Mindful Intention

Do you have one? I am exploring this anew...

What is the first thing you do every day? Do you stretch, roll over into a loved one, savor the last few minutes of drowsy land? I have changed my morning routine lately and am re-exploring what it means to start the day intentionally.

Why am I doing this? Years ago I took a course called Creating Compassionate Cultures and I miss the depth it brought to my life. True, that depth never leaves, but I feel I have fallen out of touch with it a little. So I am starting anew remembering and playing with the seven steps through which compassion is cultivated, according to my mentor Pam Cayton. The first step is Mindful Intention. Getting clear about what we what, what I want. My why. My raison d’être. It’s amazing how easy and how hard this is simultaneously.

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I am asking myself, what if I can deepen into my life, create more profound stillness in the few minutes between waking up and engaging my day? Will that create more stillness in general through the ebb and flow of cleaning, cooking, child rearing, carpooling? What if I take the few minutes that begin each day and choose to mindfully prepare for the day, my life, my visions? What would that look like?

Setting an intention daily is a profound way to acclimatize the body and mind to purposeful living. Might this be a path to connecting with spirit, the unseen brilliance of life? Intentions come in various forms. We all have them, but often they are on autopilot, like subconscious momentum. I want to live purposefully, with conscious intention. I want to live from my why, even if it changes over time.

A terrific place to start is simply to ask what do I really want, over and over again if you must? Please join me. What do you really want?

Read that carefully, what do we really want? Why is the word really in that sentence? Simply to focus us past the obvious and more superficial question of what do I want? Buried beneath the mindless flow of most everyone's life are deep desires, a well of inspiration that comes from someplace eternal. I feel these deep resonances are soul driven. What are these inner humming clarities for you?

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Is it world peace, equality, an end to hunger, raising well-adjusted happy children? Or maybe it is more simple for you. Financial security, a house of your own, being able to take much needed vacation time, a good nights sleep. What lurks deeper? Have you dared to ask?

I am revisiting this now. Digging in to unearth my clarity. After years of cultivating what I felt was my purpose, my true north, something is shifting. Anyone else feeling this way? So, I return to the beginning and I am asking anew, what do I really want?

Once we ask, we inspire meaning in our lives and our intention can become a beacon of light and a motivating guide. Practicing this awareness daily tunes us to our inner knowing, and gently, intention by intention, tone and quality change and depth and meaning fuse into purpose. I am excited to be here again. Even if what reveals itself is that there is no purpose other than living this life, fully engaged, now. That is good enough.

I welcome the spiraling of this life-cycle taking me back to the beginning. I welcome the deeper resolve and connection that being in touch with my inner guidance system with intention is already bringing.

I am poised, holding hands with the unknown, aware that this is the field of unlimited potential. Here the possibilities of the universe are latent, but absolute as well. And, I am its companion when I make myself available. We are its companion when we make ourselves available. I can’t wait to see what unfolds from here.

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