Whilst preparing for a recent lecture on Buddhism I was reminded powerfully of the importance of intention. Intention of course is not just a Buddhist concept, it is a powerful state of mind. Intention is what fuels our experiences. A lot of the time we don’t think about our intention when we are doing something, we just kind of do it !! And so intention setting wakes us up.

When we bring a positive intention to our daily activities we make the mundane extraordinary ! It also trains our mind to engage in a different way, it wakes us up to a mindful way of being where we purposely engage with our lives.  When we set an intention we bring ourselves to our experience, the present moment becomes truly alive! As all experiences dissolve and change it is only our intention that remains.

Before I begin my day of working with clients I take time to set an intention. I get strong in my mind and heart what I want my clients to experience (expansion, easy letting go, power, love, etc). And I also get clear on how I want to feel too (relaxed, strong in my body, present and awake). I imagine that each one of my clients bodies is the body of all beings and so as they heal all sentient beings heal.

When we intend consciously our brain literally seeks out experiences that are in alignment with our intention, so if we intend on experiencing happiness, love, being of benefit to others, well then that’s what we will subconsciously seek out. And if we experience hardship, stresses, disharmony during our day we won’t stay in these emotions very long as they are not in alignment with our intention. We remember that staying in anger, upset, fear is not what we intended to experience and so we can move back into love quicker !

By including others in our intention we make our experiences more powerful and the Buddhists would say more virtuous. Having the intention that others benefit from us being in the world loosens the grip of the ego, the self existent ‘I’. This helps us become less attached and tight in our minds.

There are so many ways in which we can bring others into our daily activates. For example, when we eat we can imagine that the nourishment we enjoy goes to all beings especially those hungry or starving. When we exercise we can imagine that all beings bodies receive the health benefits and enjoyment especially those who are ill or unable to move their bodies in the way they would like. By changing our mind we change everything!

We are creating all the time let’s take charge of our creating with a joyful happy heart !