Tag Archives: daily intention

Daily Intention: Gentleness & Flexibility?

12 May

Friday – Gentleness

Gentleness was my intention for yesterday.  It wasn’t until I was sitting in the beginning of a gentle yoga class that it came to me after a grumpish morning.  The baby has not slept well the past couple nights, and my patience has been short lived.  Unfortunately for my poor Mark, this is not a terribly uncommon occurence.

The yoga was a great way to start the day.  A class that was still intentional in it’s poses, breathing patterns and alignment… but not forceful or overly demanding… an exercise in patience with myself and my body.  And a quality I tried to bring to the rest of my day.  Gentle with myself, gentle with Mark, gentle with Ruby, gentle with Mason (unless he wants a good dance around the living room), gentle with my clients, and coworkers.  Gentle with the way I enter and move through the world.  Similar to being kind… but almost a little more like having grace.  Gracefulness.  The three concepts are so very closely related with ever so slight distinctions.  To me at least.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t pull it off all day.  I was snarky more than a couple more times.  But when the intention would flash across my brain, I would try and reel my patience back in and lay it out gently around me.

Today

Is still a work in progress… I having a hard time figuring out what intention I’m in most need of today.  I’m thinking it will be to in the realm of flexibility.  Going with the flow.  Doesn’t that sound like a good Saturday intention?

We’re finally having our long awaited “date day” for our one year anniversary.  Some friends are babysitting Mason and we have wine tasting, lunch and Crushcakes cupcakes on the menu (Yes, I am having a cupcake.  In the name of anniversary celebration, but also because I’ve hit my elimination diet halfway mark!  Three months down, three months to go!).

Mark had a suggestion for my intention today… but his suggestions are not suitable for this public domain.  😉

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Daily Intention: Believe

10 May

Art inspires.  Words, in particular, resonate with me.  Conversations, articles, blog posts, books, movies, even tv shows.  TV gets a bad rap.  I criticize it often myself… but to be honest.  I find almost as much inspiration and relate-ability, and as many quotable words in some television shows as I do in my favorite books.

“Believe that dreams come true everyday.  Because they do.”

No, that’s not a line from a Disney movie.

Yes, it was my inspiration for today.

I was writing this morning, and I remembered the quote from a One Tree Hill episode I watched recently (don’t shake your head at me!).  And it got me to thinking about my own dreams.  Secret and not so secret wishes for my life.  I wrote it all out.  My ideal life.

Some things I wouldn’t change.  My relationships, my friends, my family.  The way we work together, love each other, grow together.

Some things I would change.  The nature of my work, some activities I love that I’ve let fall out of my life, the place that I live (though I love Santa Barbara dearly).

But what was really cool to see… was that even my most bold idea… my most outrageous dream for the future… wasn’t that far out there.  Everything that I want for my life, I’ve either started, ever so slowly, into motion… or if I haven’t, I realized how completely attainable it was.

Time and energy and persistence and patience and trust and dedication and keeping up the dreaming are all necessary things, of course… but when I think of dreams that I’ve had in the past that are true and real today… I’m struck by it.

As cheesy as it may sound…

“Believe that dreams come true everyday.  Because they do.”

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Daily Intention: Spaciousness

9 May

Spaciousness… was the the word I’d been dancing around using as an intention for the past couple weeks.  It’s such an abstract idea… but one that I’m so very attracted to.  It’s hard to describe how this one worked for me today, but I do feel like it helped me out to keep this word in mind.

Maybe it’s an “our day and age” thing… maybe it’s a southern California thing, but I feel like spaciousness is something that is very scarce these days.  Physically… mentally… so much is often packed into a small amount of space that it leaves us very little room to expand ourselves.  So much is packed into our schedules, so many thoughts are packed into our brains, so many buildings are packed in right next to each other.  I sometimes get the feeling of being cramped or cluttered, crowded in or slightly suffocated.  A lot of my other day’s intentions have been supportive of this notion, and trying to guide my days in tipping the scales towards the direction of spaciousness.  Breathing and Slowing Down… Being in Action and Listening,  all give me a chance to allow some space into my days and my thoughts.

There’s more to this word and feeling than I can explain with any kind of articulation right now… but this was a good start.

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Daily Intention: Be Brave in the Face of Time.

8 May

So this is an admittedly dramatic title, for an intention that, in practice, may not be a big deal to most people.  I’ve never heard anyone talk about their relationship to time in the way that I often experience it.  Not only with lament to it’s seemingly swift passing… but with trepidation towards spending the pockets of free time when I do have them.  I sometimes get stuck, almost afraid to allocate my time to larger activities or projects, to an extent where I avoid doing things that I want or need to do, simply because of the amount of time I think it will take up in my day.

My moments of alone time are fleeting.  Few, far between, and not very long.  And they’re precious to me.  Because I’m one of those people who needs that alone time to recharge.  But I place so much importance on that time… that I end up putting myself through more agony than necessary committing that time to any particular activity.  And sometimes I end up avoiding the things that will be beneficial to me, because they will take up a huge chunk of that time I get during one of Mason’s naps.  And I know the next chunk of time won’t come for another couple of hours.  And that there are only three of these chunks in a day.

I wimp out in the face of time.  All too often.  And spend it doing smaller things, that make less of a difference to me in the long run.

So my intention today, is to not be intimidated by time.  To do the things I want and need to do in the time that I have, and trust that they will be the things that rejuvinate me.

Does anyone else have this kind of hang up about time?  I’d love to know if I’m not alone in this.

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Weekend Daily Intentions: A Brief Overview

8 May

I needed an internet break this weekend.  But I did continue this intention game, so I’ll share them because I’ve heard a few of you sweethearts are using them yourselves.  Which is pretty rad.  I’m trying to keep this up for myself for at least 30 days, to see which ones end up being most helpful to my days.  Kind of a self-experiment.  Anyways…

Friday – Feel What I Feel

This one is first in this blog post… but I’m actually writing it last, because I was racking my brain trying to remember what it was.  All I could remember was how frustrating the first half of my day was when it hit me.  It took me a few hours of frustration to realize what I needed my intention to be that day… but finally, it was to  feel what I feel.  Sounds trite.  But it worked.  I was getting worked up because my day wasn’t going the way I had wanted it to.  Things I’d planned got rearranged, places I was trying to go were closed, classes were at different times then I thought, I forgot my keys at home… you know, that kind of day.  So finally I just let myself uncontrollably whine (in my head, work doesn’t take kindly to whiners).  I mentally let myself scream “I’M FRUSTRATED!!!!!!”  And then after a minute or so, I’d try and let it go and go on about my business.  When I’d feel the frustration come up again, I’d purposely go through the mental tantrum again.  Whether it was an hour later or a few minutes later.   Again, and again.  Until eventually… I started to (mentally) yell, “I’M SOOOOOOOOOO FRUSTRATED!!!!!!!”… when I stopped… and realized I wasn’t really anymore.  I’d tantrum’d myself out of my own frustration.  haha!  Who knows if that will ever work again, or if my mind will have wised up to my game, but it worked wonders that day.

Saturday – Enjoy

Today, I nearly forgot about my intention setting game.  I had such a fantastic day with my family of three (poor Ruby had to stay home), that I didn’t want to do anything else but enjoy myself and our day.  So I went with that.  And it was perfection.

Sunday – Stretch Time

Manipulating time is always a fun one.  Because anyone can do it on a whim.  Did you know that?  Have you tried?  I’m sure you have.  If you think back to one of those moments that sticks in your mind very clearly.  From the feeling and the mood, to the colors of the scenery and the placement of objects in your line of vision… it’s usually one of those moments where you take an internal pause, lean your energy back a bit, and make that mental realization that this is  a moment to remember.  A moment where you’re living.  And the time seems to stretch, momentarily.  Expand, and almost sit outside itself.  It happens when you start to really pay attention to the present.  To your senses.  To the sights and sounds and smells and tastes and the weight of your body in this place and the feelings that are coming up for you in that very moment.  It can be a great moment, it can be a painful moment, it can be an utterly boring moment that you can make suddenly come alive with just a little bit of attention.  It’s a rad phenomenon.  And it’s a cure for wishing that time was passing differently.  When you’re afraid time is passing too quickly, it often does.  And when you wish that it would speed up already, it usually drags.  This thing, this playing with time… it can go either way.  It can be stretched in a way that makes it seem to slow and it can be molded in a way that makes it feel less arduous.  Try it.  You’ll be hooked.

Monday – Be UN Self-Conscious

This is a hard one to define, and had a lot of layers initially, but I had to strip it down to make it less intimidating.  One day I’ll try the original intention… though I think it will need more than a day of practice.  It was inspired, again, by that book on Creativity by Osho.  (It started out with three alternate titles, which I won’t explain right now, but maybe it’s a little self-evident, or at the very least, food for thought.  Be UN self-conscious or Forget Yourself or Remember God.)  The base layer of the intention, which I tried out yesterday, was to be UN self-conscious.  Maybe this doesn’t need to be stated…. but even though I consider myself a fairly confident individual… this was HARD.  I believe that I was only really able to pull it off a few times that day.  (And to be honest, forgot about it half of the day)  But it did make me very aware of how often I do act, with other’s perceptions in mind.  Whether it’s to seek silent approval from other’s, or in quiet defiance of other’s… it’s still a self-conscious act.  So interesting to think about.  And definitely one I’ll have to try again.  ugh!

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Daily Intention: Be in Action

3 May

((So I didn’t check off everything on my finishing list yesterday.  But because of the things I did do… I walked into the living room this morning, and felt like I could finally breathe in there.  Thanks to my newly freed space.))

Be in action… is not necessarily how it sounds.  I don’t plan to be a hyper productive, task oriented ball of constantly moving energy today.

I’m reading this book by Osho called “Creativity: Unleashing the Forces Within” (Insights for a New Way of Living).  I love this way of looking at creativity, because it’s not talking about just creativity in making art… but in living life.  In the first chapter, he makes a distinction between action and activity.  It rings so true for me and I know I’ve written about something similar before here.

He says that activity is compulsive.  Has almost a mindless, thoughtless quality to it.  Where you move from task to task, event to event, activity to activity without premeditation.  This includes productive things, this includes “relaxing” things.  For instance; going from putting the baby down for a nap, to warming up soup, to eating & writing simultaneously, to watching a show, to making tea… one right after the other, sometimes multiple things at one time.  Not really giving each activity your full attention because you’re thinking of what’s going to come next.  As if remaining in activity is more important than the activity itself.

But in action, action arises out of a need.  You are hungry, so you eat.  Your body aches, so you stretch.  You notice that the plants need watering, so you grab the hose.  You feel the urge to draw… so you do.  Action has a spontaneity and a thoughtfulness to it, rather than a compulsiveness.  So that’s my intention today.  To remain in action.  It’s only 8:30am… and it’s already causing me a little anxiety to be stripped of activity for the sake of activity.  Interesting, huh?

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Daily Intention: Finishing Things

2 May

Finishing things… Tying up loose ends… Wrapping things up…

To be honest today’s intention is a little slow in the uptake.

I can blame it on the gorgeous hefty armful of an almost seven month old I have in tow… but it’s really more me.  There’s a handful of things I have occupying space around the house.  Small, easy tasks left half completed that are not only physically taking up precious space in my surroundings, but are also sucking up valuable energy in the corners of my mind.

I remember listening to a podcast by Jen Lee, about this same topic.  She said that she thinks that when we put off finishing little things like this, we’re actually putting off the thing that is going to hit the to do list after they’re checked off.  I’m not sure what it is that I may potentially be avoiding… but I’m sick of these things hanging around my home and my head.

Checked off so far:

  • I took some baby clothes to a consignment store this morning that have been sitting in either our living room, or the trunk of our car for at least three or four weeks.
  • I’ve started on our meal plan for this month that I’ve been meaning to do for the past week.

And I was about to go on about how I’m lagging, but actually as I’m writing it out, I think I’m doing okay so far.

So, thanks for reading!  With my confidence renewed…

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Daily Intention: Have a Sense of Humor!

29 Apr

It’s almost unfortunate that this has to be an intention of mine, right?!  This one popped into my head this morning, around 8am, when Mason woke up for the day (yes he slept in!)  I was glad to stay in bed a few more winks while Mark changed his diaper… but then I heard “uh… I need your help!” from the baby’s room.  I knew this tone, it meant a diaper accident.  Sure enough, the (disposable) diaper we had on Mason last night, did not contain the outburst of it’s contents this morning.  I lept out of bed, rushed to gather a new diaper and wipes, and immediately, the internal advice, have a sense of humor about this! entered my brain, and saved me from early morning agitation.  And here was born today’s intention.

Diaper mishaps aside, it’s a true statement.  I sorely need to bring a sense of humor back into my days!  Not that mine has left me completely.  I still appreciate an ironic one liner, a funny sketch, an good laugh in good company.  But I hate to admit, that when it comes to my husband, I have become far more sensitive.  My honey has a joking nature about him, and is quick to tease, play and make silly comments.  He’s the sweetest man I’ve ever known, and despite this knowledge, I still manage to find myself offended or ready to jab, when I really should be laughing with him.

So this is where my intentions lie today.  To wave away my serious reactions and laugh at myself and any potentially frustrating humorous circumstances we find ourselves in today.  We’re off to a good start. 😉

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Daily Intention: Seek Rest

28 Apr

My dear baby Mason woke up 5 times last night.  The longest stretch of sleep we got was 2 1/2 hours, the shortest, 1.  I think today’s intention speaks for itself… but I will elaborate slightly, just for kicks.

Today, my ambition will be hung on the coat rack to be picked up again tomorrow.  I will look only to create moments where I can find a bit of rest or pleasurable leisure.  Even if I can only pull off a few minutes while Mason is napping.  And in those moments, if my body screams for a nap myself… I intend to obey.  Even if there are several demanding to do list items eyeballing me from my notebook on the counter.

Rest.  I will seek rest.

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Daily Intention: Being Kind

27 Apr

I got a compliment from my friend Alexis last night, about my ability to pause and reflect, and to stay present to the moment.  And while my first reaction was to beam with appreciation, my very next impulse was to explain to her all of the ways in which I am merely trying to live with more presence, and how often I hit the pavement radically short of what I hope or expect out of myself.  How all this intention setting is out of attempt to keep myself from sleepwalking through my days, or reacting out of reflex, without thought.  Both of which I still do often.

And then this morning, I read an email that included this paragraph:

“Before I indulge in my reaction to the compliment there comes an important step, the acceptance. We often fight off a compliment, meeting it where our personal struggles exist, making lists of reasons why this is not true. The acceptance of receiving a compliment is the faith that you can allow someone to have their experience. After, you get to have yours.

This is my surrender into the truth of what another is experiencing, without laying my own thoughts or judgements inside of it, simply being a receiver for the words and thoughts of another. When I give a compliment I am sharing my experience with someone, it is an honor to be accepted for believing what I do.”

– Hannah Marcotti

 And I tried to remind myself that it was possible to accept a sweet compliment without qualifying it.  And to be kinder to myself than I could ever imagine would be possible, or allowed (Jen Lee nod).  So I decided that being kind to myself would be my intention today.

But then after a few unnecessary snaps at my husband this morning, I saw that the kindness also needed to be extended outside myself.

So I struggled for a while between whether I needed my intention to be focused on giving myself support… or giving my loved ones support, before I realized that choosing was silly.  And perhaps even abusing the point of this daily intention.  If kindness is what I feel is needed right now, I can dole it out to myself and my family simultaneously.

So here’s to being kind.

And here’s to hoping this intention seeps into my other days, and becomes a new reflex.

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