Day 27 and 28: Intention

The power of intention is incredible.

I like to think of intention as setting the energy of an action. Intentions can be as small and as focused as eating slowly during a meal, bending the front leg to 90 degrees in Virabrudrasana II, or speaking to a friend with compassion and patience. Intentions can also be large, like when we decide to live our lives centered around love or try to see ourselves as infinite beings, dwelling in the light, encompassed by spiritual powers.

Gates says, "Either we believe in our innate goodness and beauty or we do not; it is up to each of us to decide. We may spend our entire lives believing a lie about our true nature, or we may put our trust in our own grace. Either way, most of us have to choose what we believe about ourselves each day, each hour, each moment of our lives."

I believe, as Gates says, in the true grace of my spirit and my being. But I didn't always. It can be hard to see yourself as the epitomy of spiritual grace because in many circumstances, we weren't hard-wired to think that way. We have to decide to change our thoughts and then adjust our intentions accordingly. Intentions are the way that we set our thoughts, the same thoughts that influence our actions. Intentions can also help us to manifest our dreams, overcome difficult hurdles and survive an otherwise rocky situation with grace.

I love my new job (in case I haven't told you, I'm coordinating the completion of an Artists Colony and retreat center at Sacred Rocks Reserve - check out the website at www.SacredRocksReserve.com). I want my project to succeed, and so, believing in the importance of the project, have set my intentions for success. Yesterday, I a meeting in order to find funding. I set my intentions (and the energy in my aura and anything else that might help) and met this woman with grace. At the end of the meeting, I had an additional appointment to meet at the home of a foundation director.

People blame good interactions on coincidence all the time. I don't believe in coincidence. I believe in the power of good intentions and the law of attraction - if you hold good intentions and show those intentions through your actions, you will attract others who use their intentions for good also. And I don't believe it just because I want to believe it - I see it work in my life all the time.

Recently, I've made the decision that I am ready for my spine and hips to open up. Thus, I've set the intention in my yoga practice to work on opening my spine and hips safely. Before, I hadn't decided that I wanted to move into backbends and hip openers, so I tended to avoid backbends, not sure if my body was ready for them. Today, with my new intention set, I was able to happily complete more backbends than I've done since I was a gymnast at age 14.

Intention, intention, intention. Play with your intentions and see what comes. If nothing else, they may enable you to find more joy when things otherwise would have seemed tough.