Harnessing the Power of Intention for Your Life
Intention is a powerful tool. We have seen its potential in the forms of affirmations and heart changes. If you’re looking to go the extra mile with intention, however, there are some steps that you can take.
Intention is an ally that must be used…well, intentionally! It doesn’t just happen overnight, however, and with no actionable steps. It is a discipline that must be carved into your heart to fully enjoy the benefits.
Renowned spiritual teacher Deepak Chopra highlights major steps towards this discipline. One must hold on to the intention in order to let them become reality. From his book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, here are Deepak Chopra’s five steps to master your intention:
1. Slip into the gap
Most of the time our mind is caught up in thoughts, emotions, and memories. Beyond this noisy internal dialogue is a state of pure awareness that is sometimes referred to as “the gap.” One of the most effective tools we have for entering the gap is meditation. Meditation takes you beyond the ego-mind into the silence and stillness of pure consciousness. This is the ideal state in which to plant your seeds of intention.
2. Release your intentions and desires
Once you’re established in a state of restful awareness, release your intentions and desires. The best time to plant your intentions is during the period after meditation, while your awareness remains centered in the quiet field of all possibilities. After you set an intention, let it go — simply stop thinking about it. Continue this process for a few minutes after your meditation period each day.
3. Remain centered in a state of restful awareness
Intention is much more powerful when it comes from a place of contentment than if it arises from a sense of lack or need. Stay centered and refuse to be influenced by other people’s doubts or criticisms. Your higher self knows that everything is all right and will be all right, even without knowing the timing or the details of what will happen.
4. Detach from the outcome
Relinquish your rigid attachment to a specific result and live in the wisdom of uncertainty. Attachment is based on fear and insecurity, while detachment is based on the unquestioning belief in the power of your true Self. Intend for everything to work out as it should, then let go and allow opportunities and openings to come your way.
5. Let the universe handle the details
Your focused intentions set the infinite organizing power of the universe in motion. Trust that infinite organizing power to orchestrate the complete fulfillment of your desires. Don’t listen to the voice that says that you have to be in charge, that obsessive vigilance is the only way to get anything done. The outcome that you try so hard to force may not be as good for you as the one that comes naturally. You have released your intentions into the fertile ground of pure potentiality, and they will bloom when the season is right.
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20 Eckhart Tolle Quotes to Center Your Heart
Stressed? Worried? Unfocused? Life does that to you when you’re not staying mindful and grounded. Luckily, great teachers like Eckhart Tolle are there to help us remember where our mind should be.
Carve out a little time to meditate on some of these great words from Eckhart Tolle for a quiet moment of peace:
On Being You
-“Give up defining yourself — to yourself or to others. You won’t die. You will come to life. And don’t be concerned with how others define you. When they define you, they are limiting themselves, so it’s their problem. Whenever you interact with people, don’t be there primarily as a function or a role, but as the field of conscious Presence. You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.
-“Being must be felt. It can’t be thought.”
-“You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge. But it can only emerge if something fundamental changes in your state of consciousness.”
-“If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place. Primary reality is within; secondary reality without.”
-“If your mind carries a heavy burden of past, you will experience more of the same. The past perpetuates itself through lack of presence. The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future.”
