Set Your Intention
I’m sure you’ve had the experience of waking up, feeling groggy, getting ready for your day, and then just letting the events of the day sweep you away until you find yourself back in bed right where you started. It can feel like there is some other force driving your life and you are along for the ride. It’s a bit unsettling.
This is where a simple practice of setting your intention for the day can help.
Setting your intention is like setting a proactive filter for your brain. If you don’t set your intention for the day, then your default filters (which tend to be negative) will interpret your circumstances for you. And that’s what they’re good at, except that our default negative filters for understanding ourselves and our circumstances often cause unnecessary suffering.
Your default filters might sound like: I don’t want to go to work today. I hate this job. I’m trapped here and I can’t get out. My life is wasting away. If only I could win the lottery.
You’re welcome to continue to live by your old default filters, but the stories they produce are likely making you feel miserable.
What is a positive intention that you can set instead?
It might sound like: Today I am grateful to have a job. Today I will look to bless another person. Perhaps today is the day when I choose to put out some resumes for a new job. Maybe I might actually have some fun today. Today I will be appreciative of what I have.
Here is the thing to remember. You will set your intention for the day or your defaults will set it for you. We are always seeing our life through some kind of perspective, whether positive or negative. Setting a positive intention does not protect you from experiencing uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. That’s just life. But it does give you a target to aim at when you feel off. It will help you keep things in perspective so that you decrease your suffering, and focus your energy on more of the right things.
One positive intention that I’ve been practicing recently is: I am joyfully present. When I feel anxious, angry, or overwhelmed, I simply pause, take a few slow breaths, and return to my positive intention. I return to what I can control and what is right in front of me, and consider how I might be able to practice being joyfully present in whatever my circumstances happen to be.
What is a positive intention that you can set for yourself today?
Happy to be in your corner,
Tom Page, LCPC
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