It requires you to use your mind to envision what you really want, deep down inside of yourself and to apply your mind to that vision. Sounding weird? Well, that’s ok. Read on, dear traveller, for this is juicy stuff, trust me. It’s how you have happened upon reading this very book! Intention made this book happen.
First, this is about knowing what you want in life. It’s about discerning this and being true to yourself – it’s about you not being afraid to live how you want to live!
Then, once you know what you want – it could be to live in a funky house in nature somewhere, it could be buying that fancy electric bicycle, or it could be working in that dream job you’ve wanted since you were eight years old – you use the power of intention get it!
In order for it to happen on the outside, you need to envision it on the inside. It’s about focusing and harnessing the power of your mind – to have what you want to happen in your life happen!
The warrior practice below guides you how to do this but let me just give you an example of how setting my intention has worked in my own life.
I live in an awesome cottage in the middle of the countryside. It’s peaceful, calm and lovely. I feel peaceful here. But this didn’t just happen by chance. I made it happen.
Sick of living in downtrodden, shared flats and having just read a book on ‘The Power of Intention’, I decided to put this intention thing into practice. It sounded more than a little hippy to me, but I thought I’d give it a shot anyway as I didn’t have much to lose. The book advised me to draw and/or write out what I wanted in my life on a piece of paper. So, I drew my dream cottage, as a basic childlike drawing. The book said I should sit and meditate with that drawing, and then bring it into my meditation. So, I did. Just by doing this, suddenly it was that bit more real in my mind – I had taken my dream from being some distant fantasy into something that I could see and feel in my mind. I meditated upon having that cottage, finding it and living in it. It felt good.
Six months later, there it was – boom! I was living in my dream cottage in rural Somerset, surrounded by woodland and a little river. Bosh. Cottage intended = cottage manifested.
Somehow, by setting my intention and making it more real by drawing it and meditating upon it, things started to happen. I felt so much more strongly that this was meant to be that I began to take small but decisive steps towards it. This created a momentum that built over the weeks and months until I was able to make my dream a reality.
This really does work. Seeing something in your mind that you really, really want, then holding that vision in your mind until it becomes real – this is the power of intention. And it works. It’s bonkers and it’s incredibly powerful. And if you’d told me this concept a few years ago, I would have laughed at you for being a silly hippy. Now I’m sold. And I use the power of intention for everything I do in life. It’s like the universe actually wants to give us what we want. How crazy cool is that!
Warrior practice
Sit somewhere quiet and bring to mind something you really want in your life – be it a house, particular job, girlfriend/boyfriend, nice guitar. Hold this thing in your mind – see it.
Next, take a bit of paper and some crayons and draw it out. Now meditate upon what you have drawn – imagine yourself receiving this gift. See it coming into your life. Visualize it being a solid reality.
Notice how good it feels when you do this.
Repeat this once a day for the next few weeks and see what happens.
My tip to you would be to start small, and hopefully you will bring that thing that you want into your life. Also, you may experience some resistance from your mind when you start doing this practice. Blast through this and keep going. Hold onto that vision and keep meditating upon it. Remember, the universe wants you to have what you want to have.
15. TRUST YOUR INTUITION
Your ‘inner voice’. Do you listen to it? Can you hear it?
I’m not talking about the one that is permanently on in your brain – the analysing, judging, self-critical voice. Not that one. I’m talking about the quieter one. The one that’s deeper inside you. It’s called your intuition.
Intuition is the subtle, deep, calm, wise and knowing voice that’s inside every one of us. It’s the part of you that just knows. Some people call it our ‘gut feeling’. It’s the part that, deep down, knows what is best for you in every situation. Our job is to learn how to make enough space in our lives to listen to it and to allow it to be heard through all the noise – it’s a subtle, smart and powerful guidance system we were born with.
Part of the spiritual path is learning to uncover this voice so that it can be heard again, so that it can be a strong guide in our lives: showing us the way, directing our decisions with a quiet, wise and deeply knowing voice. Part of the problem of our modern age – with all its distractions, noise and information – is that our intuition can be drowned out. It requires quiet for us to hear it.
When we are permanently, or even semi-permanently, plugged in to our smartphones it’s difficult to hear the subtleties – the quieter knowing voice within. And this voice has gold for us. If we can only hear it, if we can develop a practice to quieten ourselves down enough to listen, then we may be able to start to develop a relationship with it. And when this happens, I guarantee it will lead you down a simpler, more authentic path to a less stressed, happier life.
So much of what is offered in our modern lives is encouraging us to look outside ourselves for answers. Whereas in fact we are SO full of wisdom already! Internally.
I live by my intuition. I let it guide me. I try not to live life so fast that I can’t hear it, and I let it steer me. Sometimes my mind gets in the way and I forget to listen, but somehow my intuition reminds me in its funny little way: ‘Hey dude! Here I am! Listen to me.’ And I do.
Warrior practice
It’s all about that ‘gut feeling’. Try to start making your decisions about life from your belly rather than from your mind. Your mind often overthinks things, whereas your gut (where your intuition lives) just KNOWS the best move forward in any given situation.
To practise trusting your intuition, each morning when you wake up bring to mind two or three decisions that you need to make that day. This could be as simple as what you are going to wear or eat for breakfast, or something a little more involved, such as which friend you might invite out for a drink. Whatever it is, make a conscious effort not to overthink the decision – just go with your gut. Don’t question it. Put on the shirt or dress that first came to mind, rather than umming and ahhing over the impression it might make.
Do this every day for a week or two and it will soon become a habit – a good habit. And then, next time you have a big life decision to make, take this intuition-following to the next level. Sit down, centre yourself and become still. Perhaps meditate for a few minutes – anything to quieten yourself down – and then listen. Listen for your inner guidance. Listen for that little voice that is inside you, and pay attention to what it is trying to tell you. You might well find that it gives you a really clear answer, rather than the one your chattering ‘monkey mind’ would have you listen to and get all frazzled about.
It’s all about the ‘inner listening’, people!