This is a website devoted to living the intentional life. What do you think of when you imagine living an intentional life? Some people, I know, imagine it as setting goals and achieving them. Others believe that it is deciding what you want and making it happen. For example, deciding on where you want to work and the job you want to have there, and then doing the work it takes to get it done: getting the right education, starting at an entry level position and working up, perhaps doing an internship at the company or another firm that engages in the same business. These are all fine ways to live, and most of the successful people in the world will tell you to do that, but it is not living an intentional life. It is a determined life, a life of willpower and action for sure, but it is not the intentional life. That isn’t to say that internships and entry level positions aren’t part of living intentionally by any means. They can very easily be steps on the intentional journey, but the difference is the attitude or the reasons for doing them. Are you jumping through hoops to arrive at your goal or are you enjoying what you are doing as you move forward? The determined life is one of decision and struggle; it is one of mind and action. The intentional life is more of an emotional journey. Let’s take a look at what that journey might look like.
Let’s begin with a negative experience. It could be the loss of a job, the end of a relationship, or a failed project of some kind. It doesn’t have to be that big; it could be a disagreement with a friend, or some creative process that feels stuck. It is in these negative moments, the times when we are experiencing what we don’t want, that we see most clearly what we do want. We get a clearer idea of the job we want to have or what a happy relationship looks like for us. We see the light more clearly in the dark, even if it’s a faint glimmer, and seeing that glimmer, gives us the beginnings of a sense of hope. We can see our renewal on the horizon and we begin to feel a spark of optimism. Perhaps our sense of purpose is revitalized or we get a faint or nascent inspiration. When we feel this shift, we can know that we have started to loosen our resistance and have shifted direction just a little bit.
We will now begin to feel, slowly at first perhaps, that we are moving forward. We have turned in the direction our intention is flowing and we are starting to move along with it. Our intention was set during the negative experience, but we had to let go of our resistance to what is to be able to move in the direction of where we want to go. And now, as momentum begins, we start to take some action. We may find that our creativity has increased. Our love for life has increased as well, and we may find some new relationships. They could be with new friends or coworkers, or they may even be of a romantic nature, but we are now open to different people. We begin to see things manifesting for us. We may now earn or discover we have more money. There will be new opportunities available to us, and we start developing new skills to match them. We may also want to go acquire some new skills from a desire to learn not only to match some plan for achieving another goal.
The more we grow and develop, the more we will give. The more we receive with the flow of intention, the more generous we will feel because we are secure in our continued receiving. We share the wealth. Wealth is not only financial, though it certainly includes money, but also resources such as time, attention, interest, and emotion. We are now more excited to give because we feel so full on a regular basis. We also explore more opportunities and behave more spontaneously. Some people might begin to say we are being impulsive, or we aren’t doing what we’re supposed to do. They may believe we aren’t suffering enough for our success, and that is a good thing. What they are actually noticing is that we are following our own inner voice more than convention or the examples of others. We are surrendering to the flow of our lives. We have let go of our imagined control to the current of intention, and with this we have gained an entirely new perspective on life and how to live it.
Our positive attitudes have increased exponentially. We are having fun and see a path of continued success and attainment. This path now increases our vitality rather than weighs us down and exhausts us. This is because we are not struggling to get things done because we have to, but because we are enjoying the process and are following our inspiration. We have occasional epiphanies and spiritual realizations. We may feel the call of the Divine within us. We may even begin to feel an inner awakening and a spiritual realization. Our intuition is now much more available to us and we may feel we have discovered some new sacred knowledge shining within our hearts. This is partly due to the fact that we are now so open and aligned with the fullness of ourselves, the eternal Self and the physically manifested self, that our subconscious minds are also available to us. Many of us fear our unconscious minds because it is so mysterious and seems to be filled with dark and dangerous secrets. However, the light of spirit dispels the darkness and shining gems that are hidden there are revealed. Sacred knowledge and intuition have always been there and available. Nothing is deliberately hidden from us, but we are so closed off and closed down, that we cannot reach it. We now have open channels within ourselves.
Because we are so open, our energy levels are consistently higher than before. We feel passion, and we take inspired action to manifest those passions. Where others see impulsiveness and perhaps even impetuousness, we know we are living purely in intention and have the power of our full brains: left and right, logical and analytical as well as holistic and intuitive. We celebrate more and live more in joy, not because of some accomplishment or success, but because we know there is no conclusion to anything. We are celebrating the process of our lives and the sights, sounds, and experiences along the way. We feel more prosperous, and the more prosperous we feel, the more prosperous we become. And then, the more prosperous we feel. This is the cycle of growth and manifestation that is living the intentional life. There will still be negative experiences and events, large and small, but we will not be hit as hard by them, and we will be able to pick ourselves up more easily rather than being knocked down for the count. We may even begin to appreciate the negative events because we realize that they are helping us to clarify our desires for our lives and create more: deeper relationships, creative expressions, wisdom and knowledge, and material things as well. The flow of intention, when not resisted, increases in momentum. It brings us ever closer to lives of love, joy, wellbeing, and clear awareness.
