‘Intentionality – the fact of being deliberate’ was the word I chose to step into 2021 with. Intention without action is really the road to hell and personal disappointment and victimhood. It’s hard to have a sense of I AM, when you aren’t manifesting your dreams and aspirations. I found the equation for I AM: Intention + Action = Manifestation really brought it home for me. It slowly permeated the density of my programming.
After a year of living in a self-imposed dazed state of survival and reaching for as many dopamine hits, I could get down my throat just to not feel the level of anxiety and fear that was presenting itself in my body, I have been more determined than ever for this year to not be lived like the last.
The indelible mark of 2020 was a significant Covid cushion, which had me feeling like I was literally carrying the weight of 2020 and out of touch with discipline and structure, which have always been foundational for me.
I would wake up each week in lockdown with the intention of extended fasting and intermittent fasting to reset and recalibrate my relationship with food as my drug of choice and when I never made it through my intended number of days of fasting, I would self-sabotage and self-flagellate and have a banquet to narcotise my disappointment in myself and so it went for 10 months. Having 10 months to really see my programme in action, armed me with the data I needed to become more conscious each day. We know what we need to be doing; and somehow acting in contradiction to our knowing we grow in distrust of ourselves and are ultimately out of integrity; falling into a victim pattern instead of being the creator of our lives.
I have been a food addict who then replaced food with running until I had run myself to some pretty serious injury and now, I am confronted with finally finding a modicum of moderation in everything at the age of 51. Better late than never. So determined am I to finally break this long-held life pattern that I’ve established an intentional practice of marking with an ‘X’ each day on a calendar where I have been living in accordance with my intentions. The visual of a line-up of X’s has a profound and reinforcing effect on me, as does the returning feeling of vitality and wellness.
An intentional day’s actions to support an optimized, vital and conscious way of being and manifesting in the world for me; looks like this:
- Daily meditation and breathwork practice which serves to connect me to myself and makes me aware of the thought patterns that are running in the background so that I can address them. It ensures that I am less prone to be disrupted by my external environment and instead cultivates my inner world which then manifests externally – as within so without.
- Daily movement to optimise my energy system maintaining flexibility and fitness. These include what I call trotting (walking & running combined) and yoga – one gets my heart rate pumping and the other keeps me in balance and bendy.
- Daily focus on intermittent fasting principles and wholefood to ensure hormonal balance, focus and clarity of mind, as well as a more consistent source of energy.
- Connecting with friends, family and community each day to avoid feelings of isolation and loneliness.
- Intentional action to implement ideas and bring my gifts into the world.
- Connecting with my dreams each day, to remind myself of what it is I want for my life. This is relatively new for me as I have tended to shy away from dreaming too big, but not anymore.
- Deep restorative sleep for at least 7-8 hours a night.
When we turn our focus to the daily habits practiced consistently over time, we create the life we dream of. Instead of focusing on the outcome, which can feel so big and overwhelming, focus on the daily intentions as actions that move towards the desired outcome. It is these consistent life affirming habits that yield success, not the thinking or knowing, but the doing.
All of this ensures that we are able to hold higher vibrational energy and meet the demands of the lives we choose with the magic that sets us on fire to bring our purpose to life. Being able to take up space in the world and declare ‘I AM HERE’ is our birthright and a place of undoing all of the programming that has limited the ability to manifest dreams. Bringing ourselves back from the void of unintentional inaction is the ongoing work requiring higher levels of consciousness and an acknowledgement of our tendency to fall asleep to our lives from time to time.
What beautiful dream lies dormant within you and what’s the plan to breathe life into it?