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Today, let's reawaken our deepest intentions so that we can realign our actions with what is most important.

As we wake up to what we really are, the wisdom of our hearts grows louder. From the stillness of our heart, clarity into our most liberating intentions is found. We can trust in this boundless radiant presence of our awakening hearts. Inspiring seeds for a beautiful future takes root each time we remember what it is that is most important.


📖 INSPIRED POEM

Half Life
by Stephen Levine

We walk through half our life
as if it were a fever dream

barely touching the ground

our eyes half open
our heart half closed.

Not half knowing who we are
we watch the ghost of us drift
from room to room
through friends and lovers
never quite as real as advertised.

Not saying half we mean
or meaning half we say
we dream ourselves
from birth to birth
seeking some true self.

Until the fever breaks
and the heart can not abide
a moment longer
as the rest of us awakens,
summoned from the dream,
not half caring for anything but love.


🧸 LET'S REFLECT

What intention is operating right now?

A limbic intention is rooted in fear, grasping, addiction, doubt, shame, defensiveness ... the ego's will.

A liberating intention is rooted in love, freedom, peace, joy ... the heart's will.

How do we wake up from a limbic intention, into our more mature/evolved being? We recognize what's happening and bring kindness to it.


🧘 MINDFUL MOMENT

Bringing attention inward. Feel this body breathing. Arriving more fully into presence.

Bringing a recent situation to mind that triggered reactivity within you.

Noticing what aspects of this situation were uncomfortable for you.

Noticing any egoic intentions to protect, or defend, or separate.

Sensing what unmet needs your feeling? What is at the core of your reactivity?

Hand on the heart, bringing compassion to whatever you notice.

What do you really long for within this situation? What is the heart's will? What really matters here? What is the deeper intention?

How would your awakening heart respond more compassionately to this situation?

How does this situation help to deepen your wisdom and awaken your heart and mind?



👯‍♂️ COMMUNITY CONVERSATION

What is one liberating intention you've discovered to be at the core of your being?

Join the community at https://intentioninspired.com

Today, let's get back in touch with our deepest intention so that we can live in more alignment with the truth of what we really are.

"Before you agree to do anything that might add even the smallest amount of stress to your life, ask yourself, "What is my truest intention?"

Give yourself time to let a yes resound within you. When it's right, I guarantee that your entire body will feel it."

― Oprah Winfre


👁 TODAY'S INTENTION

When we are in touch with our deepest intention, we embody a sincere loving presence that manifests beauty, freedom, and love. Let's feel more into this core of what we are by remembering, embodying, and inhabiting the deepest yearnings of an awakening heart.


🧸 HAVE YOU NOTICED?

Our deepest intention is what we are.

When we go really deep, beyond the survival-mode intentions, we find that our deeper intention is love—that's what we are.

Beyond the limbic intentions that run off of patterns of the past and anxieties of the future, we find that our deeper intention is awareness—that's what we are.

Beyond our egoic desires, our deeper intention is connectedness—that's what we are.

"Gamble everything for love, if you are a true human being. If not, leave this gathering. Half-heartedness doesn’t reach into majesty."
― Rumi


🧸 LET'S REFLECT

Three qualities to recognize our deepest intention:

(1) Our deepest intention is embodied—does my whole body resounds with a passionate yes?

(2) Our deepest intention applies now—does this intention relate to this present moment?

(3) Our deepest intention is manifesting potential—does this intention inspire and ignite my creative life force energy?


🧘 MINDFUL MOMENT

Taking a moment to feel your body breathing you.

Feel the life that's here.

Reflecting on the truth of impermanence.

Letting the fact that everything will change, awaken us to our deepest aspirations.

If you had a year to live, what would you do? What would you want to experience? What would your longing be? What would matter? Letting this be as real as it can be.

If you had a week to live, what would you do? What would you want to experience? What would really matter to your heart?

If you had a day to live, what would you do? What would you want to experience? What would really matter to your heart? What would you long for? What would you care about?

If you had just a few moments to live, what would you do? What would you want to experience? What would your heart long for? What would most matter?

Letting this longing fill your mind, body, and heart.

Whatever the longing ... for love, for light, for healing, for connection, for peace ... letting it be as big as it is

Filling your whole being with this liberating intention.

–––

"For I have learned that every heart will get What it prays for Most."
— Hafez

–––

👯‍♂️ COMMUNITY CONVERSATION

If this was your last day to live, what would you do?

Join the fam and access our expansive library of intentions at http://intentioninspired.com

Today, let's nurture those emotionally reactive parts of ourself by combining two powerful methods of self-compassion.

Self-compassion naturally arises in the moments that we recognize we are suffering and intentionally nurture our inner life with self-care. When the intention to awaken self-compassion is sincere, the smallest gesture of turning towards love, of offering love (even if initially it feels awkward) will nourish your heart, ease the mind, heal the body, and feed the soul.


⚒️ THE METHOD

Let's merge two powerful methods of awakening through self-compassion.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is the evidence-based psychotherapy model that reveals how each of our inner "parts" contains valuable qualities (especially those reactive parts). Each of these parts are sub-personalities of our core Self—that knows how to heal, allowing us to become integrated and whole.

RAIN is a synonym for paying attention (Recognize, Accept, Investigate, Nurture) that helps us presence our reactive parts and provide the support for working with intense and difficult emotions.


🧘 LET'S PRACTICE

Let's move through the practice of RAIN while compassionately speaking directly to a reactive part of our self:

Taking a moment to get comfortable. Creating stillness. Taking a few breaths to invite all of yourself to this moment.

Bringing to mind a part of your self that has been experiencing difficult emotional reactivity recently.

R – Recognize what is happening, by asking this part:

How as this part been feeling emotionally reactive and unsettled? What sensations does this bring up?

A – Allow life to be just as it is, by letting this part know:

I see you. Yes, you are welcome here. Thank you for making yourself known. It's okay to be here. I know you have something valuable to share.

I – Investigate ­with a curious attention, by asking this part:

How do you want to be with me? What emotions are you feeling right now? What do you most need right now?

N – Nurture with loving presence, by affirming to this part:

I'm sorry for the ways I may have disregarded you. Please forgive me for the ways I have not been listening. Thank you for showing me what you need to feel nurtured and whole. I love you.

Be still for another minute or two and let yourself rest in this clearing.


📿 TRAIL MANTRA

All parts are welcome.


👯‍♂️ COMMUNITY CONVERSATION

What is one way you can show yourself more self-compassion today?

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Today, let's reclaim more life-force energy by releasing patterns, again and again, with patient endurance.

Once we recognize a pattern and develop a practice to disidentify with it, the last step is to release the pattern again and again with the practice. Whenever the pattern rises, release it with attention. Step by step, all the triggers, associations, and components of the pattern are identified and we are able to experience them in attention. The unreleased experience is released in awareness, and the pattern falls apart.


🧸 HAVE YOU NOTICED?

The power of patterns to degrade attention is impressive.

Most patterns have been in place for a long time. They consist of solid structures of beliefs, personality traits, and behaviors. They use every available resource to degrade attention—exaggerated fears, distorted perceptions, depression, elaborate realizations, or physical illness. So good on you! It's courageous and commendable work to consistently dismantle a pattern and reclaim the precious life-force energy they require to operate.




🦁 COURAGEOUS ACTION

Consistent releasing is the key to freedom.

As we observe and release deeper and deeper into a pattern's structure, the energy stored in the pattern is released. The energy of the pattern, which is transformed into attention, increases our ability to release deeper into the pattern. The more a pattern is released, the more energy the pattern will try to consume to maintain its operation. Consistency in the form of patient endurance is the only way to get through.


💪 LET'S PRACTICE!

Whenever a pattern arises, release it immediately, with consistent R & R:

(1) Recognize when your attention is being overtaken by a pattern.
Initial recognition of a pattern usually takes place after it operates because its very function is to erode attention.

(2) Releasing the pattern by bringing attention to its operation.
Notice how the operation of the pattern affects your emotions, body, and mind.

Repeat as often as you notice a pattern.

In the end, the work of releasing patterns comes down to a single question: who is going to live your life—you or your patterns?

Recognize and Release whenever you can, it may just save your life.


📣 TRAIL MANTRA

With this breath, I release.


👯‍♂️ COMMUNITY CONVERSATION

What one thing has been key to your commitment of releasing patterns?

👋 Join the community conversation at https://iam.intentioninspired.com

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Today, let's develop a simple and reliable practice that interrupts the attention-erosion process of a pattern.

"If someone comes along and shoots an arrow into your heart, it’s fruitless to stand there and yell at the person. It would be much better to turn your attention to the fact that there’s an arrow in your heart."
— Pema Chödrön, Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living


👁 TODAY'S INTENTION

The purpose of a pattern interrupting practice is to reclaim the energy and attention that a pattern needs to run. The practice can be very simple—for instance, if you observe that you are triggered into reactivity by stop-and-go traffic, rest your attention on your breath whenever the traffic comes to a stop. Constant observation inevitably reveals other possibilities—let's explore!


🧐 HAVE YOU NOTICED?

Patterns are only limited by the amount of energy available to them.

Patterns have no internal mechanisms that limit their operation or evolution. To dismantle a pattern, we have to disrupt the operation of the pattern by systematically bringing attention to its operation. The energy then flows into attention, not into the pattern.


💪 LET'S PRACTICE

Simplicity and consistency for the win!

Intentionally changing our behavior from a well-set pattern can be challenging. But as we play with different ways to practice reclaiming our attention, identification with a pattern becomes weaker and weaker.

(1) Bring to mind a common pattern you've noticed running your life.

(2) Think of something you can do to remind yourself to return to attention as the pattern in running:

• bring attention to a big juicy breath
• snap a rubber band around your wrist
• bring awareness to sensations in the body
• find one thing in your environment that sparks joy
• anything that reclaims your attention will do

As we intentionally separate from a pattern, we'll naturally come up with more and more ways to practice. Enjoy reclaiming that precious energy✨ 😃 🙌


👯‍♂️ COMMUNITY CONVERSATION

What is one practice that has helped you reclaim your attention from a pattern's reactivity?

👋 Join the community conversation at https://iam.intentioninspired.com

💌 Get the Daily Intention Newsletter at https://intentioninspired.com/daily/