Apr 23, 2024
“When your determination changes, everything willbegin to move in the direction you desire. The moment youresolve to be victorious, every nerve and fiber in your being willimmediately orient itself toward your success. On the otherhand if you think “this will never work out,” then at that instantevery cell in your being will be deflated and give up the fight.Everything then will move in the direction of failure. I wantyou to understand the subtle workings of the mind. How youorient your mind, the kind of attitude you have, greatly influencesboth yourself and your environment.”
This quote is from Daisaku Ikeda, former president ofSoka Gakkai International, the largest and most diverse layorganization of Buddhist practitioners in the world. And it hasbeen on or by my desk for at least 10 years. And I’m pretty surethat I first scribbled it down over 20 years ago when I first movedto Seattle, Washington in 2005. Now after 13 years ofstudying esoterics and metaphysics it still rings true it just hasso many additional levels of meaning and truth.
Forbes Magazine recently stated that - “intention is acritical factor in achieving success…It provides a purposeful andstrategic approach to navigating life's complexities and a guidingforce propelling you toward a future of purpose, genuineness andsuccess.” the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy shares thatIntention is “mental directedness towards objects, as if the mindwere construed as a mental bow whose arrows could be properly aimedat different targets.”
The key here that unlocks the Power of Intention isthe alignment and purposeful direction of your thoughts and actionstoward a desire that you really want to achieve in your life. Aprerequisite then for this alignment is you must know for yourselfwhat you desire. What do you really want for your life? Wheredo your passions lie? What gives you a sense of true fulfillment?If you do not know what you want and desire in the heart of yourhearts then it is really going to be hard to align your thoughtsand actions to make that desire happen. And you never unlock thetrue power of intention.
The definition of intentional according to Webster'sdictionary is “Done on purpose; deliberate.” Synonyms include“Conscious, Willed and Purposeful.”
In my esoteric and Kabbalistic training we are taughtthat the Magickian or Alchemist uses their imagination to clearlyidentify and describe their specific desire, and then they must settheir intention, concentration and will upon the appropriateobject. None of this saying "Walk around your life like azombie doing whatever everyone else says you should do.” Infact, it is specifically the opposite. Intention is “thinkingahead and making choices based on personal beliefs, values, andgoals.” Not acting on impulse, but planning ahead to choosethings that create a positive impact for your life and the thingsyou value.
Okay, okay, Angel, you might be saying. Great,be more positive. Be more intentional. Those are greatbuzzwords but how do I do that? But that's just it. I’m nottelling you to BE MORE positive, or BE MORE Intentional. Thatwould be me “shoulding” on you. Instead I’m giving you anequation that if you choose to follow it for yourself - yourthoughts and actions will be the cause that results in the effectof an intentional life. And that intentional life of thinkingand doing on purpose with purpose will result in you achieving moreof what you actually want, desire and desire, which will result inyou feeling more fulfillment and joy and gratitude for what youhave and have been able to accomplish. Which will fuel moregratitude, and more ability to to be intentional. It is apositive cycle of cause and effect which will in turn result in youbecoming positive and living a more joyful life. No shouldingneeded. Because you will be doing it. And that is the mostimportant thing.
So let’s review the equation that allows you to unlockthe Power of Intentional creation in your life.
Step one and the foundational piece is that you needto get clear on what it is you want and desire in your life.What do you really want for you? All studies and literature on thispoint to you identifying for you what brings you joy and passion.(not simply what brings you momentary pleasure) But what are yourvalues, what gives you a sense of fulfillment? What feelspurposeful?
Now if you are at this step (step one) and alreadystuck, don’t worry. Start small. Identify a very short termclear achievable thing you would like in your life that youpersonally would feel good about if you accomplished. Thiscan be very selfish (or may feel selfish and that is ok, we have tostart somewhere). So this could be taking a weekend trip to a placeyou want to see. Or paying off a credit card. Balancing yourbudget. Cleaning your garage. Going to the gym two or three times aweek.
If you allow yourself to hear what you want to do foryourself the answer is there. Feel out your desires, yourintuition and higher self are telling you every day what youactually want. Another technique to get there is to attend ameditation or listen to a meditation app. This act ofmeditating is going to create space in your monkey mind as in it'sgoing to quiet the noise so you can actually hear what your higherself is saying. But meditation aside - just ask yourself whatdo I actually want? And be honest with yourself. Stopdenying your inner voice and desire. Listen. You knowthe answer.
You must get past step one in order to harness thepower of intention. You have to have an appropriate andspecific objective to focus on. A place to point your mentalbow and arrow. And you really have to actually want it orelse you will not be able to focus on it or determine to create itor achieve it without desire.
Once you have step one. The thing you desire toachieve then you can begin step two, which is the alignment of yourthoughts toward the achievement of the objective. If you goback to season one episode two or three I speak to this. The4 worlds. 1. Idea 2. Thought 3. plan 4. Action.This is always the path to intentional creation. In this caseIdea = Your desired objective (identifying what you want,specifically). Thought = alignment of your thoughts. “I amgoing to create this and I am committed to taking steps to doit. I am determined and won’t give up.” Then 3.Plan! Yes, what are the microsteps and daily intentions youare going to take until you reach what it is you desire? Whatis your daily routine going to be? How are you going toprioritize your time and perhaps even block your time to ensure youhave the time to do the things necessary. Then finally Action= which equals action is alignment with your thoughts and doing thethings you have planned to do such that it results in the thing youdesire.
So, this is your equation to harness the power ofintention. Alignment and purposeful direction of yourthoughts and actions toward a specific desired objective.
Now, intentionality is a practice like any otherskill. It will take practice before it is second nature and then itis never going to be autonomous programming/ habitual because it isspecifically the opposite of automatic/withoutthought/habit/subconscious doing. Because you arespecifically choosing to be intentional and choosing a disciplinedset of daily rituals to move your life in a positive direction andaccomplish not only goals but personal development andprogression.
So, it is going to take the specific application ofdaily consistent effort, but it will be effort that brings you joyand satisfaction and stress reduction versus jogging on the hamsterwheel of purposeless action.
So, let me tell you about the power of intention. Onceupon a time I was a very unhappy lawyer working in the corporaterealm. I believed in nothing woo woo like energy healing andI even thought things like power of intention or positive thinkingwere a pile of huey. I read the quote from Daisaku Ikeda (I waspracticing buddhism at the time) and thought how nice it would beto have something to be determined about. I was stressed out, tiredall the time and suffered from chronic anxiety and itching becauseI had a body wide candida infection and no idea. The doctorsI talked to were like “shrug. There is nothing wrong withyou. You must have chronic fatigue.” I was 27 years oldand tired of being tired. I had no purpose. I hadaccomplished everything I was supposed to do in life (college, lawschool, a job in a law firm). But as a reward I hated my job,was sick, bored and generally meh about the whole thing that was mylife. There was nothing I enjoyed doing besides drinking andlistening to music with my friends - but that wasn’t making mehappy or feeling any better. Then a friend introduced me to thepractice I now do and teach in the Empower Thyself class &initiation. And I completely ignored her for like 4 or moreyears. Because I am a hard head stubbornly attached to mysuffering like many logic and achievement driven attorneys Iknow. But I eventually caved because I needed a change sobadly. And I saw a change in my friend who took theclass. So it couldn’t hurt right? Well, it could.I saw the loss of what I considered a crazy investment of money andtime into some spiritual, mindful, wellness, blah, blah, blah,bullsh*t. But I cringed and took the chance and invested my $into the process. And most of what I learned in that firstweekend I dismissed as complete Fooey. How could daily affirmationsand intentional statements and some meditations help anything I wasfacing? I had medical problems and career problems andsatisfaction problems. But I did believe in testing things tosee if they worked. I paid for the class after all. Imight as well try what I paid for and put it to use. So Istarted doing the daily rituals and asking for specific things tocome into my life.
And after a while (not overnight and not immediately,but over time) I started to see shifts, and started to be a littledifferent. One big change was that I started choosing to dothings that I enjoyed for the sheer sake of doing them. Ireally liked writing and traveling and food. So I started afood and travel blog. And I made an editorial calendar and Icreated content on that calendar. I planned trips to createmore content for the blog and because I wanted to travel. Myboyfriend/partner at the time thought I was being irresponsible andthat Id turned crazy on him because I didn’t just stay home anddrink wine and make him dinner anymore. And eventually thatrelationship changed/ended because we became differentpeople. I chose then to move to a nicer big light filledhouse, and the toxic people in my life started falling away, and myhealth got better, and my boundaries got better, and I actuallystarted being happy and finding purpose in working with people as ahealer and as an attorney. I started actually charging for myservices in a way that brought me abundance so I could invest morein myself and in things I enjoyed and wanted to explore. Istarted having opinions about areas I held expertise and I didn’tstress about it. I stopped worrying about everything and whateveryone thought I should do with my life. Until eventually Iintentionally decided to launch my own business and leave mycorporate environment all together.
But honestly the biggest shift was the dailyinvestment in intentional choice. I chose to do somethingevery day and make small changes. Then I grew the courage tostart choosing things that I was passionate about instead ofcontinuing on the path of SHOULD (what I thought other peoplewanted me to do, or what one should do to live a successfullife). Shoulding was killing me slowly. Drinking andchronic purposelessness was causing me illness, notfulfillment. So the biggest shift was the little shift in meidentifying a passion and doing something that brought mejoy. Then taking baby steps to accomplish that.Eventually all those microsteps led me to be able to make biggerchoices about my life and find my actual purpose that keeps megoing on a grander scale. I can read Daisaku Ikeda’s wordsabout determination today and understand hermetically with myactual life what he is talking about - because I am livingpurposefully and actualizing the Power of Intention in my lifeevery day.
But it all started with step one. Me identifyingsomething I desired and that I was passionate about. So forour exercise this month that is your homework assignment.What are you passionate about? What brings you joy? Notmomentary pleasure. What is something that if you did it you wouldfeel really fulfilled internally? Not something you Shouldachieve. But simply something that you want. You are going todelve into your heart of hearts and be honest with yourself.You know what you desire. Go inside and listen to yourselfand figure it out. Then write it down. Articulate whatyou desire and specifically want for yourself and write it on apiece of paper. Then bonus - do a vision board. Makethis desire visual so you are really clear what it lookslike. Because if you are really clear about it, and reallywant it, and are really passionate about it - you are going to havethe motivation to align your thoughts to take action. Youwill create a plan, even if that is baby steps you are going totake every day to achieve that thing. You are going to focusyour attention and will upon an appropriate object such to manifestit in your life. And when you do you are going to celebrateit. And maybe even tell me about it. And if you aretruly stuck - reach out! I can help with that! Let’s get youon your path to purpose, joy and harnessing the power ofintention.
