Setting an intention every day when I wake up starts my morning from such a positive place, I swear the coffee tastes better. Even though I wake up with the intention to set my intention sometimes I fall flat. The intention to set an intention? Ha! It’s easy to forget our intentions and leap into life when anxious dogs need to be let out, we miss our alarm or we wake with a kink in our neck.
So, with painstaking habitual practice, no matter what is going on, I set my daily intention. Even if it is a rushed intention and just a simple “be kind,” I say something and send it out into the universe.
Send anything into the universe and you will get it back. So why not send out something positive? Something you can write down and refer back to all day long? Today, my intention was “Renew your thoughts.” Meaning, change my thoughts when something negative or controversial pops into my consciousness. It was a rough day. Everyone woke up late, the dog got sick on the carpet and my daughter’s favorite blouse was (still) in the laundry pile. This was all before 8:00 am. Renew, renew….
I spent 35 minutes and four seconds on the phone with Comcast trying to fix an email issue when they told me it must be my Mac and thankyousomuchforusingComcastcanIinterestyouinanymoreservices? Breathe in, breath out. I hung up the phone, irritated, and then remembered my intention. Renew your thoughts. OK. But, I DON’T WANNA RENEW ANYTHING. Breathe. Renew your thoughts. This sales rep on the phone is not responsible for my Mac issues, the email is broken but WILL get fixed, it’s an inconvenience – is this really a big enough deal to bring down my mood and my day? Answer? No. Move along.
I started making dinner in the slow cooker, so darn proud of myself to get things done early and be able to feed my family a healthy dinner despite the crazy schedules of that day and my desire to pick up Jimmy Johns. Again. And where is the chicken? Where is the chicken? Is it in the freezer? It must be in the other fridge. Where is the chicken? It’s not in my house that’s for sure. Now I need to head out to the grocery store, again. Now, I will be late for an appointment and definitely be late to get my son from school. Maybe we should eat Chipotle tonight, instead of Jimmy Johns.
Renew your thoughts. Ok, this happens. Maybe the chicken is still at the Jewel, never making it to your cart and an easy grab. Sure this is annoying, but maybe you can still salvage it, reschedule the ortho appointment. Relax, dinner will be served, and my son’s teeth will be just fine.
Life can be annoying. I’m not saying that an intention makes irritations go away. I’m saying intentions, when set and re-visited, can help keep your day in perspective and keep the tedium of life as just that – tedious. Not allowing the tedium to rob you of your daily joy, or your exercise, or your slow cooker.
Maybe your intention is to simply be more kind – you will see ways throughout the day where you can brighten someones day. How about the intention to be more healthy? Maybe you won’t eat the brownies you already hid in the back of the pantry. How about the intention to only say nice things. GAH. Can you imagine how quiet we might all be?
Intentions help us take pause and be more aware of our thoughts and actions. This awareness is what brings us back from who we may not want to be and back to who we really are. For me, it’s a game changer. Give it a try – make it simple. See what setting an intention can do for you and let me know how it goes.
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