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Elevate Your Life with Strategic Intention Setting—a guide From Authentic State Coaching
Set your unique intention with a 6 minute guided meditation, and know what you need less or more of to achieve your intention. Intention setting is an incredibly powerful coaching tool.
Setting your intention helps to focus the mind at both a conscious and unconscious level. It counteracts the clutter of the mind, and the dirty ‘should’s’ we set ourselves. It taps into your intuition and your higher knowledge.
Download the guided meditation…
Learn the value and science of intention setting—and download a free intention visualisation.
In our fast-paced and often chaotic lives, finding ways to stay focused, maintain clarity, and achieve success can feel like an uphill battle.
Setting an intention is the deliberate act of defining what you want to achieve and how you want to show up in a specific situation, project, or even your daily life. It's about consciously choosing your mindset and approach to align with your goals and values. Intentions go beyond traditional goal-setting; they are about how you want to feel and be while pursuing your objectives.
You can harness the power of intention setting before you start your day, your week, a meeting, task, year or practically any time you start something new.
Intention Setting—a Life Hack
Intention setting is simple, but done right (by keeping your intent top of mind across time), it can be an incredibly powerful life hack.
Setting your intention helps to focus your mind at both a conscious and unconscious level.
Intention setting contains energy, emotion, imagery, and meaning that you might not have previously discovered. It can teach you, about you. It helps counteract the clutter of the mind, and the unhelpful ‘should’s’ we often set ourselves.
By setting your intention, you tap into your intuition and harness the power of your unconscious mind (your wisdom-powerhouse) to look for opportunities.
The Science Behind Intentions
The power of setting intentions is not merely anecdotal; it has a scientific basis. Neuroscientific research has shown that when you set an intention, you activate specific neural pathways associated with that intention. This mental priming increases your awareness of relevant opportunities and choices, making it more likely for you to take action aligned with your goals.
Intentions engage the reticular activating system (RAS) in your brain. The RAS acts as a filter for incoming information, highlighting what you consider important. When you set an intention, your RAS begins to prioritise data that supports that intention, effectively boosting your focus and awareness.
How to Set Your Intention
Step 1: Trust your Intuition – always, always, always trust your intuition. Ok?
What is your intuition? Your intuition is the first thought that enters your mind once you have cleared the internal ‘judgement’. It is the little voice in your head (not the loud critic, but the quiet wisdom). Trust the impression, thought or hunch that comes to you.
Your intuition will speak to you. It might take time or practice. Listening with a clear mind and a trusting heart is sometimes the tricky part – you’ve got this. Trust yourself.
Step 2: Close your eyes. Take several deep breaths and connect with your body. Listen into your body.
Step 3: Ask yourself “What do I want for my self in the coming year?”
Choose one to three words for your intention for your coming year.
Let yourself feel into the question. Allow your truth to rise to the surface.
Once you have your intention, ask the second question.
Step 4: Ask yourself “To achieve (insert your intention word), what do I have to let go of?”. Ask and allow for a word, or message, to come through for you.
Step 5: Ask yourself “What am I going to do in the next 12 months to achieve (insert your intention word)?”. Ask and allow for a word, or message, to come through for you.
Tips for Intention Setting
Be Specific: Your intentions should be clear and specific. Instead of a vague intention like "I want to be successful," say, "I intend to excel in my career by achieving a promotion within the next year."
Use Positive Language: Phrase your intentions positively, focusing on what you want to achieve rather than what you want to avoid.
Set Realistic Goals: While intentions are powerful, they should be realistic and achievable. Set yourself up for success by setting attainable milestones.
Visualise Your Intentions: Create a mental image of yourself embodying your intentions. Visualisation can reinforce your commitment.
Write Them Down: Put your intentions in writing. This act of commitment can make your intentions feel more tangible and concrete.
Review Daily: Make it a habit to review your intentions daily, ideally in the morning or before important tasks. This reinforces your commitment and keeps your focus sharp. Remember, your mind is your responsibility to feed, clean and program your mind.
Get Your Free Intention Setting Meditation
If this is new to you, I’ve created a 6 minute guided Intention Setting audio meditation for you! All you need to do is just listen and allow.
Enjoy the process. If it helps, think of this like a playful little experiment!
Be sure to join me on Facebook, to get more inspiring tips for a greater you, and a greater world.
Adaptability, change and cooperation
We know that adaptability is crucial to maintaining and improving the world around us, and to getting along with others.
In Australia and globally, we have adapted to this dreaded virus. And in doing so have decreased the severity of its impact.
Being deliberately adaptable means if something is not working for you, or us, then do it differently.
Sometimes on a personal level, we can miss the target, lose our way, struggle with others, or just can’t seem to get what we want. Some people struggle with personal adaptability more than others.
To be adaptable is to be flexible, resilient, modifiable, conformable and changeable.
This means doing something different. Now read that again, adaptability means doing something different.
We know that adaptability is crucial to maintaining and improving the world around us, and to getting along with others.
In Australia and globally, we have adapted to COVID-19. And in doing so, have decreased the severity of its impact.
Being deliberately adaptable means if something is not working for you, or us, then do it differently.
Sometimes on a personal level, we can miss the target, lose our way, struggle with others, or just can’t seem to get what we want. Some people struggle with personal adaptability more than others.
To be adaptable is to be flexible, resilient, modifiable, conformable and changeable.
This means doing something different. Read that again… adaptability means doing something different.
This could mean anything from risking a relationship by speaking up to maintain your integrity for truth and justice.
Adaptability could mean holding back words we might commonly say in a conversation for they would be pointlessly damaging.
Adaptability could mean reviewing a current strategy that isn't getting desired results, or getting support from someone or something new.
With Darwin's survival of the fittest, adaptability wins—but science also shows us that cooperation has been absolutely vital to the evolution of humankind and other species.
Cooperation and adaptability requires listening, and taking note of feedback.
In healing and therapy we acknowledge that we can’t control others, or the world around us, but we can be the master of our own selves.
It is those who people have an ‘internal locus of control’ (that is, they take responsibility for events that happen to them, both good and bad, and focus on what they can control, and are deliberate in creating their own life), are happier and more successful.
Let me ask you, what feedback are you getting from your body, mind, or others that tells you that something needs to change?
What decision can you make, to help you adapt to this change?
Sasha is a healer and coach supporting people to step forward into a greater version of themselves, creating a ripple effect towards a greater world.
Read more about AUTHENTIC STATE. A Greater You. A Greater World™
Your invisible power—intuition and gut feelings
How often have you said, ”I knew that was going to happen” or “I just felt it wasn't right”?
Why don’t we listen to our gut/ instinct/ intuition? Put very simply, it’s because we, our society hasn't valued intuition and gut instinct. We are not encouraged or formally taught to develop and listen to this great, insightful and valuable tool.
How often have you said:
”I knew that was going to happen.”
“I just felt it wasn't right.”
“I knew he/she couldn't be trusted.”
“I don’t know why—I just think we should do/ go/ think (this way).”
Yep! That's right. This is your gut instinct and intuition—a grand power and insight beyond your tangible senses.
Now. Have you ever said:
“I should have listened to my instinct.”
“I should have gone with my gut.“
“I should have contacted him/her.”
I have. And the grief I might have avoided, time I wouldn't have wasted, and opportunities I might have won!
So why don’t we listen to our gut/ instinct/ intuition? Put very simply, it’s because we, our society hasn't valued intuition and gut instinct. We are not encouraged or formally taught to develop and listen to this insightful and valuable tool.
Yes, bless our modern society in the development and valuing of ‘Reason’. Let’s ground ourselves in logic and reason, but also respect intuition and gut instinct.
For centuries, gut/ instinct/ intuition has been thrown to the Artists, ‘weirdos’, ‘other’ ‘primitive’ races, ‘witches’ and other marginalised people. Needless to say, we have missed a good thing; a core piece of who we are, biologically, cognitively and historically… And really, a big ‘ole part of the world in which we live.
Gut/ instinct/ intuition can offer so much wisdom and guidance to our lives, but is greatly undervalued, ignored and sometimes gas-lighted!
Science and Intuition
Today gut/ instinct/ intuition is a topic of growing interest in science—how wonderful it is to have the two hemispheres combine.
Studies on topics that overlap and explore this skill are growing in number, for instance automatic processing, subliminal priming, implicit memory, heuristics, right-brain processing, instant emotions, nonverbal communication and creativity.
Am I Feeling Anxiety or My Gut Instinct?
Granted, it may be difficult to know the difference between intuition and anxiety. What feels like intuition, a thought that won't go away, butterflies in your stomach—might actually be anxiety. One way to validate your gut instinct is to look at your surroundings for some concrete evidence, and to keep testing your gut instinct on big and small circumstances.
Go On, Test Your Intuition and Gut Instinct
Power is in your hands. Test your gut, instinct and intuition for yourself.
Your life is your very own experimental ‘mental’ playground. Why not make a conscious decision to test your gut instinct and intuition. Then listen, feel and be aware of what floats to the surface, what comes through, what nudges you, and test the validity of this, in the world you see, hear, and experience around you.
One of the most intelligent things we can ever do in our life is to find a connection to our intuition. I say, follow reason, but before taking action, listen to the wisdom of your intuition.
No content on this site, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
Read about Authentic State, and what we stand for here.
#ExperimentalMindset #Intuition #InnerPower
Photo credit: Cody Black