A Recipe for Realizing your New Year’s Intentions
Happy New Year everyone!
Well we’ve had three amazingly beautiful days here in Seattle to start our year off with. I’m not superstitious but it sure does feels like a good start for 2011. I had the good fortune of spending New Years Day at the studio facilitating a New Years day workshop and was grateful for the opportunity to bring together the things I love to do when setting my own intentions which are: Visioning, Vinyasa, Inquiry and Creative exercises.
Here is my recipe for realizing your Intentions for the coming year:
1. Envision what your intentions are: Connect with the “higher” energy of your intentions. For Example; if you desire to start your own business this year try and tune into all of the energies behind the desire. They might be things like; self-sustaining, joy, energy, fearlessness, creative freedom, passion, curiosity, connection, empowered presence, etc. Allow yourself to be flooded with the energies behind the intentions and identify them clearly. When we attempt to manifest our intentions and we run into road blocks coming back to these energies is essential to our ability to keep moving forward. These energies are gut/heart knowing NOT brain thinking, analyzing exercises.
“Visioning is purposeful daydreaming applied to everyday life. It is about thinking with your heart and allowing your true wishes to become reality. A visionary’s language is energy, images and words from the heart. Deep within the heart we find the creative self. This creative self is home to the practical visionary within, our unlimited potential, our spiritual DNA, or life’s purpose.” Lucia Capacchione
2. Identify your Shadow and what you need to let go of: Often right in the moment of envisioning an awesome intention our minds will start spinning out into the “cant’s, shouldn’ts, not possible this year, how could I imagine achieving that…..etc, etc. This can be understood as our shadow or hindrances in the mind; like doubt, fear, shyness, not good enough, etc. For example you might find yourself getting distracted a lot from the pursuit of your intentions and the shadow energy behind this might be “fear of failure” which is sucking the energy out of the pursuit of a certain intention. Having an awareness of this allows us to unplug from the grip that our shadow energies hold over us and then allows to stay tuned to the wholesome energies behind our intentions. Our analytical minds can have a shrinking quality and lack the expansive quality of our hearts.
“ Is there something you are still hanging onto? A remnant from the past that’s blocking you from stepping into the future? From stepping into today? – Look into your heart. The answer is there. Perhaps it’s a behavior, a person, a belief. Is there an issue from the past that’s blocking your ability to love yourself, to connect with God, life, others? Ask yourself if there’s something you’re hanging on to that has outgrown its purpose. Old chains can tie us to the past, to past pain, to a path we’ve already trodden, a place we’ve already been. Now is the time to let it go. Gently, quietly, let go. Where you’ve been has been important. It has helped shape who you are. But have faith that where you’re going is important and wonderful, too. Gently let go. Be free to step into your future of joy.” Melodie Beattie
3. Take Action: This is the “nuts and bolts” of what you envisioned. The step by step list of how you are going to achieve what you have envisioned. This is the means of linking your “higher Vision” to concrete reality. Without getting concrete our higher vision and dreams tend to float around on an ethereal plain, but never really take shape. Make a list and make it real.
“Put your dreams and visions into your actions.----- Every act can be made strong and efficient by holding your vision while you are doing it, and putting the whole power of your faith and purpose into it. This is called the point of power…….where thoughts and actions meet.
We are thinking and acting creatures and we must bring our dreams into our actions. So when you go out, don’t leave your visions at home. Bring your thoughts, your dreams, your vision….of what you really want with you and think about these as you are taking action in your present environment.” Unknown
4. Have Gratitude: Feeling a sense of gratitude for that which we have envisioned, both high vision and specific tasks, brings a truthfulness to knowing that we really desire something in our lives, we are ready for it and that we trust that it will come into our lives. When we feel gratitude for something before it is realized we “self test” if it is truly real for us and whether it comes from our hearts.
“Gratitude and thankfulness are the ultimate states of being for the creation of anything in your life. All masters throughout history had the ability to be thankful in advance, for that which they chose to create. They already knew that their desires were being created, even before they physically witnessed these creations in their lives. They took it for granted that the desire they chose to manifest was going to manifest. So the only thing left was to be grateful for the blessing that was to come.
Why is being grateful so important? Because gratefulness is a state of mind which implies that you already have what you desire and if your mind accepts that you already have what you desire, that energy is released into the universe and immediately works to create or attract that desire in your life. Gratefulness is a state of mind, and states of mind are powerful energy releasers, and thus, powerful creators.
When you are grateful for something before you see it in your life, you are forming a concrete image of your desire already being fulfilled, which in turn, sends out energy necessary for its creation and this is why all the great masters were grateful in advance for those things they chose to create.” Buddhist Monk
5. Create a Vision Board: One of the most powerful means of sustaining your focus on your intentions is to bring this all together into a vision board. Creating concrete visual images that you can hold in your minds-eye while move throughout your day can be a very powerful tool.
Blessings for an awesome year! Scott