Setting an intention

#goodMorningSunshine ?
#morningsAreBeautiful ?
#rituals of #theBeautifulJourney

I’ve noticed I enjoy vinyasa yoga. As with everything, one starts having favourites. I love the upward dog – downward dog flow and back bends and twists and … oh, well, maybe I just really like yoga!

Today, as it is a bank holiday, we started 8:30am and had a 50min long practice. The instructor seasoned the session with a few bits of wisdom that were timely for me, given my immersion into the theme inspired by   this article about letting go of your triggers and childhood wounds. Choose joy!

At the beginning of the week I’ve introduced the idea of more consciously setting an intention for the practice and the day each morning. There are various ways to set intentions, but inspired by hypnosis theory, I went for questions instead of statements.
Example:

• How can I bring more focus into my day?
• How could my body be even more flexible?

Yet, the worrying mind might come with arguments explaining why you can’t achieve that right now. If you would like to avoid this ‘fight’ with your mind and let your subconscious do its work freely, you could anticipate that response from your worrying mind, so it does not grab your attention and energy. Example:

• How can I bring more focus into my day although I think I should be outside enjoying the sun?

So, this week has been the start of intention exploration. And I’ve got a lovely notebook to write them down each morning.

Writing things down is a practice in itself. It triggers awareness, it is a sign of discipline, it builds evidence that can be used as inspiration and motivation in the future, it builds a sort of work ethics as well.

It is just like with yoga or any other practice, it is not about the fact that you can do all those stretches and twists already, it is about showing up every day to do them. That is what shapes the character, expands the soul, frees the mind.

When working specifically with the mind, writing is important, it is where the practice is visible, where you can more easily see the transformation, from where you started and to where you are now, where the thinking errors are. Of course, with time, you will also feel the changes and see them in the dynamics of the relationships you have. For the more skeptical people or technical people, I recommend Gerald Weinberg’s book   Becoming a Technical Leader where the first exercises are about writing e v e r y d a y for 5min.

At the end of last week’s dance extravaganza I thought about having a dance session once a week.
Well, I’ve changed my mind. Instead of that, now there are 10min of dance training each evening, to end the session. This way it is easier to keep the rhythm.

As mentioned when all this started, it is opened to other friends to join as well. Let me know, if you’d like to.

Later edit: I’ve learned that vinyasa means to move with intention, to move with the breath. It’s nice how this week’s details aligned.

This has been week #5 of daily exercise started during lockdown.
#theBeautifulJourneyWithiuliana