How many of your thoughts give way to what you actually want? Do you ever think about the word “intention” and what it means? I just had a conversation with my little sister who recently went back to school to obtain her Masters, and she shared with me that being in school brought up a lot of things from her childhood, specifically a lack of confidence and negative self talk. We ended up having a very interesting conversation about intention, the power of our words, and how many people talk about their past and give a lot of attention to past experiences that shape us. Some past experiences also contribute to the negative self talk that is making us feel stuck and creates negative thoughts and emotions. This conversation inspired me to write about the power of our words, and specifically our intention.
How about you take a few minutes or even a few seconds to reflect on your past week. What is it that you are thinking about most of the time? Can you identify a theme or a pattern in your thoughts? The following five tips can help direct you in taking small steps towards achieving your goals, creating the life that you want, and removing the limiting beliefs that hold you back.
Tip 1: Identify Your Thoughts and Feelings Without Judgment
The first and most important step to help achieve your goals is to become aware of what it is that you are thinking about and how these thoughts affect how you feel. The secret to doing it in full awareness without any barriers is to remove the judgment and to bring yourself to a place where you feel safe and secure to express yourself freely. How about you give it a try and go write down a few words or a few sentences, whatever feels right, and identify the related emotions. If writing is not something that you are used to doing, you can simply take a few seconds to identify a few thoughts that you’ve had. Can you reflect and think about how these thoughts affect you? How often do you have these particular thoughts? Can you take it a step further and think about why you might be having these thoughts? Now that you’ve done that, you took the first step towards becoming a better version of yourself.
Tip 2: Choose Your Words Carefully
This might sound like a very simple task, but I want you to really think about every word that you are saying or thinking. Our words have a lot of power, and they determine how we are going to feel and how our life will look. I can give a lot of examples from various clients that I work with, but I can use myself as an example. If I tell myself that I will not be able to finish my research that I’ve been working on for over 10 years because of all the statistical analysis and other very complicated factors that stand in the way, then clearly I will not be able to finish my dissertation and analyze all the data needed. Instead, I will be telling myself that this is very challenging and statistics is not something that I enjoy, but I will figure out a way to make it work so I can finish my research. By making this shift, I’m more likely to take steps towards achieving my goal without any limitations or excuses. Can you think about something that you tell yourself that is preventing you from taking steps towards achieving your goals?
Tip 3: Set your Intention and Be Specific
Now I would like for you to set your intention and come up with a sentence or phrase that will help you with it. Intention is important because it can help us shift our perspective and inform us as to what we wish to do, and it changes the way we interact with other people. Setting your intention means identifying how you want to live your life, including how you want to feel, and how you want others to feel around you. Most specifically, you can come up with statements starting with or using “I am...” For example, you can say “I choose to show up with an open mind,” “I am confident in who I am, and in my abilities to achieve my goals,” or “I am loved, and I am going to think about my words and direct them towards achieving my goals.” How about you give it a try and come up with one sentence starting with “I am…”
Tip 4: Familiarize Yourself with the Law of Attraction
Understanding the law of attraction can help you change your life for the better and create incredible opportunities for you that will bring you closer to achieving your goals. The law of attraction is a universal principle that states that you will attract into your life whatever you focus on and whatever you give your energy and attention to. In simpler terms, your energy and attention is what will come back to you. When you focus on abundance and good things in your life, you will automatically attract more positive things into your life; however, if you center yourself around negative thoughts and only think about what is missing in your life and how bad things are, you will ultimately attract negativity into your life and you’ll be less likely to achieve your goals. Let’s take for example a person that complains all the time and they are very negative and unhappy. This person will typically attract friends that also have a bad attitude. The concept of energy and vibration might seem abstract, but in fact, there are a number of studies and research that support that changing your energetic vibration can actually change the way that the universe responds to you. If you want to experiment and try to create a life that has more positive energy, try these three simple things that will help you change your energy to a more positive one: Write three things that you are grateful for, visualize your goals, and find something positive in different situations. Go ahead, try this even just for one day and see if it affects how you are feeling.
Tip 5: Practice Mindfulness and Deep Breathing
This is a very simple action that you can start taking right this second by closing your eyes for five seconds and paying attention to what is happening within you without judging yourself and bringing your attention to your breath. Inhale for four seconds and exhale for six seconds. Repeat that action again and bring yourself to the present moment and focus on your breath. How did you feel? Were you able to do that? Remember being able to control your thoughts and focusing on the present takes practice, but it is possible and can lead you to live a happier and healthier life.
I hope that reading this blog made you reflect on your own intentions, and remember: when you set an intention, you are not just making a decision, but you are making a commitment to that decision with your actions. If you have any questions or comments about setting intentions and achieving your goals, feel free to email us at info@bespokewellnesspartners.com.
Love,
Limor