Your Life’s Intentions

What is important to you? Being financially successful? Being physically fit and healthy” Becoming a writer? Maybe you want to explore your spirituality or become well-educated or well-travelled. Life presents us all sorts of possibilities, and undoubtedly we will be interested in many things. But there will be some possibilities that ring so true, we must list these first. These are our “Life’s Intentions.”

Possibilities that Call Out to Us
This is the subject of Maria Nemeth’s book, Mastering Life’s Energies. I read her book the first week of the new year and have been thinking about it ever since. How do I intend to live my life? Or perhaps, since I am well past the midpoint of my life, what are my intentions for the time I have left? At least as I see it now?

According to Nemeth, there are some possibilities “that call out to us in a fundamental way,” that when we think about them, we “feel our hearts relax.“ And this is telling, for that feeling of rightness reveals what is right for us.

What Gives Your Heart Ease?
With so many possibilities that present themselves, it is important to focus on what gives us that “feeling of rightness,” that gives our hearts ease. Right now, a few of my intentions revolve around doing some good writing, being a loving family member, maintaining physical fitness and health, and since it is Spring, being a creator of beauty (in my garden.) These goals ring true for me. I think of them and feel a sense of calmness, a sense of peace. All my life I believe these intentions have been a big part of what I value. Sometimes set aside as I pursued an education and worked to make a living, but still there. A touchstone I am able now to keep more to the fore.

Touch Me
Do you know Stanley Kunitz’s poem “Touch Me?” The poet speaks of himself late in his life thinking back to the times he was “wild with love.” “What makes the engine go?” he asks. And then answers. “Desire, desire, desire.” Desire for love, for life, to be part of “the dance.” He ends the poem like this:

“Darling, do you remember
the man you married? Touch me,
remind me who I am.”

Perhaps that’s what we need, too. To have a touchstone. To be reminded of who we really are, of what makes our engines go.

Exercise:

1. Think about your “Life’s Intentions.” You can read Nemeth’s book for a list of intentions, or  make your own. Use those mentioned above and include items such as being a successful artist, a well-respected professional, and a loyal friend Include other possibilities as they occur to you.
2. Place a number value from 1 to 5 on each possibility, with a “5” indicating an intention extremely important to you, and “1” having little importance.
3. Select 3 to 5 intentions you’ve given a value of “4” or “5.” Then sit with that list. Do these intentions feel right? Does thinking about them make your heart relax? Then consider how you might spend more time focusing on what you hold of most value. For more inspiration, check out our website www.thewritingandcreativelife.com. Or follow this link to purchase Writing in Community or our latest book, The Fire Inside.
   –Lucy Adkins