Utilizing the Power of Intention

The Union Path Podcast

Discovering and Utilizing the Power of Intention
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Discovering the power of intention can really be a little disorienting, a little discombobulating at first. When we realize our own creative power, when we realize the agency and the say that we have over our own life, over our own life experience, that awareness can be a little daunting. It can feel a little huge at first.

It's easy to be intimidated by this idea that we are the creative force. At the center of our own lives, we are the makers, we are the craftspeople. We are the ones designing and fashioning the life experience that we live through every day. This level of grandeur, this level of immenseness, really come to grips with the sheer power that all of us have can lead us in a bunch of different directions.

We can be overwhelmed by the sheer responsibility of it, that when we really discover, when we really come to grips with, we are the ones creating our own lives, our own experiences, that can feel like an absolutely overwhelming responsibility that can feel like it's just too much. Especially if we're tired, we're burned out, we're exhausted, we're beaten down.

It can just feel like too much responsibility, too much to be accountable for, too much to do, too big of a job. It's kind of a funny paradox that we realize that ultimately, not only can we create whatever want, we've been creating whatever we wanted all along. Granted, a lot of this could have been unconscious, but when that truth stares us in the face, it could be a lot to deal with, a lot to take in.

Conversely, we could respond to this awareness with an overconfidence and over hubris, we can feel like we're not only a masters of our own universe, we're a masters of the universe. We elevate and build ourselves up to these superhuman God-like figures that can make anything and every one do whatever we want.

We can let this hubris inflate us. We can let it build our egos to the point of where we see the world is. Something to dominate, something to control, something to force our own ends through. But however we respond to this awareness, it's really important to apply awareness itself to what part of us is grabbing onto this information.

What part of us is rising up to seize this awareness for its own. ends If we feel intimidated, if we feel further exhausted, further depleted from this level of responsibility, well then that's the part of us that needs attention. If we respond to this with an overdeveloped sense of self-confidence and overdeveloped sense of power of hubris, then that's part of us that needs attention as.

well It's really interesting to observe ourselves, observe ourselves when we encounter these very powerful, very fundamental truths and see which part of us rises to respond, which part of us becomes active? Which part of us becomes dominant over the rest? Do we use this awareness? For the seeking and growing of our own personal power, our own self-centered accumulation and achievement.

What do we find this awareness overwhelming? Do we find this awareness actually makes us smaller, makes us want to retreat, makes us want to denythe fundamental truth that we've encountered. The most important thing in this awareness of being aware of which part of us rises up to grab these fundamental truths can not only tell us which part of us really needs attention right now, but can also really illustrate exactly where we are in our overall journey.

Because I believe the thing we're all looking for is, of course, we want answers. Of course, we want clarity, of course, we want a sense of agency, a sense of freedom, a sense of liberation to live the lives we really want to. These awarenesses can be clouded by our own imbalances, our own unmet needs. . But when we encounter something as powerful as the realization of the role intention plays in our lives, the way intention is played out through our lives thus far, the way intention is playing out in our lives right now, it's really important to be aware and be honest.

with How do we use this sort of information? What do we do with it? How do we put it to work? How do we utilize this awareness? Are we utilizing it for our own self-centered, selfish material and personal gain? Are we frightened or overwhelmed by it? And simply feel like that's too much. That's too hard. That's too difficult.

That's the beauty of encountering these fundamental truths? Usually we get multiple bites at the apple. Usually we encounter the same fundamental truths all over again, and this is our growth. This is our evolution. These fundamental truths always exist. And so we can encounter them multiple times, we can encounter them, respond through where we are during that specific encounter, and then learn something from the result.

We can learn a lot of ourselves by observing and really honestly looking at the way that we utilize things like. power Can really tell us how pure our intentions are, can really inform us what's really driving us, what's really underneath what we do and how we do it. I think for a lot of us, when we start walking down this spiritual path and we start to.

Gain awareness of just how much control, just how much say we have over our experience at first. A lot of times that can feel kinda like a shiny new toy. These spiritual abilities that we gain that can often have far more power. Far more ability to not only affect ourselves, affect our internal experience of life, but can also seemingly radically modify our material physical existence as well.

That when we really start to see the power of intention, when we really start to utilize this power on purpose towards specific ends. And then we see the fruition of those ends. That can be a lot to take in. When we see our manifestations, when we see the manifestations of our daily life changed, maybe even radically changed because we modified the intentions we were setting.

that can be a lot to take. in And if we're not really ready for that information, if we're not really ready to utilize that power, then we can find ourselves just using it to achieve the same things we were trying to achieve before. We can use it as a shortcut. We can use it as a hack. We can use it as leverage against the world.

But when we find ourselves doing. this We find ourselves seemingly trying to use this power against the world to achieve our own ends. Then obviously that shows us that we're not really one with the world. We're still operating in a space of separateness. We haven't really achieved, we haven't really known our own oneness.

We're still separate. We're still looking at life transactionally. We're still looking at life competitively. We're still looking at ourselves and our lives at ourselves and the world around us, ourselves and our environments, ourselves, and our relationships as in us and them of a this and that. But this is all okay.

This is all good because this is our. growth Sometimes we have to wield power in a clumsy or unhealthy way in order to lead us on to further growth. Sometimes we have to fall because we've risen in order to rise again. But when we encounter something like the power of intention, when we really see it for ourselves.

When we really see how our intention has been designing and manufacturing our whole life, and then we start to use this on purpose, we start to steer it towards different ends. When we step into the role of the designer, of the maker of the creator, that's not always the easiest transition to. make And again, if we're not ready to make that transition, that will become obvious.

Things will go a little sideways for us. Our lives will become compromised or corrupted in some way as a reflection of our own internal compromise or corruption. But none of this is bad. This isn't moralizing, good and bad or right and wrong. It's bringing awareness to what is, and with awareness is like this.

Overly moralizing can be a bit of a stumbling block. Moralizing can be largely made unnecessary. If we're truly aware, if we're truly honest about what we're doing and why we're doing it. If we can bring full awareness into our life, full awareness. into areas such as, what do I really want? What am I really trying to get?

What am I really trying to make happen? What am I really trying to control? What ends am I really seeking, and what means am I willing to perpetrate in order to get there? Deep, honest, true self-awareness. Can give us all the answers we seek. It's through avoiding awareness, through the delusion of unconsciousness, that we lead ourselves astray.

Because once something is known, once something is truly known, it can't help but be acted on. And if our knowing is deep enough, our knowing is true enough, or knowing is real enough. Then that can help to make us more true and more real ourselves. When we notice things about ourselves, when we notice our encounters with fundamental powerful truths, and we notice our responses aren't quite what we'd like them to be, aren't quite as whole, aren't quite as honorable, don't feel as good as we'd like.

When that sets up a new intention right there, a new intention to align more, a new intention, to be more, a new intention to express differently because we're coming from a different place. We're letting go of the fear or the greed. And we're stepping into something more, into something greater. We step into using these fundamental truths in the spirit of service, in the spirit of service to ourselves, to our real, deep, true selves, and the service of the rest of existence that we're united with through our own oneness Use these truths as a way to break down these barriers between us and them, this and that, and instead see the wholeness in existence. Use something like witnessing the power of intention to further reinforce that truth, that a reason why our intentions are fulfilled. is because our intentions unite us with the oneness of existence through our intentions.

We put out a call, which is then answered, and when we start getting what we want, when we start seeing the creative power, the creative abilities that we have, it's really important to develop the maturity. to Utilize this awareness for more oneness, more wholeness, more union. With the existence we find ourselves in to contribute more to the overall growing magnificence of life.

To use our intention both for the benefit of ourselves as well as the benefit of others equally, to utilize intention in the spirit of balance. In the spirit of contribution and consumption, but held equally, if we haven't really encountered this power, if we still really haven't fully ascertained and accepted our own power and our lives, our own creative power, well, now's a good time to start to try.

We can do it on a day by day basis. We can realize that every new day tends to carry through the intention of the prior, and we realize that we can step in and make modifications. We can change our intentions that we're caring forward into every new day. Then we can change and affect the overall trajectory of our life.

We can change and affect our experience on a daily basis. One of the easiest ways to spot this is the state that we go to sleep in. At the end of our day, what are we carrying forward? What load are we carrying that we're going to deposit into the next day to carry further? Are we positive? Are we hopeful?

Are we looking forward to the next day with anticipation? Or instead, are we feeling some sort of trepidation, some sort of fear, some sort of dread. Every day of our life is connected and one of the best points of modification that we have is in the connective tissue between days is in our time of rest.

Our days tend to begin with the same energy, with the same spirit. The pryor was ended. So if we're new to intention or if we're new to approaching intention from a sense of wholeness and connection and service, we want to utilize our intention for what feel like bigger ideas, deeper ideas, something more fulfilling and rewarding, than just our own transactional or material gain.

then We can use this opportunity that we have every single day at the end of our day to create something different. We can go to sleep with clear intent of what we want to experience next, and then find often quite reliably that those intentions are paid off. And then take that a step further. Realize those intentions have always been paying off.

Realize that we tend to get what we expect, and especially from an unconscious state, our intentions are typically crafted from our expectations. We've all experienced it, right? That something happens to us and oftentimes we feel, I knew it. I knew that would happen. Sometimes it's with something good, sometimes it's with something bad.

But especially over a long timeframe, we're very rarely surprised. Sure things can come up with a short term. that just seem on a left field, but over a longer term, if we're really paying attention to our lives and ourselves, and the trends that play out less and less really become that surprising It all makes a lot more sense.

But the thing about our lives, the things about these long trends is that they're built day by day. Every journey is a series of steps, and our access point to creating change is in the next one, the next step. So at the end of every day, that's an opportunity to craft a new day. That's an opportunity to set a new intention.

That's an opportunity to intentionally move into the next step of our life from a different set of ideas, a different set of expectations. And the more we experience this, the more we experience our own ability to craft our own lives, the greater our creative confidence becomes, the more sure we are.

Whatever intent we're setting will likely happen and will likely happen in the timeframe we imagined. But if it's not if our intentions, seem frustrated if our attentions, seem incomplete and unrequited, then that's an opportunity for more self-awareness. That's usually an indication of some sort of counteracting belief.

We can't really intend for ourselves. We can't really expect for ourselves things we don't actually believe. Again, this is creating a split. This is creating a separateness. This is creating two selves, one self that wants something and one self that doesn't really believe we can have it. Doesn't really believe we deserve it.

Doesn't really believe it's available to us. And if what we're seeking really isn't all that noble isn't really all that good is really more something we have to keep a secret. Well, maybe that part of us is telling us something that maybe there are better things for us. Maybe we're squandering this ability when opportunities exist for much greater much.

more We're short-changing our own creative power in the spirit of our own immediate gain, when there's far greater, far more meaningful gain to be had. Or maybe we find that there's a conflict. There's a conflict between what we really want and what we believe we deserve. What we believe is.

We may want something much greater than what we currently have, but there's part of us stuck in the belief that what we currently have is actually what we deserve. Maybe more than that, that we are already getting away with something that we're already getting more than we really deserve to get. And so we find ourself living in existence.

where we're constantly fighting to keep what little we have.

Whatever it is, this is our work. This is our work to spot where we're holding back. This is our work to spot where intentions may not be aligned with the greatest good for all. And with this awareness is an opportunity to grow, an opportunity to evolve, an opportunity to change so we can utilize our intention.

However, we. want We can utilize it for whatever ends we want. There is no moralizing necessary around the criticism of what we really want. What is necessary is to align our intention with our full selves, align our intention with who we really are and what we really are deep on the inside. To align our intention with the oneness of existence to align our intention that ends up being the most pure expression of who we really are on the inside, what we're really made out of, past our appetites, past, our ego-centric wants, past all of the base desires that exist within.

us to Something more full, more complete, more nourishing, more sustaining, and we can work at this alignment. We can try, if there's something blocking us, if there's some reason why our intents seem to be focused and things that either we feel we don't really want or aren't really us, well we can work towards that, we can sit with that information We can use that awareness to create the space for new awarenesses. We can spot our own fear. We can spot our own pain. We can spot parts of us that need to heal, that need some attention, that need to be reintegrated, that need to be brought back in to our own wholeness Need to be able to spot our own separateness from the flow of life, from the animating spiritual energy that flows through all of us.

And we can do it. We can start small if that feels comfortable to us. All of our intents don't have to be big grand desires or achievements because ultimately, what do we have? These grand desires, these big achievements. for I'd make the argument, well, it's to feel better, to feel better than we do now. The thing about feeling better is it can come from infinite different sources.

We don't have to have some grand achievement. We don't have to have some huge, broad sweeping change blow through our life. We can access any feeling from any circumstance It doesn't mean it's easy. Definitely doesn't mean it's automatic. Definitely doesn't mean it's lasting. because our circumstances do have an effect on us that's real.

But we do have the access to any feeling in any circumstance, and we can use that access, we can use that experience to create change. I think it's really easy to get lost in the idea. That we can manufacture our own feelings and miss the fact that our environment and our circumstances are manufacturing feelings as well.

That yes, we can get underneath this and experience moments of any feeling we want, but further contribution from our environment and our circumstances is coming. Life isn't an all an inside. job Life is a harmony between the inside and the outside. But as through these moments of positive feeling during negative circumstances, that can give us a little bit of breathing room, give us a little bit of hope.

Give us the opportunity to change, to create a new harmony, to sing a different song. Conversely, life isn't all outside either. Life isn't all made up. of Whatever happens to us externally, how we're perceived externally, what we're able to create and accumulate materially. It's both. So circumstances and environments matter.

Our internal state, our internal awareness, our internal consciousness matters, and it's a combination of these two that create our life. When We realize this, we realize that underneath all of it, creating and guiding it all along were our intentions, were what we were setting out to get, and the energy that we were creating those intentions from.

And if we want to change those intentions, if we want to harness the power of intention to create something greater, create something better. Something that feels better, feels more positive, feels more whole, feels more nourishing, then we can use that power every day, one day at a time. We can go to sleep building our intentions for the next day.

And maybe those intentions are something as simple as, I want to feel good, I want to be happy, I want to be calm, I want to be peaceful. I want some joy. I want some interest and some passion in my own life, and that's enough, and we can be as specific as we want to. I find over time, just focusing on these feelings, the specifics tend to arise on their own.

I also find that it isn't the grand achievements, it isn't the display incredible creative power that's the most satisfying It's actually found a lot more subtle, a lot smaller things going into the next day with a sense of positivity going into the next day with a sense of hope, a sense of eager anticipation.

It's the energy shift that I'm going for, and by setting a different intention, I'm creating a different initial energy. For the energy of life to match and respond to. I'm going into a day from a different place and I find my experience modified because of that. And when I get in touch with this deep, true part of myself, I get access to this subtle yet sublime new.

feeling Being able to set intentions aligned with that part of me and feeling that part of me light up to me, it feels pretty deep in my core. I can feel it the most strongly in my solar plexus or stomach area, but it reaches up to the heart as well, and it feels like a warm glow. It feels like. A light bulb on a dimmer switch lighting up.

I can feel the energy radiating from it. I can feel a glow. I can feel the light, I can feel the vibration. And it feels good to intend from this place because this feels like it's actually me. This feels like what I actually am. This feels like what I actually come from. This feels like what I'll actually return to and when I connect with this place, when I set intentions based on what seems to light this part of me up, the more I do it, the more this seems to fill me, the more it seems to spread.

And the other thing that tends to happen is it's really subtle, partial smile. Oftentimes, you can see it on statues of the Buddha, not this solemn dour look, but not this expressive, expansive, laughing expression either. Just this little subtle smile, this little subtle twinkle, this little slow drip of joy.

It seems to be created and sustained to an alignment with this part of myself. This feels like what I've been looking for. This makes me want to believe this is what we're all looking for. This little subtle smile, this little subtle joy, this warmth, this glow that feels so effortless. It feels so spontaneous, but it's such a warm, comfortable feeling.

It's the opposite of anxiety. It's the opposite of depression. It's the opposite of fear. It's the opposite of dread. It's the glow and the warmth of soothing, nurturing light, and I found my way to it. I believe we might all find our way to it through intention, through setting intentions from different parts of myself, seeing how those parts light up, seeing how that feels.

Then weighing that against my experience and personally, I've just found intentions based on and filtered through. The more base, the more basic, the more superficial, the more self-centered parts of myself Don't feel like this. Don't glow like this. Don't nurture like this. Don't feel as free. Don't feel as open.

Don't feel as comfortable. Don't feel as real, but that's all of our choice. We get to choose. Which part of ourselves we set intentions from. And based on that choice we choose which part of ourselves we express. And based on that choice, we choose the reflection. In our experience, That once we've descended.

to This level, it all feels so simple. It all feels so clear. The myriad complexities. Walking through life trying to get this or that, trying to control for this or that, trying to make this happen and prevent that from happening. This kind of seemed to fall away thinking of life as our histories, as well as our five to 10 year plans and our goals and all the things that have happened to us and all the things that we want to happen to us.

It seems to get a lot more simple, a lot more basic. It seems to me that this internal, warm, glowing part of ourselves is who we really are, and intentions drawn from who we really are, reinforce this part of ourselves, allow us to experience more of this part of ourselves and our daily lives. Allow us to experience more of this part of others too.

Because when we speak through this part of ourselves, it's this part of others that answer. And so when I go to bed tonight, before I fall asleep, I'm going to engage with this part of myself as fully as I can to light it up for intentions for the next day, and I'm going to do that over and over and over again. I'm going to do it because I enjoy it.

I'm going to do it because frankly it. works If I want to make it a little more, maybe I'll start with counting my gratitudes for the current day. I find that this really kind of primes the pump really gets me in a place of appreciation. This sense of gratitude can be a pretty easy doorway to accessing this part of myself.

Allow me to put down all the conflict and struggle. And quarrels of the day and connect back with this core part of myself, connect with this core part of myself to set intentions for the following day and then begin anew. And for me anyway, these intentions usually aren't that complicated. It's usually specifics thrown in here and there, but for the most part, in all honesty, I just want to intend to feel good.

I just want to intend to be. happy I just want to intend to be loving and caring. I just want intend to be loved and cared for. I just want to intend to, in some small way, create something positive through my activities and interactions of the following day. And by doing that experience the same. Our lives of are made of days.

And we can design and craft our days to have whatever tenor and flavor we want. Doesn't mean that every single moment is going to be that way, but it does lead to that being what happens most of the time looking back. It's what our life tends to feel like. Whatever we were feeling like when we were intending We all have the power of creation. We all wield the power of creation, through our own intention, and we can focus and point that power in whatever direction we want. And we just have to ask ourselves is how we've been pointing our intention, really us really what we want? Does it actually feel good? Does it actually sustain us?

Does it actually nurture us? Does it make us feel more connected, make us feel more whole? Give us that slight, joyous, warm smile and only we can answer that only we can really know. That's why we go on these journeys in the first place. to know. That's what we really want. We gather all this information.

We gather all this spiritual information. because we want to actually experience it. We want it to actually be real. We want it to actually be part of our life. We don't just want to know it on a theoretical basis. We just don't want to memorize a bunch of passages and quotes or be able to reiterate our understanding of some meaning of something.

We want to actually live it. We want to integrate it. We want it in our life. We want it to be our life, and that opportunity is available for all of us every day. Doesn't mean every day is going to be perfect. It doesn't mean every day we're even going to have access to any sort of smile, but it's always there.

It's always available, and we get to choose if and how we align with it. And we can give ourselves the grace that sometimes we can't. We can give ourselves the grace of, if we've used our intention for unhelpful or unhealthy ends, well now's our opportunity to change that. We can always do it, but we can start right where we are.

We can start tonight. We can lead ourselves in by counting our gratitudes for the. day really feeling our appreciation. Not making stuff up. not pretending the bad is actually good, but what are we really thankful for? And let that lead us into what do I really want tomorrow? And just keep it simple.

I want to feel good. I want to be happy. I want to do some good. I want to make someone else happy. That's it. That's enough. What else is there, after all? And then go from there. We can add on whatever we want. We can modify it however we want to modify it. We're supposed to, we're supposed to learn and grow, but we can start right there.

Start with a simple start with whatever we know. will light up that light within ourselves, and then the next day, take a walk with that light, and the next day bask in that light of. others And keep going on day by day, learning and growing, expressing more of this part of ourselves, letting it grow and become a bigger part of us, a bigger part of our expression, a bigger part of who and what we know ourselves to be.

And then just keep going. Keep walking, keep walking the path of our life every step of the way. Illuminated by our own internal light