An Intentional Life
July 1st, 2009
The Chinese symbol for “intention” is composed two distinct characters. The upper character means “present“ and the lower character means “heart“.
This morning I received a wonderful newsletter article from my friend, Donald Altman. I read it and read it again and I immediately saw the connection with my previous blog on “having a practice.”
“Intentions may be harmful, beneficial, or neutral in what they produce. Intentions are the seeds you plant to produce the eventual yield of your life. When repeated time and time again, the grooves created by intention turn into a habit. Habit then shapes your brain, your character, and life. The problem comes when intentions are unconscious or unheeded, and you are not the master of intentionality. One good easy way to create intentionality is to simply practice it. Set intentions throughout the day for breathing, walking, sitting, standing, driving, and talking.”
–Donald Altman, MA
Eating disorder recovery would be so simple if all we had to do was set our intentions throughout the day and then honor the intentions we have set. I would like all of my patients begin the day by setting their intentions with regards to food. They would set an intention to eat whole foods, in a healthy way, following their meal plans, and they would set their intentions for dealing with stress throughout the day.
As an example, “If my mother won’t listen to me, I intend to leave the room or terminate our phone conversation.” Another one might be, “When I meet my friend for lunch and she continues to comment on the food I’m eating, I intend to tell her that I won’t have lunch with her again.”
My patients would set their intention regarding exercise, staying within healthy limits. They would set their positive intentions in regards to a “practice” such as yoga or meditation or writing, and resolve to practice mindfulness throughout the day.
It’s a wonderful thing to lead a life based on positive intentions rather than on simply avoiding relapse. Now comes the difficult part: trusting your higher power/God/the universe to bring you these gifts! We must allow space in our lives to allow the universe to bring to us something that is even better than anything we might have dreamed.
If we let our emotions guide us when we set positive intentions, if we feel like our energy is in a positive flow, we’ll know we’re on the right track. If we feel “un-easy” or “dis-eased,” we’ll know that we not doing what we need to do in regards to the intentions we’re setting. We need to pay attention to the feelings in our bodies, not the feelings in our heads. Feelings in our bodies never lie to us!
