We live in a fast-paced world, where we want everything done immediately. Thanks to this, finding the time and motivation to meditate is difficult.
Meditation practice helps to slow us down and reduce the anxiety associated with urgency. Subsequently, setting a meaningful intention for your meditation practice helps to keep you focused on your goal in regular meditation sessions.
Meditation practice is better when you start with a meaningful intention. Intentions are strong agreements that you make inwardly with yourself and communicate with your actions in any area of your life or even on your meditation mat.
Setting meaningful intentions is important, so you don’t drift off course or lose sight of why you are meditating. It is also vital that you set an intention that is useful to you and an intention that you believe in. If you do not, you’ll the process will be ruined.
Here are three tips on how to set a meaningful intention for your meditation practice:
Positivity
Your intention should have a positive tone to it. If your intention is to remove anger, then say something like, “my intention is to invite calm and tranquility within me during today’s meditation.” And avoid saying negative words like, “my intention is to destroy this stupid anger.”
Always avoid using negative words. Your intention has to be elevating, positive and in the present tense at all times.
It should be adjustable
Our minds are easily intrigued and also easily bored. If it stays on something for too long, the mind becomes bored and loses interest. But when introduced to something new it gets intrigued and excited.
This same process happens with your intentions. Meditating on a particular intention, week after week eventually makes your mind lose interest and stop responding to it. That is why it is best to make your intention, not only meaningful but also adjustable.
If your intention on the first week is to invite calm and tranquility, the next week it should be, “My intention is to enjoy the calmness I created in myself.” However, while adjusting your intentions, you have to be careful so as not to drastically change it too frequently, just polish and improve it lightly.
It should be short term
It is more practical to split your long-term intentions into short-term ones; it would help you accomplish a better goal in shorter and greater segments.
If your intention is to master a particular course, then you need to find out the steps for understanding and learning the course. Your next step should be to get all the necessary books for that particular course. It should be followed by studying and going for every lecture and getting good grades on it.
If you keep doing this gradually, you will reach your desired long term goal.
After you have set a meaningful intention, you can start meditation. Always take a few moments before the end of meditation to appreciate your intention, stick to it for some days then change it.