Meera Lester - How to Live with Intention: 150+ Simple Ways to Live Each Day with Meaning & Purpose

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Make every moment matter by living your life with intentionfrom the time you wake up until the time you go to bed, there are a number of opportunities to empower everything you do. By instilling purpose into your actions, you will be able to move forward with your life in the direction you choose, drawing on these practices to feel centered and grounded.

The intention of this book is to help you become more aware of your actions, impart them with meaning, and give them a richness that makes them even more significant. You will soon discover how to transform the things you do every day into purposeful practices of intentional living. Each intentional act is designed to improve your sense of health, empowerment, peace, and prosperity.

As you become aware of the importance of your actions, you will be able to use these ideas individually or learn how to create purposeful routines to enhance your well-being and structure your day. The path to intentional living is yours to outline and follow today and every day.

W hether you participate in an act of intention alone or with a group, by engaging in it you are taking part in an activity that is filled with emotionspride, happiness, serenity, and so forth. These may be simple or complex, but in either case your actions make you look at the world differently and find strength within yourself. Sometimes an act of intention helps you calm down; if youre scared of something, the act of intention can give you courage. Some acts of intention fill you with pride and happiness.

Acts of intention can include:

Marriages and funerals

Civil ceremonies (e.g., being inducted into the armed forces)

Rites of passage (e.g., birthdays, graduation from college)

Worship

Meditation

Cleansing and purification

Birthing and baptism

Naming

Often we perform acts of intention because we expect a particular outcomereassurance, strength, renewed hope, support, control, relief from pressure and stress, and a stronger sense of belonging. We perform acts of intention for an audience even if that audience is only ourselves. Acts of intention inspire dreams, spark creative vision, suggest new paths, and offer healing. They help us explore new places within ourselves and others.

You dont have to use an object for your act of intention, but for some, one can be helpful. You might want to use an item that speaks to you through its sound, taste, or scent. From the scent of fresh flowers and the taste of warming spices to the sound of bells and the tactile reassurance of crystals, you can use a number of different items in your ceremony.

In each suggested act of intention, youll find general information including an intended benefit of doing the act of intention. You will also find suggestions on how to make the ceremony more meaningful. How much time you take to perform the act of intention and when during the day or night you do it is up to you. The only person who can decide how to fit one or more acts of intention in your life is you. The acts of intention offered in this book are fairly generic; make them yours by using imagination and creativity to add to them or envisioning new ones.

At the end of each chapter there are some suggested sequences for some of the acts of intention. These are designed to help you, but you may prefer to develop your own sequences. The acts of intention can work together to reinforce and enhance one another, and the sequences will help you with this.

V ibrant mind-body health is a treasure to be safeguarded to the last breath. Without robust health, how can you achieve peak performance or optimal functioning in any other area of your life? Perhaps you already do a daily workout as well as eat nutritious foods, stay hydrated, and get adequate sleep. For maximum health benefits, add mindfulness to transform a routine into an intention. Perhaps the simplest practice that you can do is to simply stop and just be. While you are physically still and mindful, notice how your senses communicate your bodys aliveness.

Mindfulness adds to your routines the benefits of improved memory, stable hormonal balance, a stronger immune system, less pain, lower blood pressure, and better sleep. Mindfulness anchors you in the here and now, which means you are living in the moment, not obsessing about the past or worrying about the future.

In addition to adopting some of the acts of intention in this chapter, you might try asking a question in your heart space for guidance about your bodys health and then listen for the answer. Its been often repeated that the body has wisdom of its own. A body that is energetic, mentally sharp, and emotionally stable and happy is communicating good health. When something isnt right, you know it. Mindfulness enables you to tune into the signs.

Studies show that early risers are healthier, happier, and more productive than their night owl counterparts. Waking up early doesnt mean you must leap out of bed. Before throwing off those covers to drink water, attend to hygiene, exercise, and eat breakfast, take some time to linger in that quiet space between sleeping and wakefulness with a morning act of intention that focuses on gathering in positive energy. Dont rush from this quiet in-between state known as the hypnopompic state. Like its counterpart, the hypnagogic state (between wakefulness and sleep), it holds for you gifts of extraordinary phenomena, including:

Intense imagery

Audible sounds of nature, voices, and music

Taste sensations

Touch sensitivity

Otherworldly scents of incense or florals or unidentifiable smells

A heightened sense of presence

Since ancient times, yogis have hailed the hour and a half before sunrise as the most auspicious time of the day. Some believe that accessing the positivity and power of deeper meditative states is easier in the predawn when your mind is still. Keep a small stone by your bedside. Hold it on awakening to remind you to generate positive vibes from this time and take them with you into your day.