Andrew Wallas - Intention : how to tap into the most underrated power in the universe

Intention is a superpower which when used correctly aligns us to our purpose and helps fulfil our hearts work. Andrew Wallas elegantly and generously shows us how. His approach is simple, yet it is not easy but boy is it worth it.

Emma Cannon, fertility and womens health expert, acupuncturist and author of Fertile

It is a joy to find a life-changing book that is so clearly and beautifully written. Andrew Wallas distils decades of clinical practice with wisdom and a deceptively light touch. The overall message is strong. We are each responsible for our own path to happiness, and Intention is the inspiring guidebook that can help us to find it.

Georgia Coleridge, author of The Chakra Project

For Anna

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I ntention is probably the most underrated and misunderstood phenomenon in terms of fulfilling potential and creating the life you want. Nothing in the universe exists without intention. The house you live in, the car you drive, the clothes you wear, the relationships in your life and your favourite music cannot exist without intention. Even you do not exist without intention. Intention is the creative power that fulfils our dreams. An intention is an inner impulse that is focused in a particular direction and contains within it the seed of that which you seek to create. Just like real seeds, intentions can grow or perish according to the fertility of the soil and the attention they receive. Intention orchestrates infinite possibility and is the DNA of all reality.

Intention is not desire. Desires arise throughout the day the desire for a drink or for food, the desire to sit and relax or the desire to go for a walk. Desires are temporary and fall away again, whether they are satisfied or not they are transient. Intention is permanent and arises from deep within us. It maintains a focus that is not easily diverted.

Most of us are familiar with goal setting in either a work or personal scenario, or both. Intention is very different from setting goals. Goals can be useful. They have their place, especially if you focus on the outcome, knowing with absolute clarity the result that you want to achieve. This can be very motivational for some people, and can help to set the direction of travel. Goals are rational, logical, linear, task-orientated and left-brain focused. They can be effective and bring about modest success, but in my experience, they are limited and frequently dont work.

This is because goals are set using only a part of our conscious mind (the left brain). Hence, in pursuing them we are operating on just 50 per cent of our potential from the conscious part of our mind. In , Weeds).

Discovery of an intention goes much deeper than goal setting, and is more profound. It integrates left and right brain, and is more holistic. An intention is the energetic starting point of any goal in its purest form. It is the seed that creates the magnificent flower. Its a powerfully authentic vow that you make with yourself, which comes from your core. Once we have articulated the intention, we expect and welcome resistance and integrate it when it arises. The resistance or doubt is in this way transformed, making the intention more powerful.

The life that you are living right now is the way that it is because of intention. Whether you recognize it or not, you are creating the life you are living through the power of intention. As individuals we spend our lives rearranging the furniture of the outer world, constantly surprised that the overall outcome never changes that much. We leave one job and get another one. We leave one relationship and start another one with someone who seems completely different. We move houses and maybe we move countries but we always take ourselves with us. Rather than taking responsibility for the life we are creating, we have become conditioned to blaming other people and circumstances in the outer world for the life we are living. If married or in a committed relationship, we regularly blame our spouse or partner; we blame other peoples failings; we blame national events; we blame global events; and, of course, we even blame the weather for feeling miserable. The hard reality is that blaming anyone or anything outside ourselves for how we are living our life or how we are feeling within ourselves is a dead end. There are no exceptions to this. The alternative is to take responsibility for our experiences and learn how to create a different reality.

This is incredibly simple. However, it is far from easy because the shift from making someone or something else responsible to taking responsibility and accepting accountability requires us to move through layer upon layer of conditioning. We have created many different cultures, all of which display a disturbing and relentless lack of responsibility and accountability at the current time. Individuals are reluctant to take responsibility for simple errors or for their actions, preferring to pass the buck to someone or something else. Against this background, embracing radical responsibility is challenging but it is a prerequisite for change. It is the price we have to pay for creating a different life.

In every religious and spiritual tradition, the Devil, Satan, Lucifer is personified by the lie. It seems to me that this is highly appropriate. Whatever we may understand by such a darkly seductive figure, it leads us away from the truth and from a deep connection with ourselves. Several years ago, I took some time to sit and reflect upon the question: What is the greatest lie of human existence? As human beings we are constantly lying to ourselves on a daily basis. We have many layers of self-delusion and denial. In my enquiry, I was interested to delve below the surface layers to reach the lie that inflicts the most damage. The answer I reached was that the greatest lie of the human species is the attractive idea or thought that someone or something outside of ourselves can make us happy. It cannot be understated how widespread and pernicious this belief is. It operates in our lives every day in a myriad of ways, completely undermining the fabric of the life we want to create.

I recognized this as a compulsive delusion over 20 years ago, but if I am honest enough or attentive enough, I still catch myself on a daily basis wanting to blame my wife for my dissatisfaction. The difference now from several years ago is that I indulge the distortion for less time before I get back on track and remind myself that I am the author of my own destiny. The best analogy for the shift that needs to take place is to imagine that you are sitting in a cinema watching a film of your life unfold. You get to a part that you would rather not witness, possibly a major rejection or betrayal that was incredibly painful. You walk out of the cinema, shake it off and go to another cinema in a neighbouring town, expecting to see a different version of your life unfold. You sit down and discover that it is the same film at exactly the same place in your life. You immediately leap up, walk out of the cinema, travel to a different country, sit in the foreign cinema and once again it is the same film playing. Why is this the case?