Listen:

Watch:

Read:

At the end of some of my guided meditations, I coax you to set an intention to take your mindful state of mind with you as you move from the meditation into the rest of your day. But, why bother? Because setting an intention helps to lead you where you want to go.

Intention matters. In a study of long term meditators, D. H. Shapiro found that the results meditators achieved correlated with their intentions (1). Those who intended to pursue self-exploration achieved self-exploration. Those who wanted self-regulation attained self-regulation.

It’s easy to use intention to your advantage. Here are three ways to use intentions in your mindfulness practice:

1. Use intention to focus or to overcome obstacles during meditation

If, for example, you find it challenging to sit for 10 minutes, you might start today’s session by setting the intention to sit for the full 10 minutes no matter what comes up for you in meditation. You might set a timer for 10 minutes, get into meditation posture, close your eyes, focus on your breath, and say to yourself, “I intend to meditate until the bell sounds.”

You can go even further and add an intention about how you plan to deal with a challenge, “I intend to meditate until the bell sounds, and if I begin to feel restless, I will take one deep, relaxing breath.”

Setting an intention puts you in a mind set. It focuses your attention on what you want to accomplish. And, it can help remind you of an obstacle-handling strategy you want to apply.

Here’s another example. Perhaps you routinely find yourself getting frustrated or upset when a thought distracts your attention during meditation. You know that your reaction is not helpful, so you set this intention at the beginning of your meditation session: “I intend to be patient and kind with myself whenever I notice negative reactions to thoughts.”

 

This Week's Peaceful Moment: A Robin

 

2. Use intention to perform your daily activities mindfully

Intentions related to mindful daily activities can be broad or tightly-focused. First thing in the morning, for example, you might set an intention for the entire day: “I intend to be mindful of my reactions to other people today,” or “I intend to take three mindful breaths each time I pass through a doorway.”

But, you can also be quite specific: “During this meeting, I intend to be mindful of what Sanya says so I can truly understand her point of view.

3. Use intention to strengthen meditation habit-building efforts

If you’re working on creating a meditation habit, intentions can boost your efforts. In this case, you might use the same intention every day for several days or weeks, reinforcing your overall goal: “I intend to practice meditation today,” or “I intend to remember to reward myself once I’ve meditated.”

No matter what kind of intention you create, once you’ve set it, don’t ruminate about it, or fret over whether you’ll achieve it. Set it deliberately and then relax into it.

Reference:

Shapiro, D.H. (1992). A preliminary study of long term meditators: Goals, effects, religious orientation, cognitions. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 24(1), 23–39.

Invitation to meditate

For a 12-minute guided meditation including intention setting, forward the podcast or the video above to 2:07.

Next Week:

To follow up on our discussion about intention, next week, we’re going to explore goals. Do you have a meditation goal? Should you? Is it okay if your goal is different from some...