Intentional Meditation

Meditation is more than clearing one’s mind, it can also serve as a means to intentionally create positive change in your life.

We’ve all heard the expression, “two birds, one stone.” Beginning your day with reflection and meaningful intent means you show up on purpose. Showing up to your life deliberately sends a powerful message to the universe and sets a positive tone for what’s ahead. When you connect with purpose and with who you are and what matters most, you are building incredible inner strength. This inner strength will guide you and bring forth clarity. You’ll notice that over time your decisions begin to become more intentional and less reactive. Setting intentions helps you consciously choose how you navigate your experiences and the way you perceive things, as opposed to submissively allowing life to happen to you.

“The mind is everything. What we think, we become.”
– Buddha

The difference between Intentional Meditation and other forms of meditation is that not only are you increasing self-awareness and removing negative emotions by reducing your stress levels, but you are also enhancing it by stating a specific intention and then attracting the desired outcome.

The positive energy you generate when practicing intentional meditation is incredibly powerful. Imagine as though you are a magnet; drawing to you all that you desire and anchoring it into your life.

Let’s admit it, life is busy.

I’m sure that you are like me – when you peak at your calendar it can be overwhelming; calendar invites, emails, text messages, Instagram and Facebook comments… The wonders of technology have given us a world full of instant gratification, but our fast-paced lives often make it challenging for us to be present with what matters most. So the question begs, “How do we prioritize our lives?” The answer; do more “being” and less “doing”. Many spiritual traditions teach that, to accomplish more – do less.

It’s easy to feel the pressure to pack your life full of activities.

You are taught this from a young age. In school we are encouraged to take on extracurricular activities, join clubs, be involved within the sports teams, study hard, get good grades, have a social life, work a part-time job, and the list goes on. At work, we are expected to be productive, climb the corporate ladder, take on additional responsibilities, and manage a work-life balance (if that even exists!). At home there is an on-going, never-ending list of to-dos, the unexpected challenges that pop-up, managing the household, relationships with family and loved ones, birthday parties, graduations, holidays, etc…

This continuous, persistent activity can make you feel as though it is impossible to rest or take time for things that bring you joy and allow you to simply, just be.

Why do you think so many of us walk around in a fog feeling lost, anxious, depressed and agitated? Why are so many of us turning to medication to help control these negative feelings? What happened to living life to its fullest, and actualizing our wildest dreams? Our minds have been overloaded and blurred, and we’ve forgotten….

Taking time to embrace slowing down and living deliberately can be the first step towards living a more gratifying and fulfilling life.

Intentional Meditation is a great tool to support in achieving this. For those of us who practice yoga, we are already familiar with Intentional Meditation. Often times, you are asked to set an intention at the beginning of class for something you would like to enrich or improve in your life. Then you focus and flow with that intention throughout practice with the goal of stepping off your mat feeling more connected and aware of your intention. The key here, however, is that when you add intent to the process, you say your specific intentions then begin quieting the mind. Intentional Meditation is not based on material goals like winning a million-dollar lottery ticket, it is geared toward your emotional, physical or mental health, and making positive / enriching changes to your life.

Do you need help determining which intentions are most important to you?

Many of us do. Reflecting on a few simple questions can assist in creating a foundation for you to build your intentions upon and put your needs into perspective.

Today, I intend to make time for myself
Today, I intend to love fully and unconditionally
Today, I intend to bring more harmony into my life
Today, I intend to forgive myself or those who have hurt me
Today, I intend to embrace change
Today, I intend to feel gratitude for all the positive people and things in my life

It’s important to trust and believe in the intention you set; have passion behind it.

Remember that intentions are focused on making positive changes to your life and not goals. Your goals are going to drive what intentions you set for yourself, but there is a difference between intentions and goals. There is no required result when you set your intention. It is merely making a positive change that can benefit and assist you in reaching the goals that you set – intentions have no boundaries and are as lofty as your imagination is. Intentions are the fuel to your fire that drives your practical goals with optimism and excitement, they also fuel your life with meaning and purpose.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
– Henry David Thoreau
American philosopher, poet, and environmental scientist

When you open yourself to Intentional Meditation, you dissolve emotional blocks and allow the universe’s gifts to emerge and present themselves to you.

Finding ways to make positive changes, such as intentional meditation, are important because negativity, fear, anxiety and worry all add a tremendous amount of stress to your health. No one benefits from stress and worry, and you actually begin to create blocks within yourself; clouding your judgement and decision-making capabilities.

State your intentions in the positive.

For example, instead of saying, “I don’t want any more sadness in my life,” state, “I will find the root-cause of my sadness and address it.” It is also important to write down your intentions, this is a good way to ensure these are at the forefront of your day and also helps organize those of us who have multiple intentions. Own the fact that you can’t control every aspect of your life and surrender your intentions to the universe – this will allow you to be open to infinite possibilities. Each morning, take a couple of minutes for yourself – take three deep breaths and settle in. Ask yourself some simple questions like, what matters most for me today, or what grudges or regrets do I want to release today. Meditate and set your intentions. Take three deep breaths and open your eyes. Practicing this simple habit daily can cultivate incredible awareness and change your life.

When you clear your mind and when attention is brought to the forefront of your thoughts, you begin to create an openness to respond to them instead of reacting – this opens the bridge between you and the universe’s gifts.

Ultimately, you begin to embrace every experience. That’s why setting intentions and journeying inward before an activity is so significant and can dramatically improve results. You have more of you available for yourself, relationships, family, friends, and career to create the life you desire. Invite happiness into your life with intentional meditation and become a conscious creator, knowing how to influence what you want whether it is more fulfilling relationships or a more meaningful career, or more freedom and abundance, or simply being you.

Tris Thorp

An International Bestselling Author, Lifestyle and Leadership Coach and speaker, Tris Thorp is one of today’s leading experts in the field of personal growth and leadership development. Having spent a decade traveling the world, being trained by and sharing the stage with Dr. Deepak Chopra in the field of social emotional learning, consciousness and mindfulness-based practices, Tris has a real gift for integrating the ancient spiritual teachings with modern-day science and mindfulness to help people all over the world let go of their past and create an empowered new future.

During her tenure at the Chopra Center, Tris apprenticed under the Chopra Center’s co-founder Dr. David Simon, co-facilitating the Healing the Heart and Emotional Freedom workshops alongside him. Prior to his passing in 2012, Dr. Simon appointed Tris as the person to carry on his teachings in the field of emotional healing. In addition, Tris was fortunate to be mentored by the late Debbie Ford prior to her passing in 2013, which is where she continued her extensive studies of the unconscious mind and concepts of the persona and shadow. After the loss of her two mentors, Tris went on to become certified through the Ford Institute as a coach specializing in Shadow Work and reconciling mental and emotional issues stemming from past experiences. She continues to share the gifts of emotional healing and facilitating this work in the footsteps of her former mentors.

Tris is the International bestselling author of Healing Your Heart: Rewrite Your Story with Awareness and Intention. A guide book to understanding your emotions, how we create our story and workable tools and techniques to heal from the past, Healing Your Heart stewards you through the process of releasing mental and emotional baggage, forgiving yourself and others, setting and enforcing boundaries and consciously communicating your needs in a loving and effective way so you can be who you’re meant to be, do the things you want to do and have all that you deserve to have in this life.

Tris is also the co-author of bestseller Mental and Emotional Release® with Dr. Matt James. Written in a language both professionals and non-professionals can understand, Mental and Emotional Release® offers real life case studies, an overview of MER and its foundation, step by step scripts to follow, and clinical efficacy studies comparing MER to other therapies.

Clearly in her dharma, Tris’s passion and dedication to gently guide people on their inward journey through personal growth is evident in her work as a Lifestyle and Leadership coach, Trainer of Mental and Emotional Release and workshop facilitator. She teaches various courses on leadership development, personal empowerment, social emotional learning and higher states of consciousness – both in online courses and her certification programs, live workshops, VIP retreats and 1-1 clients.

Tris Thorp is Board Certified by the Association of Integrative Psychology as a Trainer of Mental and Emotional Release ®, Master Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming, Hypnosis, and Mental and Emotional Release ®, a Certified Reiki Master, and an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance.

Tris is devoted to inspiring and empowering others to cultivate and maintain mindfulness-based lifestyle practices that lead to greater clarity, purpose and fulfillment. Through one-on-one coaching, online programs and live events, Tris specializes in helping people to fully release negative emotions, limiting beliefs and unconscious patterns, enabling them to make quantum leaps into the life they are truly meant to be living.