New Moon INSIGHT
INSIGHT on Intentions
Setting intentions is a powerful tool to help set our course and realize future outcomes.
New moons have long been considered a potent moment to plant those fresh seeds and breathe life into what’s to come. Add the Lunar New Year to the mix, which is today, and the relevance of placing awareness on renewed intentions is at its peak.
But intention setting is not as straightforward as simply offering renewed thoughts on the lunar cycle and hoping for the best.
The art of setting intentions is fueled by a power that doesn’t come from the mind or simply positive thinking.
While our minds are critical components for envisioning our future realities, the magnetic power that ignites intention comes from one place above all else: the heart.
The Fine Print
One of the most crucial elements to be aware of when we set intentions is our emotional state when making them.
The feeling underneath the thought holds far more power to affect the outcome than the thought itself.
I can set the intention to heal and free my body from cancer, but if I am carrying fear in my heart when I make that declaration, the magnetism of the fear impacts the message I’m sending.
Not only does it alter the message, but it changes the physiological, neurological, psychological, and metaphysical alchemy.
In the case of my intent to heal my cancer, if the statement is made with fear as the primary emotion, what I am effectively reinforcing is not “I will heal from cancer.” It is “I am afraid of cancer.”
Thus, the manifestation feedback loop will be related to the fear of cancer, not the healing of cancer.
That’s not what I am aiming for at all, so my intention-setting environment would need a closer look.
Intentions in Practice
It’s becoming common knowledge that positive emotions pack the most punch when it comes to invoking intentions and realizing them. The HeartMath Insitute, folks like Dan Siegel and Joe Dispenza have made it their life’s work to study these effects.
We now know that when we are in an authentic elevated mood, neurochemically, we are flooded with neurotransmitters that improve cognitive function, memory, and attention.
Our cognitive processes become more expansive and creative. We come into solution-oriented ideation. We think outside of the box.
Elevated emotions lead us to feel motivated, inspired to collaborate, and more capable of overcoming a challenge.
While these are all great benefits, an element of awareness often goes offline in light of these teachings.
We must be consciously aware when we go to make an intention, that we aren’t simply superimposing a positive thought over feelings that may have suppressive neurological effects on the brain-body connection, or create emotional dis-regulation.
Look out for quiet fears, resentments, or doubts that may be in the undercurrents of our emotional body when setting intentions.
This cancer journey of mine is a great example, and all of the above is why I invested so much time and effort in getting to the bottom of my fears surrounding this disease.
For months, I moved with, meditated on, and contemplated the nature of my relationship with fear.
Not once, but hundreds of times over.
This practice brought me into a genuine relationship with the magnitude of fear I was carrying.
If I wasn’t paying attention, I could have easily superimposed a positive thought on the matter, and set intentions to heal, while underneath, the reality was that I had fears and doubts.
In connecting with the fear and allowing it to be revealed, I gained access to these hidden parts of me and could start the life-long process of offering those parts love and affection.
As this happened, the proverbial dragon built on the scaffolding of my long-held fears transformed into a living, breathing, pulsing, loving, powerful, radiant heart.
That love and the power of that heart continue to subsume the fear as it comes and goes with any life circumstances that pose a certain kind of impact.
For all of us, waves will continue to come. It’s how we surf them that will continue to evolve.
Set and Setting
Making an intention from a true felt sense of gratitude and joy creates the highest probability of a positive outcome.
This is the key.
Having met my fears with an accepting, allowing, and loving heart, I come back again and again to feelings of gratitude and joy for life, for love, for the cancer, for the fear, for all of it.
And while I continue to be in the fluctuations of the human experience, I trust and (more importantly) feel that my intention carries a magnetism that can move mountains. Or, in my case, shrink tumors.
In the light of recently putting INSIGHT out into the world last week, this all brings me back to why I created INSIGHT in the first place:
To gain skill in meeting ourselves with honesty, integrity, grace, and love. To heal the parts of ourselves that in any way diminish our sense of power, vitality, and illuminative wholeness.
The process of seeing, feeling, and coming into understanding, while uncomfortable, is designed to give way to a truly authentic sense of gratitude and joy.
On this new moon and new year, rather than jumping to make intentions, the invitation is to survey your emotional landscape first.
Start by considering an intention, and then feel into the parts of you that are emotionally alive in relationship to this potent seed of intent.
Is there part of you hiding and wanting to be let in? Is there a part of you that needs more attention? Is there a part that would benefit from you first offering it affection? What would bring you a sense of gratitude? What, in relationship to this intention, would bring you pleasure?
Ask some of these questions.
Listen in and see what insights arise.
Take care and invest the time to make good relations in this inner sanctum. Gratitude may not be the first thing you feel. There may be some layers of holding that have to be met. Maybe it’s old, stagnant stuff that requires patience, love, affection, or otherwise.
How powerful it is to meet our humanity as it is.
I hope this writing serves you well.
If questions arise or the desire to walk this path of INSIGHT surfaces, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We are building a stellar team and growing a library of practices to serve you, and this work is our privilege and joy.
With love,
Kevin