Our intention creates our reality
If you’ve ever joined a yoga or meditation class with me you’ve likely heard me say ‘take a few deep breaths and set an intention for your practice’ and if you haven’t heard it with me I’m sure you’ve heard it from other wellness gurus, life coaches or seen it on your Insta feed.
But what does ‘intention' really mean? Why do we guide students to set one during class? Most importantly, how do you turn the intention that you make into a reality?
What is an intention?
An intention is like a guiding principle for how you want to live or how you want to show up in the world. It’s something that really matters to you or something you want to work towards achieving.
Don’t confuse an intention with a goal, it’s not something you need to attach any form of expectation or evaluation to. It’s simply something you want to align with in your life. An aim, a purpose or something you’d be proud to commit to.
Finally, intentions come from the heart not from the head. They evoke feelings and emotions - think sending love out to the world versus losing 10 pounds in the next 3 weeks.
Why set an intention?
Intentions can help to ground us, to set us on a path and to focus our mind. Working with them really can change your mindset and help you become the intention that you’ve set. Trust me, I’ve been there!
How to set an intention?
The way I suggest setting an intention is to:
Keep it simple - short and sweet
Start the intention with ‘I am’ to evoke feelings of confidence and a positive mindset
Ensure it’s single minded - it should focus on one thing rather than many
Don’t overthink it, in fact try to go with the first thing that comes to mind and trust your instinct
Ideally, you’ll work with your intention for a period of time to allow it to weave into your life and manifest as a reality. So, make sure that it is something you want to work on long-term.
Meditation and yoga are great spaces to cement your intention - you’ll be feeling relaxed, connected to your mind, body and breath, and an intention is something that you can revisit during the class. But, you can (and should) take your intention off of the mat with you. First thing in the morning you could repeat your intention to yourself, or you could write it on a post-it and stick it on the fridge or your bathroom mirror, or you could tell your intention to your partner or friend and they can remind you of it.
When it’s time to let your intention go you’ll know and your intention will naturally shift to something new.
Suggested intentions
An intention is one million percent a personal thing so these are purely suggestions to get your creative juices flowing:
I am bliss
I am joy
I am confident
I am calm
I am loved
I am strong
I am safe
Set your intention and I’ll see you on the mat!