Setting Intentions
Setting soft intentions.
I like to see soft intentions as gentle pointers that can offer direction and pause throughout my day, week or month, whilst keeping me somewhat aligned with my current values.
Getting started is simple, here are a few questions to bring some of your wants and needs to the surface, answering each question with one or two words can help to name and articulate these wants and needs:
How do I want to feel this week?
What am I ready to let go of/to release?
What am I ready to welcome/embody?
At this point I think it’s important to point out that softness is key, try to avoid strict confinements, allowing yourself to explore the possibilities that these questions may open up.
My example:
How do I want to feel today? Ease + flow
What am I ready to let go of/to release? Tension + avoidance
What am I ready to Welcome/embody? Clearing + clarity
After answering these questions you can begin to answer the following question with a little more detail:
What can support me to feel this way today?
My example:
Free Journaling, Keeping my space tidy and calm, dancing
We can use this as a starting point to outline our intention and possible tools to help us continue to check in with it. So continuing with my example above i could proceed by writing:
My intention: maintain my physical space and support my mental space
Possible tools: taking 3 clearing breaths in the morning or meditating, making sure my studio is tidy before i sit down to work, free journaling for 10 minutes to let my thoughts + feelings flow, dancing in my bedroom, having a phone free day or no screens after work.
Each day is different so having a few go-to tools can offer multiple ways of support without struggling with rigid to-do lists and the shame that can come along with not ‘achieving’ goals. It’s okay if your ways of orienting to your intention change and look different each day. Setting the intention is simply a tool to notice, consider and allow gentle direction throughout the day, week or month. I feel like it’s important for me to also say that there is so much that is out of our control so this exercise is hopefully a way to acknowledge the agency we can have in our approach in the present.
i hope that you find this offering helpful and if you have any questions please drop me a message.