Living intentionally is about discovery. Discovering yourself and what you value, what matters, and what doesn’t make you feel free. This is why your simple intent is so healing: it allows you to keep what’s important close to your heart and more gracefully release — or move through, rather than avoid — suffering.

Living intentionally can be about showing up for the really hard decisions with just a little more willingness to stay the course. It might be about asking for help, or giving help without needing anything back.

This is how living with a full and open heart can support your healing...

Living Intentionally Is a Never-ending Gift of Healing. For example:

1. You notice the journey while you’re in it.

You immerse yourself in the world around you. Rather than racing from start to finish, you actually give yourself the grace of living the bulk of your life: the process, the middle. You let yourself feel life fully and claim all the space between point A and Z — life is a whole lot of in between.

You feel the warmth of your mug of tea as you wrap your hands around it. You watch how the power of something invisible makes the trees dance and the wind chimes sing.

The best way to stretch time is to treat this moment like a treasure hunt.

2. Distractions don’t sway you to retreat from what matters.

When you sit down to do the work you need to do, you practice staying with the discomfort of not wanting to complete the task. You sit with it and let it be transformed. You get things done with greater ease and less drama.

3. You’re more aware of the things you do to distract yourself from your feelings.

You notice your habitual tendency to take out your phone and scroll through social media or check emails when you’re bored. You realize you’re not really hungry. Instead, you might practice deep breathing, stretching, or taking in the scenery.

Living with intention means accepting your power to make conscious choices about how you want to feel, interact, contribute, and grow.

4. You give full presence to the person in front of you.

You make eye contact, have meaningful conversations with a touch more depth, hug a little longer, maybe even hold hands. You offer the healing of your own presence, inviting the other person to offer up theirs. You listen in order to hear, rather than to reply — and you learn much more that way.

5. You learn how to find companionship in your own presence.

Silence isn’t so scary once you get to know it. Stillness is the birthplace of sound and movement. You feel like you’ve touched some deep-rooted truth in life when you can be alone, silent, still, and be at home within yourself.

A few gifts of living from intention: Your relationship with yourself blooms. Your relationships with others grow richer. It is pure bliss to feel so deeply about what matters to you.

6. You’re not destroyed by labels or opinions.

With your point of view flexible, you learn that it’s actually not the end of the world if someone else defines you. You know that others’ views are more about them than they are about you.

You know yourself — your innermost self — as the field of conscious awareness. You are the witness even to your own thoughts, and therefore are not a slave or victim to any particular thought.

7. You start to say “no” to what creates conflict.

You start to say “let me mull it over” before saying “yes” to too many requests. You prevent unnecessary clutter and overwhelm. You grow more aware of how you feel around certain decisions, activities, and people. You get better at choosing what feels like freedom.

Living with intention (with heart) removes clutter from your mind and home, and infuses meaning into everything that you say “yes” to.

8. You listen more closely to your intuition.

You practice allowing (being guided, patiently) instead of forcing answers. You make yourself more available to peace and hope. Trusting yourself empowers you to live more authentically, which is a radically healing path.

You can more readily identify what does and doesn’t resonate with your core desires.

9. You grow more comfortable with the unknown.

The mysteries of life, you notice, could be seen as a source of inspiration rather than fear. There’s so much space for everything to coexist. You try out the courage to live true to your myriad of inner contradictions. Embracing the unknown creates more space for wonder and reverence.

. . .

Tell me:

Which of these thoughts did you need to read today?

Tell me in the comments. I read every single one, and I'd love to know!

An open heart will take you far…

With love,

Jen

P.S. Wake up with joy, hope, and purpose beating in your heart every single morning. Get my book Morning Affirmations to help you feel, and live, the way *you* want to. No matter what you see on TV. So you can contribute to the world you *want* to see.