This is the script I loosely used for my Intentions Podcast which is now available to listen to here, Spotify and iTunes.
Wow, The world has changed so quickly, and we are all having to adapt to our new lifestyles in order to keep safe and protect other people too.
It’s a challenging time in so many ways, and I believe that this intention episode could help make the most out of the COVID-19 situation.
So what is an intention?
An intention is a conscious decision to choose to focus your attention on creating a goal that you intend to carry out. It’s something you mean to do. Your intentions can influence the way you think, act and
Just to clarify, what is an intention?
An intention is a conscious decision to choose to focus your attention on creating a goal that you intend to carry out. It’s something you mean to do. Your intentions can influence the way you think, feel, behave, and filter out what you experience in your own personal reality. We all really do see what we want to see.
If are you are caught up in the drama of a negative thought loop experience, your subconscious mind can help you ignore positives in favor of what is important to you, and if that is deemed the negative in life, then that is what it will show you.
Core Values
Your core values have a significant effect on what your intentions will be, and if you have not done one, it’s always a good idea to google a core values exercise and work out what is important to you.
Core values guide our behaviors, decisions, and actions in life. Finding out more about what makes you tick gives you a sense of awareness you can use to enhance your quality of life.
Examples of core values include:
Challenge
Integrity
Inspiring
Community
Kindness
Self-less
Motivated
So how would you use a core value with intentions? If the community is put there as a high core value, then adding an intention to get involved with your community and create actions from there would have a significant impact on how your day will go for you.
With the COVID-19 situation, Intentions are incredibly powerful, and I am using them to give myself a challenge. I am going to tap into the power of the mind and focus on training my brain so that I actually increase my mental and physical fitness each day and emerge from this even stronger than I have ever been.
This feels exciting to me, and I can tell my subconscious is on board with this, by the way, it’s directing my attention to explore and practice new content and exercises it brings my way.
I am not going to let COVID-19 reduce my quality of life, I know it’s changed, but I am going to increase my quality of life proactively by taking advantage wherever I can to help myself and others do the same as we are all connected. Please check out my Instagram @the.life.doctor and on Facebook at the life doctor. Find me and join in if you have not already.
Choice
We have a choice, do we just react to the COVID-19 situation and go onto auto-pilot and get risk getting sucked into negative thought, feelings, and behavior patterns which put immense strain on our immune and nervous systems risking anxiety and depression?
Or do we wake the fuck up and choose to say NOPE consciously. I refuse to be drawn into any out of context negative crap and with conscious intentions, decide to move my attention to something more essential and helpful instead.
This is the power of intention, this is the power of being present with your attention, and you cannot imagine what changes that could bring to your life right now.
But if you consciously choose to experiment with this with a little curiosity, then you should get to see the benefits gaining momentum from the effort you put in.
Be a victim and reactive to life or choose to take back control and be proactive; instead, the choice is yours.
You have an incredibly powerful mind, itching to be exercised, and show you what it’s capable of.
Without any training, it’s like having the most powerful computer in the world and only using the basic email and surfing the web programs. It’s a bit of waste when you have so much potential waiting to be tapped into and wanting to be used.
Spooky!
The one thing that I love about intentions is how spooky the world can suddenly start to be. Suddenly weird coincidences begin to show up everywhere, guiding you to notice and bring into your world opportunities, possibilities, and potential you would not have noticed without setting some intentions for the day.
There is so much information your subconscious mind has to filter, and your intentions create a filter so it can notice in life what you may have missed before.
Some people call that the Law of Attractions, which says that what you think sends out vibrations into the universe bringing back to you the results of your thinking.
I believe that’s a disempowering belief as it hands your power to an unseen force that gives you something based on your thinking. I have seen many a Law of Attraction follower become very anxious about having healthy negative thoughts as they believe bad things will follow.
I do believe that your subconscious wants direction to bring your attention to whatever your intentions if it doesn’t get it then it falls back on your old past intentions and programming for you to drift through your day.
The results from that will be pot luck, and with life being so precious, so why would you take the risk?
We really do need direction, otherwise, it’s like being boat setting off for a journey without any rudder.
That reminds me of a life-changing quote I remember hearing by as a teenager by John Shedd, and that was “ A Ships in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships were built for.”
That stuck with me and gave me the shivers as there was no way I wanted to be a ship stuck in a harbor. Life’s too short for that, and it was one of a few phrases that woke me up out of autopilot to motivate me to make healthier conscious choices and using intentions to make that happen.
Another excellent benefit from setting an intention is how good they can feel due to boosting your neurochemistry from just thinking about them, especially by adding the perception of this being your new challenge for life. One that only by thinking it makes you feel more alive!
Serotonin, oxytocin, and dopamine begin to kick in, and as they are part of your reward systems, your lovely brain will go search for more experiences and create more intentions just because it feels that good!
This is brilliant, and it can help move that satellite dish in your brain to move from searching out the negative signals in life to the positive ones.
Intentions Exercise
So, how do we set some intentions for your day?
You may be clear from your values how you would like to increase the chances of your day turning out for you.
If not, then I find this little exercise tends to help.
If you can, with your eyes open or closed, let your mind wander in time to the end of the day.
Imagine that you are lying in bed feeling relaxed, happy content, and incredibly grateful for experiencing a day, which was awesome and has exceeded all of your expectations. Yes it may seem a little bit fantasy, but it’s about the ideas of what you want to happen that are important and what steps could take you closer to reaching the life you truly want to live.
What happened in your day to feel so happy about?
What would you feel very grateful for having experienced?
What activities really made you feel alive?
What mindset and attitude are you grateful for being there today?
From your answers, you can now begin to get an idea of what your intentions might be and what they could do for your day.
Now think about times in your past where you were at your most determined, focused, and resourceful. There was something you wanted to make happen, and no matter what got in your way, you overcame it and made sure you got the result you wanted.
Let your mind drift into your past to dig deep and bring to the surface memories to remind you of what you are truly capable of doing when you really want to.
Now apply that mindset and energy to increase the chances of your intentions happening for you.
Add the perception of this being your new challenge to add powerful and positive neurochemistry into the mix, so your reward system instructs your subconscious on a deeper level to make this happen.
Now bring yourself back. This does get easier and quicker the more you do it. Make this your new habit. Start the day with intentions, determination, and challenge to make this work the right way for you.
Intention Examples
Here is an example of my intentions just to give you an idea of how this can work. This is an extended version of what I usually do so you can take any parts that feel right for you and leave the rest. I can set these intentions very quickly as they become an automated process.
Taking myself to the end of the day along a little timeline and imagining myself feeling very relaxed, happy content, and grateful for having a day that exceeded expectations.
Here are some intention examples my clients and I tell the subconscious to get on board with and put into action.
I love feeling inspired, challenged, and being motivated. The energy from that alone as my neurochemistry kicks in gives me such focus, clarity, drive, and makes me feel very much alive. This is what I think about, and as I stretch in the mornings, say out loud for maximum impact.
Today I am and want to feel motivated, motivating, inspired, inspiring, creative, productive, and make that happen.
I want and love some challenges to help me grow and flourish.
I am adaptable and resourceful, no matter what COVID-19 brings. I will get through this.
I am going to increase my mental and physical fitness during lockdown.
I am going to be more compassionate and kind to myself and others.
I am going to be playful, curious, and fun today.
I am going to relax, recharge, and refresh myself today with more self-care.
I am going to feel calm, focused, energized and have clarity and do what I can to make that happen.
I love feeling healthily connected to myself and the people I meet and contact today. For me, connection is everything!
Energy is my top intention as, without it, not much will happen, and life feels unnecessarily more laborious. I am not going to waste my energy today.
What I eat, drink, do for my health, how I recharge, and choose to spend my precious mental focus on will determine what energy I have for my day. I refuse to waste it on future fantasy predictions of doom and gloom, which can just drain me and have no use at all.
Action!
Whatever intention you use, you may have a sense of what proactive action you can take to increase the chances of making that happen. Use your determination and challenge perception to increase the chances of making this happen with neurochemistry reward boosts.
You can’t put a price on setting intentions; those in the know do it to increase their quality of life. You only have to study the happiest and most successful people to see how much they live life from setting intentions from their personal values.
Now it’s your turn too.
