The Gift of Being Intentional

How easy it is to look beyond today and now and wait for something spectacular. But what I’ve also realized to be easy is this. I can shift my focus from that something I’m waiting for, into this very moment and make this moment magical.

Think about the first rays of the sun and yourself making two cups of steaming hot coffee. And from the open window you hear birds singing their first morning songs as you’re bringing those coffee mugs to your favorite nook. How lovely it feels to just spend a moment with someone you love and enjoy the simplicity of that moment.

Or imagine the starry night becoming so clear outside while the last colors of pink clouds fade away and yourself making two cups of tea in your favorite mugs. The crickets are just starting their nightly concert while you carry the tray of tea outside to that little table. You light a little beeswax candle and invite your lovely company to share a moment with you under the stars.

How can simple everyday life feel like a celebration of life itself? It doesn’t take much. Intention and being present are the best gifts you can give to yourself and the ones you love that are around you. It’s so easy for me to miss this all and that’s the very reason I’m practising it as a skill. How are you doing that too?  

What do we do when setbacks come?

This Is me on a setback season - when moving my body feels hard and I do it anyway. I'm sharing you some game changer thoughts of "how".

Preparing yourself for the tough season can be a joy. Do you believe it?

I wonder how the top athletes prepare themselves for all the phases of their career.

Their mental work is the most profound work I would say.

Imagine that you and I were on a sprinting track with a world class athlete. 

And suddenly our thinking patterns were projected on the screen for all to see. 

I wonder what the difference would look like.

So what do you do to prepare yourself for the tough season?

What is possible for you to do?

And why is it important?

What mistakes I’ve made before, what naively starting a shift in my lifestyle.

And naively meaning that I planned everything based on my best day.

The day and season when I felt motivated, had clarity and uninterrrupted quality sleep.

I just felt so great that I finally thought that everything was possible.

And then came that rainy day, those sleepless nights when I just turned in my bed for hours.

I felt grumpy in the mornings and just dead tired during the nights.

My thoughts were a mess, tangled with thousands of negative thought spirals.

Those were the times when I definitely lost what I had established in an earlier season.

Just for the fact that my foundation was that I need a good day and a perfect season.

But my life is very ordinary, so I couldn’t figure out how this could ever work for me.

Until I started building the whole thing on another foundation.

And I stumbled on the easiest, most simple habit that I established for my exercise routine.

Now I’m learning to use what I’ve learned in other vital areas of my life.

Slowly but surely.

And I can tell you that  s l o w  is the best buddy of the simple & easy habit.

Slow in the sense that you have a timeline of repeating the new habit as much as you need.

Instead of being afraid of the setback season, think of it like this.

As the solidifier of all that you’ve learned so far in your process.

The setback season will help you to take a look at your foundation in a more profound way.

Look to find curiosity. 

It is such a game changer.

It helps you while you process the mental junk coming up during the setback season.

Know Your Season

Have you thought about how you know the season that’s outside in nature and as a simple habit dress for it intentionally?

Do you ever wear a thick long winter jacket for a Summer day, when the sun is shining, there is barely any wind and the weather forecast has promised a heat wave for that week?

No, I didn’t think so.

How about this.

Think of yourself as someone who is becoming very talented in intentionally dressing up your thoughts for the season.

When you have recognized the season you’re in - and that took you some time in peace and quiet until you figured it out - you take those thoughts that match your season.

You put them out on your mental cloth rack.

You look at them.

Comfy pajamas for the season of rest.

Accompanied with some soft slippers, cashmere shawl to wrap around you when you sip your early morning coffee on the porch.

Those books you got for your last holiday and have been saving them for later.

Or, this is your outfit for the active season of shifting a lifestyle.

Your most loved worn out running shoes and a freshly filled water bottle by your cloth rack.

That brightly colored breathing shirt that just invites you to run.

Your most loyal running pants that are just your size in this season.

Then, try mixing up these two outfits for the two different seasons.

Can you feel the confusion?

Clarity comes from that work you do with yourself finding what season it is for you.

And from you listening to it like the weather forecast you watched last night.

Have that sweet conversation with yourself.

And start finding out how this season can be about getting to know yourself more as you honor the season you’re in.