Let’s really dive in and unpack WHY Intention is so dang important and powerful!

1. Intention. Take a moment to realize what it is.

You can’t take any action at all unless you know what you want. 

Every action begins with the intent that drives the action.

Before you take a step forward, you intend it first, even if this is a fleeting unconscious process. 

Many of our daily intentions are made unconsciously.

You don’t really think about taking a step before you put out your foot to move.  

Many of our actions are done unconsciously, and for good reason – no need to consciously consider each step as you walk down the street.  As you walk, as long as you have a general direction, you’re moving in the right direction. But without at least that direction, you’re lost, wandering, or stopped.   

This is true for your spiritual practice as well as your business.  

Without Intent, you are lost, wandering or stuck.  

What you want is important.  

Knowing what you want is an art.  

This is the Art of Intention.

2. Free Choice

Now let’s take Intention a step further.  Because setting a general intention is one thing – it sets your direction.  With a bit more specificity and passion, though, that Intention becomes a conscious Choice.

As human beings, we have the gift and burden of Free Choice.   We choose what we do, under our current circumstances. Sometimes our choices are limited by circumstances, but we do have choice.  Always.  

I talk to spirit a lot.  Like, for a living. 😉 And I often get the message that even our spirit guides are kind of shaking their heads in disbelief about the crazy stuff we do. Could it be that no one in the heavens or on earth can predict what a human is going to do?  We do make some pretty wild and crazy and illogical choices.  

Yet it seems to be that our ability to consciously choose is a precious thing that humans do. This is our divine gift.  I’ve been taught by my teachers that Free Choice is a primary law of earth.  

Imagine this – the angels and heavenly helpers can’t come down to help us without us making a choice to let them in. 

“Ask and ye shall receive.”  

“Turn your life over to your Higher Power.”  

It matters that we choose to open the door – to let spirit in.

So perhaps the mystery schools are right. God does not come down and meddle and fix everything.  This Earth is our playground to explore and learn. We are the ones in the bodies, so we are the ones in charge down here. If we want help from the cosmos, we must choose it, and even ask.  

I do believe that asking for help from the angels opens a great big door to letting them come in –  angels who would love nothing more than to help me! Those powerful angels need to be given permission through my asking.

When setting your intention for a change in your life, a healing, an improvement, you are directing your Free Choice.  You are forming and stating an Intention.

3. What is Intent?

Intent, or intention, is an expression of what you want to happen.  For example, in writing this article my intent is to provide you, the reader, with information and tools that you can take into your life and utilize on your unique path.  Without this Intent, I would have no motivation to write this. I would have no help from my higher power in setting out these words, because I never would have known what to ask for.  I simply would not take the time to do it. I wouldn’t be motivated.

In all things, your Intent is the steering wheel for your work.  It provides the direction for your energy. The more specific and motivated you are in your Intent, the more power you have in moving forward.

Intent is comprised of two aspects, the specificity of what you want in accordance with your Highest Good, and how much you want it – your desire.

4. The Power of Specificity

A specific intent gets specific results.  So the first question you must ask yourself is what do you want?  This seems deceptively easy. You may ask for a loving relationship to come your way.  This is a relatively general request. Or you may focus your request to ask for a committed loving relationship that leads to the formation of a family with a couple kids and a dog.  This is a bit more specific. Or you may ask for a red-headed Irish spouse who loves shortbread and playing checkers!

Picture a broad laser beam searching your world like a roving spotlight.  A general intent is like this wide laser beam that illuminates many things.  A very specific intent is like a narrow laser beam that cuts sharply and distinctly through the Universe, attracting only that very narrow choice or outcome.  At this point, you may hear your Grandma’s voice in your head warning you about the dangers of choosing what you want in life… “Be careful of what you ask for – you just might get it!”

There is a balance between being specific enough in our choices and intentions that we draw the desired result to us, without being too specific to exclude an unexpected opportunity or surprise gift from the Universe that doesn’t fall within our limited parameters.  This is where it is helpful to understand and utilize the concept of the Highest Good.

5. Intend the Highest Good

One kind of general Intent is to state your intent for the Highest Good.  This is like praying to God “Thy will be done” – a conscious statement that you are not sure which choice is best, but you want the best result for everyone.  The Highest Good is the perfection of the Divine Plan, leading to peace, love, unity… the good stuff.

Your own Highest Good is that which leads to your personal evolution as guided and directed by your Higher Self – the over-reaching part of your soul that knows all about the lessons you are here to learn, who wants you to learn them in the best way possible resulting in the most good for your spiritual evolution.  

Your Higher Self is the one who knows what’s in your Highest Good.  Your conscious self doesn’t always know this, because your conscious self is the one here on Earth with the desires, hungers, passions, and distractions of living a material life in a physical body.  

While we’re here on Earth, we can’t see the bigger picture like our Higher Self can.  But we CAN choose what is in our Highest Good, provided we do not restrict the results too much. 

For example, “I intend to find the career that serves my Highest Good at this time…. unless it makes under $500K, has no benefits package, or is more than 10 miles drive from my house.”  Um, oops! Now you’re restricting the access of your helpers to direct you towards the job that is in your highest good if it does not meet with all of your demands!

I recommend that you, right now, state out loud your Intent that everything in your life from this point forward be guided in the direction of the Highest Good – for yourself, and, if you are willing, for Highest Good of the Earth and all of her children.  You may choose to make this an overriding Intent, so that whenever you ask for specific things, there is an agreement between you and Spirit that if what you ask for is not in your Highest Good, you don’t really want it. I have found this a very useful “catch-all” for when I’m praying and manifesting.  It prevents me from using my shamanic tools to do something that is not in my Highest Good, or that could upset the balance of the Earth and the others I share her with.\

6. Intent Transmission is Constant & Universal

You may think that Intention is only working for you when you make a conscious choice. Nope. It’s ALWAYS at work in your life, even when you’re not paying attention!

We are constantly transmitting our Intent out into the Universe.  Each thought we have, all day every day, is sending out a laser beam of Intention.  Each person walking the earth is constantly transmitting lots of laser beams outward, and these are affecting the energy all around them.

As a woman appraises herself in the mirror and finds herself beautiful, she sends that transmission outward.  Other people resonate with that transmission, and find her attractive. As she swears in her car at another driver she imagines is purposefully torturing her with inattentive driving, that transmission is sent out, and others who resonate with the judgment against other drivers are drawn to her.  She will likely encounter more frustration on the road that day, since that is the energy she is calling in.

You can probably feel this in your day-to-day life.  Some people walk into a room with such positive vibrations, that everyone in the room perks up with a smile.  Other people carry such negative transmissions that, without even “doing” or saying anything, they can irritate people in the room.  Some people are so comfortable with money and wealth that they transmit abundance to the Universe, and abundance always finds them. Some people with the opposite transmission are stuck in Poverty Consciousness – a term that is more & more widely known as people open up to their responsibility to co-create their own lives with the Divine.  Someone stuck in Poverty Consciousness is constantly pinching pennies, living as if they will be destitute tomorrow – regardless of how much money they actually have in the bank. This attitude transmits lack of abundance into the Universe, and so people, situations, and opportunities that resonate with lack of abundance come back to that person.

So you might as well take responsibility for the Intent you are transmitting into the Universe on a constant basis.  The challenge is to become conscious of what you are transmitting. Most of our thoughts are unconscious defense mechanisms. When we are willing, however, to see our own challenges and difficulties – our “imperfections” – without shying away, then we can dissemble these defense mechanisms, and become more conscious in our thoughts and actions.  From a place of consciousness, we can then choose to focus on thoughts that support the Highest Good.

You can use affirmations, choose to focus on a positive attitude, or sit in meditation to clear the negative thought patterns.  You can use prayer and your own free will to focus on good stuff and gratitude. Because we have Free Choice, we are capable of literally changing our minds, of choosing which thoughts to focus on, of choosing which emotions to give energy to.  Through focusing our Intent, we have the power to shape our own Lives. Yes, Intention is an Art!

So let me leave you with this question: