“When you have clarity of intention, the universe conspires with you to make it happen.” – Fabienne Fredrickson

It happens all the time, we forget the things that are most important. Von Franz said her analysands would have a huge breakthrough only to turn around and forget all about it. It was like it never happened at all. That’s how fast we can forget the things that are really important. Just like anything new we’re trying to learn, we have to put our attention on it again and again until it sticks. Recently I was on a meditation retreat when my dear friend reminded me of something I had completely forgotten about. Setting the intention.

Setting the intention is a way to remind our self about what’s really important to us, it helps set the tone of our day and turns our awareness to the things we are striving to understand and incorporate into our daily life. It’s not so much about what we will do, but about how we choose to approach what we do in our day. It’s about consciously deciding how we are going to live. Setting the intention means we’re not just on auto-pilot. We’re digging deeper to allow more of life’s mysteries to come into our lives. It’s more about what the heart and soul want in our daily living; more connection, more understanding, more awareness. Setting the intention helps us steer ourselves in the direction our heart and soul want to go. We remind ourselves by placing our awareness on what our intentions are.

This is not a to-do list, like today I have to bake cookies for my kids class, or I need to wash the dog. It’s more like, I want to be more joyful, no matter what may happen. Or maybe a little of, I’m going to be open to something new, be more compassionate with others’ faults, or be kinder to myself in every situation. It’s checking in with our mental, emotional, and spiritual desires and then following through on what we find there. It’s the kind of intention that sets our internal compass to new lands, that makes the life we lead tinged with mystery and holiness. It brings us closer to the deeper meaning of reality. All of this comes when we are more clearly and consistently focused on what we really need for ourselves to feel more whole and connected.

Setting our intention can extend the borders for the depth of the days experience. It opens us up to more of life. It connects the dots and points us to the real life that silently lives beneath the noise and chaos of our external life. Setting the intention brings these two lives we live into more alignment with one another, an overlay of the inner life with the outer. We begin to tune ourselves to the subtleties we tend to gloss over in the chaos of living. And this generates more excitement in our daily living. Just like on Christmas morning when we were kids and everything magical was right in front of us, waiting to be unwrapped. That’s what it’s like getting up in the morning and setting the intention for the day. Every day brings a different surprise, a different challenge. We begin to live our days with more awareness of what could be, of what we could be, of what’s actually possible. And the thing is, it’s all possible. Setting the intention reminds us of that.

Here’s to aligning ourselves with our expanded potentials and possibilities and infusing our daily living with more of life’s mystery.

kb