The power of intention

Have you been to a yoga class and the teacher invites you to set an intention for the class? When you are new to this, it can be quite baffling! What do they mean?
While it simple means to cultivate a quality that you feel drawn to during the practice and also, off the mat. Your intention may be to cultivate quiet, or more self compassion, or perhaps more power. Your intention might also be to allow the breath to lead the movement.

I’m reading A Life Worth Breathing by yoga teacher Max Strom. In the book he writes about practicing with intention.

“Nothing happens in the mind that doesn’t happen in the body. They are one.” The mind manifests the body…. When we direct our mind and heart in one direction, it gives our actions great power. This direction, or focus is called our intention.”

“Imagine seeing two people greet each other with a hug. An insincere embrace and a sincere one can look very similar to the spectator but to the recipient of the hug, the difference is vast.

Now, during your yoga practice, if your chief intention is to heal the heart, open it to a higher power, calm your busy mind and become healthier in the process, the result will be profoundly different to the person grunting through the class to become slimmer and acquire firmer buttocks. Both mindsets will achieve the physical benefits but only one will transform your inner life”

Max Strom, from A Life Worth Breathing

After teaching many people yoga over many years, I’ve come to notice when participants are practicing with some form of intention, and when they are simply going through the motions, getting through the class. They can say they have been to yoga, or practice yoga regularly, but without the intention, they are missing out on the subtle yet magical experience.

Please note I am not here to judge! It is totally fine if that is where you are at while you take a yoga class. Perhaps the next class, or in ten classes time, or maybe even in years to come you will begin to practice more intentionally. Meet yourself where you are! Remember that awareness is the first step in transformation.

This idea of intention reminded me of something that stood out for me in the book Breath, the new science of a lost art by James Nestor. We learn that breath holding, when done without intention is detrimental to our health. For example the term coined email-apnea, where sufferers unintentionally hold their breath while checking work emails. In this case, they are in a state of fight or flight due to the anxiety of what the emails might contain. This is not great for our physical or mental health!

However, breath holding is also a breath work practice that improves lung function, increases CO2 in the bloodstream and can help us experience calm.

The experience is different when we practice with intention

This also makes me wonder about other aspects of life and how participating in them intentionally or not can change how we experience them.

So with this in mind, I invite you to practice with intention this week. Remember that a few postures practiced intentionally may bring about more calm and balance than 90 minutes of unintentional movement.

Sarah

Thanks so much for reading. I do love seeing those ‘open email’ stats! If you know of someone who may enjoy this please do forward it on to them. I’d be so grateful.