Living a life with intention!!
We are all busy dying, but the question is...at what rate are we living?
If you have read anything at all on the blog or followed me on Facebook, you probably know that I have developed a passion for yoga. One thing I love about it is that most often before each session (be it in the studio or my home practice) we are instructed to set an intention before beginning the practice. Last week our instructor mentioned santosha. Santosha literally means contentment, satisfaction. That can be a hard place to get to, but a life changing place to live.
Having set such a strong intention in the beginning made for a great practice and I wanted to carry that over into my life off the mat. The idea of setting an intention for my daily life seems to bring me comfort in a way that I can’t explain. I’m such a lover of words that it’s hard for me to just leave it at that, but I really can’t find a way to express what I mean when I say it grounds me to have an intention. This is different than a blanket goal to be a Christian and live better each day than the day before. Certainly that is always my desire, but setting an actual intention in every aspect of my life on a daily basis helps me take inventory of where I am at this point. When I take the time to do that, there is no other way to feel than humbly grateful. I am blessed beyond measure and will be the first to admit as much.
It can be a delicate balance to be satisfied with where we are and striving to move forward so as to keep growing as we get older. The one thing that keeps the scales from tipping too far to one side or the other is gratitude. When we are grateful, truly thankful for the people around us, appreciate the trials we will face and know that God has never left us then it becomes easier to live in santosha. I say to live “in” contentment because it is an active state of being that requires a daily decision to be content in all things no matter the circumstance surrounding us.
I have to say that I am pretty content in most aspects of my life or at least I thought so until I began to really examine where I am and how I spend my time. I’ll get into more of that later in the post. Emotionally, I am in the best place I have ever been. Believe me when I tell you that is a loose statement for someone who struggles with bipolar, but I am in a good place over all. I have been thinking a lot about my life and living with intention. I’m a self professed dreamer and it is easy for me to take flight and get caught up in doing things, going nonstop or being someplace other than where I am at this very moment. My faith and my husband are what keep me grounded. That’s a good thing though; it’s a necessary thing to help keep me balanced.
A daily intention also helps me not to get stuck in one particular season. As time moves on and our circumstances change so do our commitments and responsibilities. My seasons have changed in my life and I am in a different place as we all are at some point. I no longer have a baby, but an adolescent and homeschool looks very different for us now than it did during the first couple years. My point is that our roles change as the time passes. We have to readjust and continue to grow just as our children age and reach different stages in their own lives. If I continue in the same season then I have allowed myself to be defined by a single source and that isn’t what I want to happen.
I am a mother second to being a Christian and I am also a wife. While I love all those things and am privileged to be each of them, that is not ALL that I am. Being a wife and mother seem to come more naturally to me so I don’t have to set an intention to be either, but I do have to intentionally define how I want to fulfill those roles on a daily basis. Now, the Christian part doesn’t come so easy to me. It seems I have been a Christian for about 12 years now and still have some really rough edges. The intention for my Christian walk knits into every single decision of my day because every aspect of my life revolves around that identity.
This lends a hand in a study that I have been doing called “Pulling the Thread.” It talks about how we, as women, live in the most abundant era of history. We have freedom, equal rights and our opportunities are only hindered by the limits we put on ourselves. The question is...are we using that as a platform to gain more for ourselves or are we using it as a springboard for service to others? The study is in terms of spreading the kingdom of God, but I wanted to take it a step further because I believe this is a lesson that speaks to humanity as a whole regardless of your faith. What are we intentionally doing for each other, how are we contributing so as to help those around us?
Admittedly, I am still on the first lesson because I want to really go through this with an open mind and take to heart all the things that I am learning. The reason I am on the first lesson is because it talks about fasting. I don’t mean fasting as in the traditional way of not eating and using that as a guide to shift your focus. The end result is the same, but it helps you to set your intention and then fast from those things that are not helping you reach your destination. The area I have chosen to begin my fast is with anything excess.
The one excess that I hate to admit that I have is wasted time. We all have the same 24 hours in a day and time seems to fly by on some days. I look around and don’t even know where some days go because they are over before I realize what is happening. This is a hard one for me because I used to have my days planned from before sunrise until I went to bed at night. Somewhere along the way I have gradually let go of structure in an attempt to be flexible. What I have found is that my flexibility has resulted in time being wasted on frivolous things like junk TV at night or a little extra sleep in the mornings. That doesn’t sound bad when you say it like that, but spreading it out inside of a day and realizing I spend less time with my Bible study, less time in prayer, less time serving those around me is the problem. Less time with these things are not contributing to the intention that I set for myself which leaves me searching for the contentment that comes so easily when my priorities are in the correct order. Making a daily goal to intentionally make the most of every minute eliminates this waste. That in turn does help me find contentment because I know something as precious as time is not being wasted.
Our daily intentions are so important because that is how our habits form. We can’t allow our days to be so hurried that we lose them. Time is too valuable for us to let that happen.
Contentment can be a found in the unlikeliest places. After all, if we are looking for it in a specific realm, we may never find it. That is the point, right? We don’t go looking for it, we merely find it where we are; it’s been there all along...
So, would setting an intention for your day help you reach where you want to go?
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