How to Get the Life You Want Through the Power of Intention

Have your ever thought about intention? And what it can mean to you on your quest to lead the most extraordinary and fulfilling life you can?

 

I think about intention everyday. In my daily home practice, in my business.

 

In fact my business…HUM… is one great big intention that I set a few years ago.

 

People have asked me why I called it HUM. The meaning is not obvious, it's more like a whisper, an invocation, an affirmation.  

 

There are many ideas and implications inside this simple looking three letter word - you might see vibration, sound, music, humanity... The core inspiration for me has always been the mantra. HUM is a powerful Sanskrit bija mantra that invokes creativity, passion and fiery brilliance as well as an all-encompassing spirit of wisdom and enlightenment. “SO HUM” means "I AM", and when linked to another Sanskrit word it works as an intention and declaration of a particular pure quality.  So hum…I am…joy, peace, clarity….

 

For me, HUM is the manifestation of a dream and a creative vision, the calling for inspiration, confidence and courage to make it happen.   It is the invocation of a state of mind and heart I want to embody along the way, my intention to live in higher vibrations of love, joy, peace and gratitude.  My intention colours every decision I make, every action I take. 

  

Intention is a powerful thing. It’s a way of focusing your thoughts and actions in a particular way. And what you focus on expands. Intention will empower you to attract whatever you desire into your life.

 

I know, because in my previous life (pre-HUM) I didn’t have such an awareness and connection to intention. I didn’t see clearly.  I was striving towards goals that I thought I should want but that I really didn't.  Just trying to get through each day.  Not happy.  Feeling like I was not really present for my life, and it was flying by.  Maybe you know what that’s like?  I've done a lot of work since then to live with intention.  I've found that it's a powerful tool to transform my life to find so much joy, fulfillment.  You can get it too.

 

Intention is energy

What exactly is an intention? 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 is always grounded in a vibrational energy that we can understand through our emotions. These range from high vibrations like joy, peace, and love all the way down to low vibrations such as fear, guilt and shame.  

 

To set your intention, it can come down to these simple questions:  

 

 

Setting your intention helps you to get into the positive high energy you want to bring into your life: peace, joy, love, creativity, clarity, confidence, courage…   Setting your intention and staying aware of it throughout the day will set you on a different path, guide your towards your purpose.  Your intention will help you change the way you think, the way you react in the face of challenges, and will guide your actions as you create the life you really want. Intention combined with focused action is extraordinarily powerful.

 

And remember that your intention will shift and adjust, as you move along your path living a purposeful life. So it’s a good idea to check in with yourself daily, to ensure your intention is in line with your needs.

 

Living with intention means living a mindful lifestyle.

Living with intention means being more aware of yourself, your thoughts, emotions and actions. And this greater awareness of yourself helps you to expand the scope of your awareness to others, and to the world. With this awareness you will be able to make more conscious choices for yourself, for others, for the planet. And in turn, this will give you a greater sense of compassion and of community.

 

It's about cultivating mindfulness in order to live a purposeful life, positive, joyful life.

  

I’ve been collaborating with my friend Jennifer Reaburn, a yoga and mindfulness teacher who teaches with kindness, compassion and creativity, weaving gratitude, connection to the earth, and the power of intention into one powerful practice. She's a jewel, and teaches directly from the heart.  Jennifer has a really beautiful way of looking at the power of intention and what it means to live with intention.

 

Intention is like a directional arrow.

“Intention is the way we can keep our frequency high, especially in times like these where there is a lot of fear, judgment, and other negative energy. It is the arrow that shows us the way.  How do you want to feel today? 

 

“I visualize intention as moving our personal energy in a particular direction, towards love, peace, calm, joy, clarity and away from the lower fear-based emotions.  The direction is up, towards a higher vibration. So everyday we can say to ourselves: Let’s point that arrow up. What do I want to focus on today to live on purpose and direct my energy upwards towards a higher vibration and eventually towards a sense of oneness?

 

"It’s important to be realistic with your intention, knowing you can go up by levels, moving towards the highest vibration. Think about it as moving up a staircase, one step at a time, feeling a little more positive with each step. Soon you will be at the top!

 

Living with intention means living on purpose, living awake, living aware.

“It means bringing awareness and a sense of direction to our lives through our intention.   We can live this life with purpose, on our own terms, instead of being victims of our circumstance.  We don’t need to just be subjected to it.  We can actively create our life through how we choose to think about things, how we choose to deal with things, what we choose to focus on.  It’s actually quite a practical and positive way to live everyday.  Living with purpose and with intention in this way can direct how you raise your children, deal with the challenges of your job, with every challenge in your life. 

 

“It also means setting some energetic boundaries for yourself. Looking at intention this way means accepting that I am responsible for what I am putting into my energy field from the inside, created with my thoughts, directed by intention, and owning my responsibility for what I allow in.  Truly living with intention comes down to radical responsibility for your own energy, a sense of responsibility for our thoughts. We don’t choose all the circumstances that surround us in the world every day, but we do have the power to choose how we are going to respond to it. Intention is key for helping us to choose wisely how to respond. Intention helps us direct the flow. If we have a strong intention in mind, and we cultivate it, then our intention becomes the arrow for the direction our thoughts go in. And that helps us deal with whatever is happening that we don’t have control over. That arrow of intention helps us to respond more skilfully.

 

“Self care and practice makes a huge difference, If you haven’t done your own work, you won’t be in as good a position to carry through with your intention to respond with peace and kindness and connection. Every single tiny thing that happens in life is an opportunity for practice.”

 

Living with intention is an extraordinarily powerful way to live your best life.

  

WHITE LIGHT MEDITATION TO HELP YOU GROW YOUR INTENTION

Jennifer has created a gift for you, a beautiful guided meditation to help you to get clear on your intention.  Access the meditation HERE, or by clicking the photo of Jennifer below.

You can find more of Jennifer’s beautiful guided meditations on the Insight Meditation Timer app.  It’s free and offers 45,000 guided meditations as well as a fantastic timer if you want to meditate on your own.  Search for Jennifer Reaburn.

 

12 TIPS TO HELP YOU LIVE WITH INTENTION

Together we have crafted 12 tips to help you to raise your vibration, to see things more clearly, to build your awareness. So that you can live more awake and on purpose. It comes back to the importance of cultivating mindfulness in order to live a purposeful life, a positive, peaceful and joyful life. 

1. Set your intention daily: Sit quietly for 5 minutes each morning, without moving, practicing getting into stillness. Stillness will help you to gain clarity. This is your opportunity to check in with yourself daily to see if your intention is still strong and inline with your needs.
2. Listen to your inner teacher: A personal daily yoga practice, without watching a class or video, is one of the best ways you can find to develop your self-awareness, your connection between breath/body/spirit, and to hear the guidance of your inner teacher.
3. Create small daily rituals to support your intention: If your intention is more joy, intentionally plan to do one thing each day you know will bring you joy (baking, calling a friend, drawing, reading, gardening…). If your intention is to be more confident, do one thing a day that is a little out of your comfort zone to feel confident in your abilities (try a yoga pose you don’t usually like to do, learn to do something new). What can you do to support your intention today?
4. Be kind to yourself: Self-care and soul-care are fundamental to our own wellbeing and to our ability to care for others. We can’t take care of others if we don’t take care of ourselves. Don’t skip this!  Find time everyday for yourself. It could be your meditation and yoga practice, it could be a daily walk in the woods, private time to read and reflect with a cup of tea.
5. Do something nice for someone else:  It can be anything that is helpful and loving.  Kindness will always raise your vibration!
6. See clearly: Decluttering your home, office and your life will help you to see more clearly. Determine what is important and what is not important. Decide to only keep what is serving you in some way and give yourself permission to let go of the rest. Surround yourself with people who fill you up, who support you, who inspire you.
7. Uni-task: Doing one thing as a time and giving it your full attention allows you to do things intentionally and mindfully. I used to multi-task all day long. But now I know that uni-tasking means you get better quality results, you actually get more done, you find more creativity, more satisfaction, less stress.
8. Stay in gratitude: Always be aware and appreciate the support, the beauty, the abundance, the opportunities that every situation offers. Just looking at your life through the eyes of gratitude will immediately raise your vibration to a higher level. Marvel at the beauties. Celebrate small things. Say thank you from your heart.
9. Breathe: Your breath can be your anchor at all times throughout the day, it is always available to you, steady and supportive. At any time you can use it to calm yourself. Simply breath in through your nose, feel your inhale filling your belly, and exhale deeply. Focus on lengthening your exhale so that it is longer than your inhale. Stay here as long as you need to. 
10. Connect with nature: As you walk in nature or sit in a garden, stay silent, use all your senses to really notice everything around you. Notice what you see, hear, smell, feel and maybe even taste. Nature is a calming, healing, uplifting force that is there for us every single day, if we just pay attention.
11. Care about what you eat: Think more about what you eat, and where it comes from. Not only will this give you a greater sense of awareness, you will probably begin to make healthier choices for your body and for the planet. As soon as you can, visit a local farmers market and talk to the farmers about what they grow. Notice the variety, the colours and the shapes. Choose with consciousness. Maybe try something new. And when you get home, spread it all out on the counter, and appreciate your market abundance.
12. Pay attention to your judgements: Just start noticing every time you become judgemental. A key aspect of mindfulness is to notice things without judging. A great first step is to begin to notice when your mind leans towards judging, and you will begin to see that judging is not useful in many ways.