The Power of Setting Intentions

I have had a daily writing practice for many years. Like many of you, I'm sure, I filled many a diary as a child and young teen. As a young girl, I documented summer days of tree-climbing and frog-catching, playing hide and seek with the neighbors until the streetlights came on, indicating it was time to go home. As a teen, my writing captured heartbreaks and fashion trends, slights from girlfriends, a teacher's encouragement. To this day, I spend an hour every morning before sunrise writing. Now my pages fill with musings about my children and grandchildren, preparations for upcoming talks, podcasts, and workshops, and trying out topics for essays and opinion pieces.

Setting intentions is not the same as goal-setting

But something else important is happening here. Amidst all the charting and description, I am also setting an intention for the day. I am thinking about what I need to let go: what worries I am carrying that are really not worth the space I've been giving them. In doing so, I am making room for what is important and true and worth my time. I am not naming what needs to be done that day. I am writing about how I want to move through the world that day. I am not writing a "to do" list as much as I am creating a "to be" list.

Setting an intention is setting a tone

An intention is a guidepost, a plan, a reminder you give yourself of who you are and what kind of human being you will present to the world. Your intention may be one of kindness, of care and concern. It may be one of strength and courage. Or it may include creativity, innovation and curiosity. Your day will then proceed along these lines. If your intention involves kindness, your subconscious will look for ways to be helpful: slowing down to hold a door, smiling at the grocery clerk. If it involves strength and courage, you'll notice you are walking straighter, your shoulders set back, your head tall, your confidence following your stance which flowed from your intention. If your intention involved creativity, you will notice details today that escaped you yesterday. You will make connections between disparate objects or scenes or overheard conversations that may help you solve a problem or move a writing project forward.

Aligning our intentions with our values

The most effective intentions emanate from our deeply held beliefs, our core values. In setting an intention, you are projecting a worldview and making a commitment to yourself and those around you that you will live your best life today, be your best self, and bring your best values to your work as you go. As our day gets busy and pressures invariably creep in, our intentions act as a kind of North star, helping to remind us of what is important and true in our world.

When expectations become reality

The expectations we bring with us to a particular situation often shape the reality we perceive in that situation. If we prime ourselves for a certain outcome, we tend to see that version of reality, our senses predetermined to see and hear what we expect. Thus, intention-setting can be thought of as harnessing this very human capacity of positive thinking.

Creating your own daily intention

At the beginning of every yoga class at my gym, our instructor asks us to set an intention for the class. She is asking us to bring a mindset, an attitude to the class that will shape our practice into the most positive experience possible. We are doing something similar here in setting intentions for our day. In choosing a word or phrase that will form this intention, think of your values. Try to answer the question "What do I stand for?" How can I bring my best self to show up for my family and friends? What phrase can I hold in my heart that I can turn to if I'm faced with a challenge or experience a stressor in my day? What can I tell myself that will remind me of my core values, bring out my innate or show my colleagues or co-workers my best self?

Now choose your value, craft your intention, and let this powerful practice bring out the best in you as you share yourself with the world.