Intention

For a long time I’ve struggled with the idea of intention. Something seemed amiss and incomplete.

I’ve several books about intention and manifestation, including ‘The Secret’, and each time felt like there was something missing. I’ve come back to intention many times with the idea of discovering what intention is, how it works, what it means, what it means to me, and how to use it.

I finally found a concise version that makes perfect sense to me. It comes from the book ‘Calling in the One’ by Katherine Woodward Thomas. Here are the four parts:

1)      ‘a thought and/or belief in a particular possibility.’ You must know what you want and belief that it’s possible.

2)      ‘speak your intention out loud.’ Words have power and speaking them to others holds us accountable to what we really believe and want.

3)      ‘take actions that support the manifestation of your intention, and abstain from those that sabotage it.’ We must be willing to do something to get what we desire.

4)      ‘We must remain completely unattached to the outcomes that we are committed to creating.’

The fourth part is particularly powerful, and even paradoxical. We must live in a way that honors what we desire. We can be the captain of our ship and in command, but ultimately we can’t force anything on life, just as a sailor can’t pick the direction of the wind.

An intention is somewhat different from a goal which has definite ending and one we more often have control of. There is a similarity though – they must be realistic. We can have an intention or goal of running a marathon in 3 hours, but if we simply don’t have the physical makeup for that, no amount of faith or action will help. It’s okay to stretch as well to push yourself a little, and it still has to be realistic.

This simple pattern can be applied to anything from finding the perfect house to grilling the perfect salmon to meditation to driving. Time is irrelevant – living with integrity is not.

I summarized it in a poem

Intention is grounded in faith

    Spoken as truth

        Manifested through desire, power, and action.

Then released to the winds of time

    while we sail the vessel of our form with integrity.