The Power of Intention.

In my last essay This is a Priority, I shared some reflections on the importance of attention when cultivating the full expression of our nature.

Today, I’d like to turn that attention toward intention, one of the main forces that shape our attention. 

One of the biggest shifts in my personal journey was moving from someone creating external success, but internal misery… someone living inside loops designed to revalidate my ego…

toward someone more connected to my heart.

To what I care about.

To someone that feels like a real person, connected to my own nature.

A huge part of that shift was realising the power and importance of conscious intention.

To move with intention is to understand why you are acting.

It is to mindfully cultivate your experience with an awareness of what is driving and motivating you.

To intend is to create the very boundarie through which experience comes to life.

The sowing of a seed.

When we set an intention, we sow a seed.

And the fruits of that seed will be the materialisation of the truth of that intention.

When we set our intention, we initiate a relationship with the processes of nature, including the natural intelligence of our own body, which then becomes orientated toward bringing that intention to fruition.

Through this intention, we create the context, the container in which our thoughts, actions and perceptions can all align in the direction of that intention’s fulfilment.

Breaking out of patterns and self-deception.

We are often living through our conditioning.

Reacting to our environment.

Living habitually.

When we bring awareness and will to our intention, we give ourselves the opportunity to break out of this conditioning and reactivity, and to operate from a place that more truly reflects who we are at a deeper level.

When you become committed to asking yourself:

Why am I doing this?

What am I intending?

…you are called to face yourself more honestly.

What often happens in this process is that we begin to see just how often aspects of the mind attempt to deceive us.

Questioning my intentions was fundamental to breaking the spell social media had over me.

I would pull my phone out at the first opportunity and begin mindlessly scrolling.

When I trained myself to ask:

What is my intention for looking at my phone?

more often than not, the answer wasn’t one that truly warranted engaging with the screen.

So I would put it away.

The magic.

When I discovered the power of intention, I began experimenting with it to see how it operated.

What I learned really surprised me.

I found that I could set an intention…

…and then completely surrender into trusting the unfolding.

The more I let nature take its course and let go of control after the intention was set, the more harmoniously, effortlessly, and often surprisingly that intention would unfold.

I would try it before entering a difficult conversation:

I intend to find a place of peace and understanding together.

I even experimented with this when delivering seminars on stage in front of hundreds of people.

Usually before a big talk, I would meticulously prepare my slides and structure.

Then I experimented stepping into the unknown with just an intention.

It was scary.

But it was wild how it would come together.

One time it was:

I intend to inspire the audience with an understanding of the archetypal truths in our stories.

Then I stepped on stage, got out of the way…

and it felt like a vaster intelligence was moving through me.

I used to drink coffee, but it didn’t really serve me.

Now I drink cacao.

And before every cup, I ask myself:

What is my intention for drinking this?

Today it was:

To support my intention of writing an essay that helps people understand the power of intention.

All of what I write begin this way.

I sit down with an intention…

…and then get out of the way and trust what comes through.

Once we have become the intentional masters of our attention,

The next question becomes:

How am I framing what I am attending to?

I will explore this with you in my next article:

You’ve Been Framed

Peace and love,

Alex