A few weeks ago someone did something that I found to be a little unsettling. I remember thinking, why are you doing this? What are your intentions? Who is this for? Perhaps, this individual didn’t have bad intentions but at the same token, I have always believed that we are all motivated by something, whether it’s good or bad, jealousy, envy, greed, spite or insecurity. Sometimes our intentions in life are apparent and other times we don’t understand them at all unless we dig deeper. I started thinking about the whole concept of living with intention. What does this even mean? How can we work this concept into our everyday living?
When I think of living with intention, I think of mindfulness. I remember learning about this while I was in university studying Buddhism. To live mindfully requires being present. While you are right here reading this, if you are doing so mindfully, your focus will only be here and not elsewhere. When we are mindful we are active in our bodies and aware. We are not thinking about what happened last week or what someone did to us two years ago or what something we hope will happen in the future will look like. Mindful living requires us to be in the here and now. With that, we let go of the past and only hold on to lessons. We surrender to the future because she hasn’t arrived yet. We sit gratuitously in the present moment and let it show us what must be revealed.
When we live with intentions we think before we act. We ask ourselves the purpose of what we are doing and what the end goal is. I know no one is perfect and sometimes we do things without thinking and this is what makes us human. It’s easy to get caught up in the details of life that don’t matter. Sometimes these minute things cloud our judgment and ability to think clearly or make good decisions. In addition, sometimes our thoughts can prevent us from living mindfully and as a result, it becomes impossible to distinguish between good and bad intentions. What are your intentions? What would you like to get out of this? Why are you here? What’s the purpose? Who does this serve? Why are we talking about this?
I think the first step starts with being honest with yourself. Understanding that sometimes you don’t have the best intentions or your intentions are coming from an insecure or selfish space within you. You’re not perfect. Sometimes you will do things or say things that energetically do nothing for those on the receiving end. It’s important to understand your role and accept that maybe you didn’t have the best of intentions when you did what you did or said what you said. From here you can then start asking yourself questions. Dig a little deeper and try to understand the why’s and recognize that only you control the things that you do even if you can’t predict the outcome. With action there is responsibility and this is why intentions are very important. This is why it’s important to be mindful of your motivations and how these will impact you and those around you.
I know it seems like an impossible task. Who wants to spend every second of the day asking themselves what are my intentions? When you start living mindfully and purposefully. Where you aren’t driven by the parts of you that are only there to bring you down, jealousy, envy, self-doubt, blame, and hate, it will become second nature. If you want to live with good intentions, you must start with yourself. Yes, I understand that sometimes good intentions can be misunderstood or the timing of reception could be wrong. I do believe that if you have the best of intentions for yourself then you will make decisions that will help you achieve this goal. When this becomes an everyday task, something needed for you to live your best life, then it will be second nature and extending this goodwill to others will be effortless; you are already living it.
You will begin to discern what’s beneficial to the progress and growth of yourself and those around you. You will stop yourself before you say or do certain things knowing that your intention must be met with the potential outcome. Is the potential outcome growth and love? Or is it regressive and not progressive? Will I leave this room or conversation with other person feeling warmth or will it leave them heavy or disappointed? Sometimes tough conversations, where good intentions are present, are hard to digest. Sometimes it’s a matter of timing or where the person or individuals on the receiving end are currently at in life. This is something that will always be hard to navigate. What you will learn, as you strive to live with good intentions, is that you realize somethings should be left behind, somethings just aren’t worth mentioning or talking about because it serves no purpose at all. It doesn’t contribute to a positive vibration. It doesn’t create an energetic wavelength that expands and in turn, creates something good.
We all talk about finding our purpose and living with purpose. This is intention driven. What do you intend to do to make this happen? What are you doing that prevents this from happening? Your whole life is a series of events built on intention whether knowingly or unknowingly with outcomes you cannot predict. What you can do is wake up each day with the intention to live your best life, to be the best version of yourself and make decisions that will help you achieve this. When you wake up each day ask yourself, what are my intentions for today?
