consciousness), based on his scientific research. His premise is that each level of consciousness is a measurable vibrational frequency. The numbers themselves are arbitrary and don’t really matter, it’s the relationship with the other numbers that is important, and the concept of ascending the levels of consciousness. Even moving up one level will make an enormous change in the way you live your life
You can work with one of these scales if they resonate with you. If they do, I invite you to do your research and look deeper into how to work with them.
And if this type of thing doesn’t resonate with you, you can simply begin by tuning into your emotions to see how you feel. How do you feel now? Higher vibrational frequencies feel light, airy, flowing, freeing. Lower vibrational frequencies feel heavy and constricting.
And then think about how you want to feel, now and throughout the rest of your day. Just this tuning in to your emotions helps build your awareness and will already help you to raise your vibration.
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A personal daily yoga practice is one of the best ways you can find to build an awareness of your emotions, to see them more clearly, and to raise your vibration.
I’ve been working with my friend Jennifer Reaburn, an inspiring yoga and mindfulness teacher who teaches straight from the heart, to create a series of easy yoga practices that will support you on your journey towards a higher vibration, one of joy, peace, clarity, confidence, appreciation. We call them Intention-Based Yoga Practices.
Our Intention-Based Yoga Practices are specifically designed to help you cultivate a particular kind of energy or state of being. They each merge yoga, meditation and a ritual to empower your practice. This is not a video to follow, it’s a guide and inspiration to help you build your own HOME PRACTICE.
Choose based on the kind of energy you desire to cultivate, your intention of the moment. There are 6 practices now, and more to come:
Click through to discover the 6 Intention-Based Yoga Practices. They are also accessible through the PRACTICE page.
Here is how to make the most of these practices.
Set your intention
It begins with setting your intention. You can do so by asking yourself questions like these:
If you are using one of the emotional guidance scales, you can ask yourself where you are on the scale today, and where you want to be at the end of the practice and for the rest of the day.
This will help you to choose the right Intention-Based Practice for today.
Choose the mantra to anchor your intention into your heart and mind
Putting words to how you want to feel or what you’d like to focus on is very powerful. For our Intention-Based Practices we use the SO HUM mantra. It's a powerful Sanskrit mantra connecting you to the ultimate "am-ness" of humanity, to your own true self. It invokes an all-encompassing spirit of wisdom and enlightenment. “SO HUM” means "I AM THAT", and when linked to another word it works as an intention and declaration of a particular pure quality. SO HUM…I AM…joy, peace, love, clarity, abundance…. whatever vibration you wish to feel.
Use this mantra as your invocation of the state of mind and heart you want to embody, as a calling for inspiration, confidence, courage and whatever you need to live your best possible life.
Your mantra could instead be an affirmation that brings more personal meaning to the high vibration you choose as your intention. Find the words that feel right for you today.
So set your intention, close your eyes and absorb it into your heart, then carry it with you through your practice and through your whole day.
Discover a practice to help you hold and cultivate that intention
The Intention-Based Practices are simple yet complete and powerful. They will help you to cultivate your intention, to raise your vibration. Each one will give you a practice that is 10-15 minutes long (depending on your own pace). Each one merges yoga poses, meditation and a simple ritual into a complete, yet easy practice. It doesn't have to be complicated to be powerfully effective! As your comfort and experience levels grow, (and depending on the time you have), you can combine the sequences, mix/match and explore, creating your own custom home practice.
Use a ritual to bring awareness to your intention
A ritual can transform the everyday into something sacred. Especially when it’s done consciously. We believe that rituals will empower your practice, add an element of ceremony to make it more personal, make it richer. A ritual can support and facilitate your intention. You can use our suggested rituals, or find one that is more meaningful for you in this particular practice. It’s your practice! Make it personal. Here are more rituals to inspire you.
Remind yourself of your intention throughout the day
Your intention will be more powerful if you remind yourself of it through the day. Here are some ideas you can use to stay focused and to guide your actions in the direction of your intention:
Our goal with these Intention-Based Yoga Practices is to help you to raise your vibration, to see things more clearly, to build your awareness. So that you can live a purposeful life, a positive, peaceful and joyful life. We hope they serve you well.
For more ideas on the power of intention, read about How to Get the Life You Want Through the Power of Intention.
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