In a culture and society where everything is at our fingertips, where solutions, treatments and protocols are expected and where instant convenience and relief are demanded, it's really easy to lose your power and step into healing and spirituality with the mindset that it is the next magic pill or white knight in shining armour.
It's not. The inner work will be some of the most grueling work you will ever do.
But when you understand the power of your intention and how paying attention to your intention allows you to access your inner power and cultivate conscious awareness, its a total game changer.
See, your intention is the piece (or seed, if you will) of your consciousness, a statement of consent to whatever practice or medicine you are choosing. So when you enter a meditation practice, go see your energy healer or enter a psychedelic cerement, it is your intention that will direct the experience.
The more grounded in reality your intentions are, the more you are meeting yourself where you are at. And the more you can do that with radical self acceptance, the more sustainable your healing journey will be.
So let’s get into it:
When you choose healing practices, retreats or ceremonies, you can give away all your power with your shitty intentions and I mean this with the most love.
Self healing and personal development without knowing how to properly set intentions is like dating without being able to clue into red flags.
An utter waste of time with a potentially messy outcome.
One of the most impactful things you can do for yourself and your healing journey is to understand the power of your intention and how to start honing them appropriately.
No more useless intentions like:
“My intention is to heal” 🙃
“I want to fully surrender to whatever spirit wants to show me” 🙃🤨
“I am ready to release any and all that doesn’t serve me” 🙃🤨🥴
I’m going to share exactly how to do that.
Before I share with you the 4 main factors to solid intention setting I want to acknowledge that this isn’t just for deep healing and psychedelic ceremonies. You can apply this method to any aspect of your life where you are wanting to be more intentional.
So think of this email’s contents as intentional living 101.
THE BASELINE: What the fuck do you care about?
Seriously. What’s important to your heart and soul? What do you value?
And I’m not asking you to regurgitate the values you were raised on, the values that society has shoved down your throat or the values your culture expects of you.
What do YOU value?
No shame if you have absolutely no idea; here’s a list of values to skim through to help figure out your own:
Without being clear on what your heart and soul values (which could be very different from the mind and what it’s been conditioned to) it’s hard to know what to care about and focus on when making intentions.
Two people can experience a similar situation (like a conflict-heavy relationship) and have very different value systems. It is this difference in values that would create a difference in response, while one person who values commitment might be more than happy to stay and continue to work on things, another person who values ease might choose to leave amicably and escape their perceived (but very real) turmoil.
Think of your values as the baseline foundation for your intentions that ensure you stay true to yourself.
THE TRUTH: Seeing our part and owning it
I’ll be very blunt: one of the most agonizing parts of healing (and also the most crucial) is to see your part in the conflict, the cycle, the pattern, whatever you want to call it. This is so hard because it can literally be a tug of war between your heart and your ego mind.
What are they tugging on?
Multiple truths.
Here’s the thing, you are always going to be able to find blame and fault in someone or something else. There is a very valid and fair reason why you are feeling the way you are feeling.
And also.
If you stay focused on the mental story and the valid blame, you miss out on your own truth, your own growth and your own evolution.
I was talking with a fellow non binary friend on social media this week after sharing my story re: my experience with my breasts and having to shift away from feeling objectified by them. They highlighted it perfectly:
“Doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck” and that’s just it. People are going to be people and you have to let them be while you understand your own needs and continue to keep separating who you are versus how you are perceived.
It's the difference and shift from resistance in the body and something simple not resonating. It’s much easier to let it be when it just isn’t resonating.
I say this all the time, triggers are treasures. They definitely don’t always feel that way and we don’t always have to feel like we are grateful for them.
But when you are ready to see the treasure it is liberating as fuck. It’s helpful to have self awareness practices in place to be able to do this. You could journal, meditate, or my favorite, consult a trusted mirror:
THE MIRROR: a trusted source
Having someone you trust and feel safe with is a game changer to clarifying your intention.
See, a large aspect of this work is tapping into and stirring up the unconscious mind. And in case it’s not obvious, we are not conscious to what is in our unconscious (and boy is there lot’s of goodies there)
Having a mirror in your life to reflect back at you, to ask curious questions and help you navigate what really matters to you makes all the difference.
One of my main “jobs” or tasks as an energy healer and trip sitter is to help you hone your intention and, as long as you are willing to lean into the work, I am very talented at untangling your feelings and thoughts and stories to nail an intention that makes every cell in your body say:
YUP! THAT”S IT RIGHT THERE!
[side note here! This yup could mean hella resistance + fear]
It doesn’t have to be an energy healer you do this with. A loved one will do great as long as their bias and any savior complexes are able to step out of the way.
Why I am so good at what I do is because I have done my own work to remove these aspects within myself. So when I connect with folks under the context of a session, my intuitive gifts kick in and pick up on certain subtle details as they share what’s going on with them.
Words you say will hit me funny.
Knowings and deeper understandings will arise.
Symbols and analogies will start to show up.
And as this happens I vocalize them and ask curious, and sometimes weird, questions.
There seems to be a method to the madness because the series of questions and shares always leads to a deep FUCK YES in a way that seems to have already brought new awarness and insight.
Find someone who can be this person for you.
THE DIRECTION: humbly knowing where you want to go
Knowing your values is number one but once they are clear, the next step is deciding what you want to create, what direction you want to move in.
Yes, we truly are creators of our own reality to a certain extent and if you want to claim that power of creation, if you want to truly be the master of your universe, you need to speak it.
This is the intention setting in itself.
You can list all the things you don’t want in your life, all the habits you can’t stand about yourself and all the cycles that exhaust you. But when you step outside of all that, when you get clear on your values, when you practice taking personal responsibility with radical self acceptance, and when you have a trusted source to sound board and mirror back to you, where the heck do you want to go or how do you want to feel or what do you want to experience?
I know.
That feels like a tall order.
So here is the permission you didn’t know you needed:
Whatever your answer is, whatever the desired outcome or destination, whatever the intention is, the how is never up to you.
(dear perfectionist: sorry not sorry)
I’m being 100 percent serious. Once you have a clear intention I want you to imagine that you are putting that intention on a cloud and let it float away.
This doesn’t mean we are inactive in our self care and lacking rituals.
It means we understand that our ability to heal comes from our feminine energy (regardless of gender) alongside our ability to simply be, to allow for unknowns, for spontaneity, for our intuition and emotions, our chaos and our pleasure.
If that last sentence confuses you, that’s okay. Just know that this act of placing your intentions on clouds is a practice in trusting a deeper part of yourself you might have forgotten.
Another note to add in terms of direction is to choose an area of your life that you want to focus on. I know it seems alluring to become the creatrix of your life and shift your mindset, your approach to relationships, how you show up in business AND finally becoming that self care maven, but it ain’t possible.
And to be frank (who is frank, btw?), this is just you shifting addictive behaviors to a new a shiny costume.
Pick one, or a couple, so you don’t spread yourself too energetically thin.
So perhaps after reading this email you have recognized that you do actually have what it takes to heal and finally start to move away from patterns and conditions based in fear.
Perhaps you even know an intention that needs space.
There is no right place to start.
(again, perfectionists, sorry not sorry)
With love,
Jas