The POWER of INTENTION

                 By Lenore Anderson

How long have you been wishing, dreaming and hoping for change in your life? Wishing and hoping for change are actually doubtful thoughts about the future. As time passes, we may wonder why we remain stuck, spinning our wheels in some situation that we wish had changed a long time ago.

Change that generates real transformation only happens when we get focused and clear about what we want, and how we want it. It’s our attitudes toward the effect that we desire, along with our actions that determine our success. Identifying a specific intention is a process of sorting through the thoughts, beliefs and patterns that prevent us from getting what we need to feel empowered, fulfilled, and at peace with the unfoldment of our lives.

Setting clear intentions for healing, happiness, and empowerment is how we live our lives on purpose. To clarify our intentions we must ask, “What is it that I want or need to feel whole?” “What is my attitude about it?”  “What is my motivation for the outcome?” The answers lie within. To be receptive to our inner wisdom, we must be willing to do some deep reflection and listen to what our spirits truly desire. 

As we engage in deep exploration, we can begin to see what is in our way. What prevents us from releasing old patterns and healing our wounds? How we can let go and create space for weaving our life tapestry intentionally? We need to be in alignment with our innate wisdom in order to fulfill our highest purpose and follow our deepest truth.

Most of daily life is about doing. We are busy doing chores, errands, working at jobs, and driving our cars. We are on schedules, and for most people those schedules do not include taking time for reflection, stillness or meditation. For our intentions to manifest into powerful transformation, we must tune in! Tuning in requires us to take time for ourselves to be still, to go inward and practice listening and being receptive.

The thoughts coming from our brains may want things like more money, a better relationship, and a fulfilling job, but these are only the objects of our desire, and not the essence or the energy that lifts us up out of despair, depression, and anxiety. We live in a society that makes demands on our energy. We have little experience with tuning into our intuition and our inner wisdom and guidance. We tend to resist our intuition and our inner knowing because it is so foreign to our way of life. We have learned to be goal oriented and competitive, so we tend to think, “I got this,” and we keep going. We can become so exhausted and disoriented from our happiness that we resort to hoping and wishing that our struggles will work out someday, so we continue to put up with them. The longer we avoid clearing the obstacles to our health and happiness, the more we prolong our suffering. What you resist-persists.

How do we re-wire our brains from a prolonged negativity bias that says, my life will never change, this runs in my family, or I can’t change because other people are depending on me? Patterns of survival can run in our families, our relationships, and the communities that we live in, attempting to protect us from our fears and suffering. But these patterns never get us what we truly desire and need in our lives. 

In order to create change in our lives we must change our perspective, which requires us to change our view. Taking time to go inward shifts our perspective from the external world, into the internal world of the higher Self. As we practice quieting our inner critic, we must be willing to let go of our burdens to create space for positive energy. Deep down, we all have innate goodness. If we have lost the thread to our higher Selves, then it is up to us to find it again.

Creating change in your life is about returning to balance in body, mind and spirit. To be healthy and happy, you must honor and respect your individual needs and desires. To know what those are, you must look beyond the thinking mind. We cannot think our way into being, but we can align with our inner wisdom and our heartfelt sense.

To be empowered to create and manage change in our lives requires that we consciously focus on clear intentions and actively REACH for what we want, and how we want it. The REACH is not about obtaining objects like, money, relationships or jobs. Rather, we REACH for the ways in which the tool of money could fulfill our health and happiness. We REACH for the relationship we desire and deserve, and we are grateful for our gifts and passions that can be shared with a partner and with the world.

When we REACH inward to connect and engage with the higher Self and our inner guidance, we are cultivating that relationship. The more we practice accessing our inner guidance and being receptive, the safer we feel and the more we can trust the information that we are receiving. In time, we build our capacity for this connection and develop a bond of love and acceptance. Our intentions for transformation become the pathways for co-creating with our spirits exactly what we want according to our highest good and the good of all concerned.

You can begin by taking some quiet time each day to reflect and be receptive to your inner guidance. Journal writing can help you to clarify your feelings and intentions for healing. The awareness practice of meditation and mindfulness is essential to developing your skills for quieting the mind, being receptive, and becoming aware of the present moment.

As you begin to ask yourself, “What is it that I wish to REACH for to create change in my life?” be willing to ask, “What is in my way and preventing me from having that change?” As we learn and practice letting go of old beliefs and patterns in the mind and body, we create space to weave in the colorful threads and beautiful patterns of life that we choose to embrace.

This process of intentionally weaving your life tapestry is how you create a meaningful life that is filled with clarity, fulfillment and purpose. Most people find that they need support to build their capacity to do this work on their own. It is important to work with an experienced and trained spiritual counselor, meditation teacher, spiritual life coach, or shamanic journey guide. You want your trained professional to support you to feel safe, to help you to find clarity, and to assist you in discovering your own empowerment. Supportive coaching is essential to work through any obstacles and old wounds so that you can generate the space to be able to heal on a deep level that will lead to your transformation. But keep in mind that no one can walk your journey for you. You must REACH for what you want and claim your gifts to create a meaningful and beautiful life tapestry and discover how to be free and empowered.