Setting mindful intentions

The New Year is here and many of you will be setting your New Year's resolutions soon and probably wondering how you can do so in a mindful way. In mindfulness we are taught to experience life as it happens, in any given moment. But how do we create reachable and flexible targets, that also take care of the mind? In this post I want to explore with you how practicing your intentions will free you from your own pressure AND you'll still see the results you're after. 

The first step is to take away the word "goal" from your vocabulary. That word is what we call a 'sticky' word in mindfulness. Most of us set ourselves overly ambitious goals that we struggle to reach and often end in negative consequences. Instead, we want to focus on setting our intentions and creating positive habits, that ultimately lead to working on some of our goals. But what is the difference between intentions and goals? Where goals are usually how you wish to get from point A to point B, an intention is a direction you wish to pursue. When you start shifting your mindset from achieving something to working towards it and understanding the intention behind it; you'll start to feel less weight on your shoulders, less pressure on what you think you need to have in order to be happy, and you'll feel more comfortable with where you're at now.
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1. Set your intentions. Let's start by setting ourselves an intention and I encourage you to write yours down. For example, your intention could be to nourish your body more in order to feel more energised. This intention will positively impact how you feel and can be met in may different ways such as exercising more or eating healthier.
   
2. Break it down. Now we need to think about how we're going to go about practicing this intention. For example, you could practice this intention by cooking more wholesome meals in the week. Simple and something for us to work towards. When you work on your intentions you do not want to overwhelm yourself with lots of changes, but you do want to start with small positive habits that are within your reach. 
   
3. Start practicing and go easy on yourself. Dependant on your schedule you could set yourself the task of preparing and cooking a wholesome meal 2 nights a week to get you started. Scheduling in these nights will help you keep it in your mind, without feeling the pressure to squeeze it in. Remember to allow yourself flexibility to change that schedule if you need to. 

Now we have set an achievable intention with some small steps to practice towards it. In life we're always learning and practicing, and despite what we're often taught, there's no linear path that we can all follow. So when you're ready to set some resolutions, really think about your intentions behind it and how you're going to break it down, or whether you think it's something you must do in order to be happier.