The Power of Setting Intentions - For the New Year

The Power of Setting Intentions

As we enter into the new year, what are you focusing on?

So it’s a new year, have you set your intentions for your BEST YEAR YET? One of the tips I shared in the planning series was to set an intention for a theme for the new year.

Mine is focused on FOUNDATIONS for 2019. While my first response to that coming up in a dream over the holidays was… really?! That isn’t glamourous or sparkly or exciting. Buuuuut, I can see how it will set me up for awesomeness!

My values are relationships with myself and others, health & wellness, excellence & leadership plus creativity.

So when I was tuning into my intention (or theme) for the year... with the goal of improving my health, growing my family and coaching business while having a positive impact on the world, FOUNDATIONS was the word that came to me. 

I know that focusing on the foundation of my life, there will be a solid base to build on in the future. 

So I've decided to go with it  since it does actually summarize my goals and priorities, values and vision for the year into one nicely packaged word. 

What about you? What is your theme or intention for the new year??? 

If you don't have one yet, no worries! You're in the right place! 

And if you do, the guided meditation and journaling exercise may add deeper clarity to your theme/intention and you can use this approach again anytime through the year.

I actually use this approach in a smaller version each season as well since summer has a totally different energy and focus than winter. 

So let's jump in, shall we?

So what is your intention or theme for the upcoming year???

If you aren’t sure and haven’t set your intentions for the year, I encourage you to take time this week to meditate and/or journal it out and come up with your focus.

Setting intentions does a few things:

• It helps you maintain focus on what matters most so you can prioritize your energy and time.

• Plus it’s also like planting a seed into your subconscious mind that ends up creating its own momentum.

• Once you’ve set an intention, then you are more likely to see and attract opportunities that will help you with your intended goals.

In yoga philosophy, intention-setting is called san-kalpa. According to one definition, the word can be described as:

“A vow that comes from the very core of your heart

-- the place of your deepest truth.

It is different than a goal, in that it's a longing that comes from your highest self instead of your thinking brain.”

To tune into your deepest truth, you may want to try doing a deepest personal values exercise.

Knowing what is most important to you on this

deeper level will help you create your own powerful

San-Kalpa Intentions for this new year.

To do this, set aside some time to meditate or journal on what comes up for you when you ask yourself these questions:

1. What are my deepest personal values?
2. What am I longing for?
3. What would I love to create this year/season?
4. What is most important?
5. What does my soul want me to know/focus on?

A similar Deepest Personal Values guided meditation was done as part of an experiment with a bunch of MBA students and those that identified their deepest personal values reported lower levels of stress and higher levels of achievement than the students that did not identify their deepest personal values. And I can say personally, staying connected helped me manage my stress and stay focused on my priorities during my studies a couple of years ago.

I believe this is because under periods of stress such as starting full time school while working full time, without a focus on what matters most, people can easily get overwhelmed and lose focus on what is most important. This is when things get unnecessarily hard, difficult and our health and well being suffer.

But when we focus on our deepest personal values first, then we can go into any activity whether it is a short-term stress like school or other regular life ups-and-downs of running a business, work and general personal life stuff, we are able to prioritize and stay focused on what really matters!

If you’d like to follow a Deepest Personal Values guided meditation, you can download it here as my gift to you :)

I have shared this exercise at numerous workshops and classes. My clients prefer to first do a guided meditation to tune-into their deeper levels of being. Then after the meditation, they journal about what came up and explore it deeper.

Beautiful relaxing music, maybe some candles, your favourite journal and a delicious cup of tea will also help you create the space and mood to make this an enjoyable and fun self-reflection exercise!

Create your own intention for this new season by connecting to your deepest personal values , truth and desires of your heart to make the most of the next 90 days to create your (im)possible future and make it come true!

Enjoy <3

Much love,

Sarah