Changing my intention and trusting that this will help has been a tough lesson to learn. It’s been difficult because I resist letting go. I want to control the situation and make it happen. But the truth is that all I need to do is change my intention and then trust the process and the outcome will improve. An intention is “something to be, rather than to achieve.”* Argh, it’s so hard to trust myself to do this!
Past Experience With Intentions
As I continue to learn more about myself, I realize how challenging it is to just let go. Teachers don’t just let go and trust that everything will work out in the day, do they? They carefully plan the lesson, gather all the materials, give exact instructions, and plan for the outcome with levelled rubrics and marking schemes. But, when I consider my old job carefully, I realize that much of what I did was trusting in the process.
Prepare And Then Let Go
I would do all that organization before the lesson, but once the students were in the room and the lesson started I had to rely on trust. I went in with the intention of cultivating knowledge on this topic. I had to let go and see where the lesson led us and stop trying to steer it. It went in the direction it was meant to go and that was fine. The lesson was lead by the needs of the students at the time, our energy levels and the environment that day.
Trusting The Process
When I taught the same science lesson to three different classes over a few days, it was never identical. It might have been windy at recess on one day and the kids came in all stirred up by the weather. It might have been re-directed by a student’s question onto an interesting side topic, another day. The third time might have been effected by a technical issue that forced me to adapt the support material from a live demonstration to a video. Staying present and responding to the situation as it happened, was trusting myself with the process. I realized that I did this all the time as a teacher.
Successful Intentions Match Values
Intentions do matter in how I feel about the things that I have to do. When I purposefully choose an intention that aligns with my values, the process becomes more positive,* as long as I let go of controlling it. The resistance to doing an activity and the resentment around spending my time on it, dissolves.
Here are some examples of intentions that I’ve tried recently:
Washing dishes: intention to enjoy a clean and tidy kitchen instead of resisting spending time doing chores.
Exercising: intention of having fun and smiling while moving in Zumba class instead of doing it because it’s good for my health.
Napping: intention of giving my body the rest it needs instead of pumping it with caffeine and sugar to keep it moving.
Always A Work In Progress
I am continuing to reflect on other situations that I resist and resent doing each day. I’m trying to reframe them with intentions that match my values. As long as I trust the process, it creates more joy and acceptance in my daily life.
What situations can you find from your past where you set intentions and then let go and trusted the process? Comment below.
* For more on how to set intentions, click here.
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