Setting Soulful Intentions
“At the centre of your being, you have the answer. You know who you are, and you know what you want.” Lao Tzu
INTENTIONS
For some, September seems like an odd time to be talking about intentions but, in my view, intentions are important regardless of the time of year. you can set intentions yearly, monthly, with the new moon, revisit them on your birthday, or jump on the bandwagon of September being the new ‘New Years’. And, when they are deep-seated, soul-based intentions, the path to getting there may evolve, but the underlying intention is the fabric of our journey here on this earth.
How are intentions different from goals?
I think it’s important to start by differentiating intentions from goals and goals are what most of us are familiar with. Putting my business hat on for just a moment, goals should be specific, measurable, attainable (but a little bit of a stretch), realistic, and time-oriented. I feel that with goals, they are black or white, success or failure and the centre around starting something or stopping something, they are action-oriented. Yes, goals are very important to one day embodying the intentions we set for ourselves, but they are a tool, a step on the journey. Goals, in effect, project our intentions into the physical reality, they help our intentions take shape.
So, what are intentions?
Intentions, on the other hand, go deep. They embody emotions and bring us back into alignment with our truest self, it is a representation of wholeness. They focus less on the material and external world and operate more as a guiding light in our journey on this planet. They are heart and soul-oriented and bring us closer to our truest desires. This can be tough for some as we might not be familiar going deep enough to get to what it is that we desire most, the purpose that courses through our veins. Intentions also involve evolution. For example, one of my intentions is to be a soul-based and successful entrepreneur. What that looked like 10 years ago looks very different than what my picture of that is today.
When we live with intention, aligning our actions to that which that makes our heart skip a beat, we are living our purpose, we are also living ON purpose.
Why your intentions must come from your soul?
Getting to the essence of our soul intentions means connecting to what truly matters to us. it is stepping outside of what we thought we knew, or even what we were conditioned to know. We are told from a very early age the things we SHOULD want, the life we SHOULD go after. And many of us do just that. Notice though, on this path there is an element of unfulfillment. You hear stories of people achieving the height of what they wanted and asking themselves..”IS THIS IT?”. When it comes to your soul’s intentions, I’m going to challenge you to think beyond SHOULDs, beyond material and egotistical THINGS I’m going to encourage you to think beyond conventional ways of being…yup, we are tapping into infinite potential here people.
When we align our intentions with our highest self, who we are at the soul level, they matter, they become our life’s trajectory and we embody our deeper purpose.
With all that in mind, ponder this:
◬ What do you REALLY want?
◬ What do FREEDOM and FLOW look like to you?
◬ What aligns so deeply with your soul that it almost scares you?
What if I just don’t know?
If you are drawing a blank at this point, take a breath. You aren’t one of the few that have no soul-based intentions. Trust me. It is in there. It may be dormant, it might take work to get there, but it is buried deep in your heart. To dig them out, takes action, it takes trial and error, it takes connecting to ourselves, tuning into the whispers, asking for direction, and MOST importantly, it takes digging through our stuff and reflecting on the inner self…you know the beliefs, knowings, experiences, blocks that keep us stuck. As we move through this and grow, we clear the map to the kinds of actions and achievements that will bring us joy and come from a place of love. After all, joy and love are the basis of our intentions.
Your intentions will be so alive with your passion that, once you know them, you will NEVER forget there. There will be no doubts, you will EMBODY a knowing.
So how do we get there? How do we start setting soul-based intentions?
I like to walk people through a 6-Step process. Our brains like steps, it likes it when there seems to be a clear path. The thing is, this thing called life is anything but linear. As you peel back new layers of being, what your intentions look like may evolve or you may add new ones. These steps are designed to help you on your journey.
MY 6-STEP PROCESS
◬ PAUSE // I firmly believe that to set soul-based intentions, you have to come from a heart centred and connected place. And the fast-track to getting there is to take a CONSCIOUS BREATH.
Try one of these meditations if you need a little help getting there:
◬ INTENT // Once you are in a soul-centred space, you can set your intentions. Here are a few questions that might help you get started.
What are your deepest desires? Something you want so deeply, and may not have even admitted to anyone else…or yourself.
What fills you with a true sense of purpose?
What do you want to build, create, or see take shape in your life…beyond limits that you currently know
◬ EVOKE // This is where you turn your intentions into action and where goals come into play. What are some short-term goals you can set around your intentions? What are the daily actions you can take?
◬ UNBLOCK // There will inevitably come a time on your journey where you get stuck. Usually, the blocks are an indicator of something that is going on deeper. Something like a trauma, belief, or experience that is deeply rooted in our being that we must identify and move through. I believe all inner work starts with awareness. Noticing where you get stuck, how it shows up in your life and having the courage to get curious and ask deeper questions around it.
◬ GUIDED // This is where we lean into our inner support system. We ask for guidance and learn to listen for the answers, pick up on the queues and to be a try co-creator.
◬ SURRENDER // I much prefer the word SOFTENING. This is where we loosen our grip on what we think we want and allow what we really want to take shape. We stop forcing, controlling and grasping out of fear of losing our intentions. We allow flow. This is probably the toughest step. It is where we let go of what we think we want and allow something even more beautiful and divine to take shape. We let go of the HOW and stay focused on the WHAT and WHY and trust that how will present itself.
So there you have it, soul-based intentions. If this is something you are interested in digging further into, check out my SOUL INTENTIONS DIGITAL WORKSHOP that guides you in a more in-depth way through each of these steps.
