With the arrival of a new year comes anticipation for the next 12 months and… reflection on my journey over the past 12 months. I stopped setting New Year’s resolutions a long time ago. Instead, I set intentions for myself that I fine tune and adapt as my year progresses. Another time I love to recalibrate my intentions is on my birthday, when my personal year starts!
The language we use is so important: Using the word “intention” to describe what I strive for also provides me the flexibility I crave so that I never feel obligated to “work” towards perfection, or an intention that no longer serves me. I don’t ever want my intentions to feel like work.
I navigate toward my intentions using a compass bearing in the direction of the way I want to feel, using my feelings as a beacon of light: the more I achieve alignment between my intentions and how I want to feel, the more blissful I am on the inside and the more radiant I am on the outside. This approach provides me the “structure” of a method to set my intentions and the “flexibility” of re-visiting these intentions to determine whether they continue to serve me as a good compass and guide as my year progresses.
Since intentions can be set and adjusted at anytime during the year when I set my mind into a mode of exploration and change, there are two inspirational tools that I find myself re-visiting:
Susannah Conway’s Find Your Word also provides a gentle way to reflect on the past year and contemplate intentions for the year ahead.
Briana and Peter Borten’s Rituals For Living Dreambook, which brings a thoughtful ‘big picture’ approach to intention setting by tapping into how those intentions align with each individual’s purpose and core values.
How about you: How will your feelings inform your intentions throughout this year? 