Are you moving through life willy-nilly?
Can you relate to feeling like a buoy being bounced around by life?
If so, you may not be practicing intentional living.
Do you start your day with calm excitement, confidence, and purpose?
Do you end your day with compassion, appreciation, and reflection?
If not, you may not be practicing intentional living.
And you may not be getting what you want in life on a consistent basis.
How do you get more of what you want?
By living with intention.
We can't control all that occurs in our lives but we CAN control how we respond to life.
And we can even take it a step further and be proactive rather than just responsive.
Living with intention starts with being aware.
As you go about your day, start to become aware of your patterns of behavior.
This will help you understand what you want to change.
You may want to take notice of things or people that you often complain about.
If you find that you have complained about the same person or thing more than once a day or more than 3 times a week, then that is something to pay attention to.
Behind complaints often lies desire.
If you are complaining about someone or something, that is an opportunity to learn about yourself.
Something is important to you in that scenario.
And that person or situation is reminding you of that.
If you continue to just complain and do nothing, then you are not taking responsibility for the situation.
If you start to be aware and explore what is missing or what is making you upset, that is the beginning of intentional living.
Because when something upsets you or bothers you, that means there is something you WANT that you are not getting.
It may be peace or kindness.
It could be more time or more money.
It may be that you want to be heard or respected.
It could be that you want to be more successful or you want to be healthier.
As you look at the situation, begin to ask yourself, "Why does this bother me so much?"
You can ask that over and over again to yourself and write down the answers.
Then you can ask yourself, "What do I really want?"
Ask that to yourself over and over again and write down the answers.
As you discover what you really want you are now fully on the path of intentional living.
But how do you get what you want?
I could write a book about that but today I want to simply introduce you to a powerful practice that can help you get what you want in your life.
This practice is to bookend your day with setting intentions and positive reflection.
In the morning, as soon as you wake up (and before you check your email or social media, or turn on the news please!!) do the following:
- Sit quietly with your eyes closed.
- Take a few deep breaths and turn your attention inward.
- Notice and appreciate your body for a few minutes.
- Imagine yourself walking with confidence, vitality, and happiness.
- Recall a moment of excellence that you have had.
- Imagine your upcoming day from morning until evening.
- Envision how you want your day to go and what you want to accomplish.
- Bring positive energy and images of success, happiness, health, and confidence to all you do in the day.
- Take a moment to be specific about your success in the day and how wonderful it feels to get everything that you want.
- Take a few deep breaths and then open your eyes, feeling good and ready for the day.
In the evening, just before you lie down in bed, do the following:
- Sit quietly with your eyes closed.
- Take a few deep breaths and turn your attention inward.
- Notice and appreciate your body for a few minutes.
- Imagine yourself walking with confidence, vitality, and happiness.
- Begin to recall your day from the morning until the present moment.
- Notice, appreciate, and celebrate things that went well.
- Notice and forgive yourself for things that did not go as planned or that feel negative.
- Erase in your mind the negativity and say to yourself, "I do not need or want that."
- Replay a movie in your mind of a positive version of any negative situation.
- Do this as many times as needed.
- Take a moment to appreciate as many things as you can in your life. (specific family members and/or loved ones, pets, yourself and any positive things about yourself, your body, places you love, your home, car, or other things in your life that make you feel good, etc)
- Take a few deep breaths and then open your eyes, feeling good and ready for a peaceful night's sleep.
*This morning and evening practice is inspired by the work of Ken Coscia.
These two practices of being aware of and understanding what you want in life and starting and ending your day with setting intentions are very, very powerful.
They will give you a sense of power that you may not have had before. Enjoy!!
