Let’s set an intention together.

Place your hand on your heart, breathe deeply, and then say out loud:

I intend for this blog to give me the exact teachings I need to create more love, more peace and more ease in my life.

How did that feel?

If it didn’t move you, do that again with the intention to be moved by those words.

Feel better?

Great. Let’s move on, shall we?

Setting an intention is the act of stating what you intend to accomplish or experience through your actions.

Your intention is the energy – the electric charge – the awareness you bring to any, or all, areas of your life.

Yes, setting an intention is more than just sprouting some words about what you wish to experience.

When you set intentions intentionally, you will feel them supercharge your life.

Seriously, setting intentions allows you to create the pathway for that which you wish to experience in life.

Therefore, setting intentions isn’t something to be taken lightly or seen as an extra thing you do in your day.

Setting intentions is where you get to consciously and intentionally create your life, as you want it to be.

For you absolutely have a say in how your life goes.

And it is your responsibility to fuel your creative fires with regular intention setting.

Why does intention setting work?

Setting your intention is where you place your wants and desires out into the world as an energised thought; a powerful sentence that sums up what you wish to experience.

You could call it a wish or a prayer, but for me it’s more powerful than that.

It’s where you envision how you wish to be, feel and experience life.

When you set an intention, you’re essentially placing your focus on what you want to create.

With your conscious focus on what you want, your brain looks for opportunities to fulfil that intention.

Hence to say, if you go into your day expecting bad things to happen, then your brain will look for opportunities to help fulfil that expectation.

You might like to think of it like getting on a bike and having no idea where you’re heading.

Who knows where you’ll end up, right?

Maybe you’ll be led down the path to happiness, or maybe you’ll be led into a ditch!

Yet, if you know where you want to go, then the power of setting an intention is going to help you get there.

Let’s look at when someone engages in some sort of healing practice; an energy clearing, a yoga session, a treatment of acupuncture, a therapy session…

If you’re not getting the results you want, it’s not necessarily that your healing practice doesn’t work.

It could be that you’re going into that practice with either no set intention or an intention that is counter-productive.

It can be really easy to do that Pelvic Steam for instance, and go ‘Yep, can tick that off my to-do list now’.

When you have the intention to ‘get something done’, as opposed to receive the healing benefits of that practice, then you miss the healing juice.

For healing works best when you are present with whatever you are doing.

If you want your practice to be healing, you need to go into that practice with the clear intention for it to be healing, and hold that intention throughout the practice.

It’s the same with anything you do.

If you go on a holiday with your family, if you don’t have a clear intention for what you wish to experience on that holiday, it could end up being one big stressful flop!

You fight with your partner.

Your child gets sick.

You accidentally set up your tent on an ant nest…

But if you head into that holiday with the intention to relax and have fun, then you take a very different energy into that holiday that will result in a very different experience.

Take for example my experience moving from France to the UK amid a global pandemic at the end of last year.

I woke up the morning we were to travel on five trains, take one cab, and do a whole lot of stair climbing with too many suitcases and a stroller, and I set a very clear intention for the day:

‘I intend to stay in a loving space all day.’

And that’s exactly what I experienced.

Yes, we still had hiccups – like almost not being allowed to cross the border due to a misunderstanding on necessary paperwork and then missing our Eurostar train – but my little family stayed in high spirits the whole day.

We arrived, COVID free, to an Air BnB with no hot water.

But because we had stayed in that high energy state, all we could do but laugh.

Our morale was high, we were grateful to the kind Parisians who helped lug our gear up and down metro staircases, and we were united as a strong, loving family.

We made it!

And if I’m to be completely honest with you, if I’d not set that very clear intention that morning, I’m absolutely positive I would have lost my sh*t along the way, and who knows what negative ju ju that would have attracted in!!

So you can start to see how setting intentions as you go about your day can be a powerful way of starting to shift your focus to more positive outcomes, and in doing so, give yourself a far better chance to experience those ideal outcomes.

The more you flex your intention-setting muscle the more you will see results, and the more you’ll realise just how powerful you are.

Intention setting is a key tool when it comes to manifesting what you want.

I won’t go into detail on manifesting here, but if you want to read more about how manifesting can work for you, check out my blog: Why manifesting doesn’t work.

What do I set as an intention?

OK, so there are countless options here.

The options are limited only by your imagination.

But here are some ideas to get you started:

‘I intend to experience more ease than ever before.’

‘I intend to experience a beautiful connection with my partner tonight.’

‘I intend to find a great parking spot.’

‘I intend to experience my full creative potential.’

‘I intend to know myself as who I truly am.’

‘I intend to use intentions regularly in my life!’

Essentially, you want to set intentions that give you more conscious direction and divine magic to life’s ordinary and extraordinary moments.

You want to set intentions that light you up.

That make you feel more at ease and more alive.

But here’s the thing…

You ONLY want to set intentions that state what you want, NOT what you’re trying to get away from, ok?

For instance, you don’t want to say something like: ‘Please don’t let me screw up this promotion at work’.

Instead, you might say something like: ‘I intend to experience joy, productivity and recognition in my new role’.

I need to say this last point is very important.

For the subconscious mind doesn’t process negatives.

What that means, is that if you say ‘Please don’t let me screw up…’ your subconscious mind registers that as ‘Please let me screw up…’

And we certainly don’t want that!!

You can read more about the subconscious mind in my blog: Let me introduce you to your subconscious mind…

And if you’re just not sure what intention to set, sit with your hand on your heart, breathe… and see what arrives into your conscious mind.

OR… look at what areas of your life aren’t working so well right now, and set intentions in those areas.

Take a moment to consider how you would ideally like to be feeling in those areas, and let those feelings guide you to your intention.

Once I know what my intention is, then what?

You give voice to that intention.

This can look different for everyone.

But here are some ideas.

You could take some deep breaths and then say it out loud.

You could place your hand on your heart, close your eyes and whisper your intention.

You could simply think your intention.

You could make it more elaborate and turn it into a beautiful ritual; maybe run a bath with candles and oils and flower petals and say the intention under a new moon!

You don’t need to make it elaborate like this, but if that helps you get into a high vibe setting intentions energy, then do it.

What I will say, is don’t just say your intention.

See if you can conjure up the feeling of that intention.

How would you feel if this intention was your reality?

Feel into that feeling.

Turn it up.

Notice what it feels like to experience your intention in real life.

For the more you can create the feeling you would have if your intention was true right now, the more chance you give yourself of physically experiencing your intention.

And then release your intention.

Breathe it out into the world.

Maybe even blow a kiss to the universe to say ‘Thank you!’

And trust that it is done.

That easy!

How often should I set intentions?

Again, there is no correct answer to this.

Only what works for you.

Some people like to set a daily intention, a weekly intention or even a monthly intention.

For me personally, I like to set intentions more regularly than this.

I sprinkle them all over my day.

It might include things like:

‘I intend to experience an easeful, expansive day.’

‘I intend for this meal to nourish me and deliver me the nutrients my body most needs right now.’

‘I intend to write a blog that really moves and inspires my community.’

‘I intend to have fun playing with my son today.’

‘I intend for this phone call to be smooth and productive.’

‘I intend to get a really beautiful, nourishing night’s sleep, where I want up feeling refreshed.’

You get the picture!

What I will say, is that intentions are more powerful than most people give them credit for.

Take that last intention as an example.

I remember after I gently weened my son off night-feeding, and he would still wake regularly, like every 2 hours or so.

So I decided to set that intention:

‘I intend to get a really beautiful, nourishing night’s sleep, where I want up feeling refreshed.’

Let me say I was more than a little gob-smacked when I received more sleep than I had since my son was born.

Like whoa!

That intention has now become a staple that I use EVERY night!

It can be a really good habit to get into setting your intentions every morning before you get out of bed.

Consider it like applying your all-day moisturiser for your soul!

‘I intend to allow my True Self to guide me through my day.’

Maybe you sing them in the shower.

Perhaps you let your intention fill your body as you kick your legs up the wall, for a mini yoga break.

‘From now on I intend to treat my body well with healthier eating and loving exercise.’

Or you may like to set intentions before each activity, as I generally do.

What I’m saying, is that setting intentions needn’t take any extra time out of your day, but rather, simply become a part of your day.

Setting and holding a clear, powerful intention for how you’d like to experience your life helps you wring the most divine juice out of every situation, so you become less dependant on the doing and more available to enjoy just being.

But if for nothing else, intention setting helps you feel good.

And feeling good is what we’re here for, right?

Please share you experience with intention setting below.

I’d love to hear what your intentions invite into your life.

And if you love this content and want to receive free practices and teachings in self-love, be sure to sign up for the Self-Love Starter’s Kit at the top of the page.