Since I use intention a lot in my life and art, I would like to go over the meaning of intention in this post. I use intention to influence my life and truly be the creator of my own life. I use art and meditation as a channel for that creation. By setting intention for your life and how you want to live it, is to ask yourself questions about how you really want to live. How you want to feel. What you dream about. Thinking about intention regarding different aspects of life is forming some idea about what we desire and want in life. Setting an intention is putting energy, emotion and focus on a specific outcome we want for ourselves. Intention can be anything from deciding how you want your day to unfold to big aspects of life such as success at work or how you want your relationships with other people to be. It may be my long-term intention to be honest with others and to stand up for myself. It could also be my intention to be successful at work, improve my relationship with someone close to me or to increase joy in my life.
In fact, everything comes into being because of intention. The house you live in, the clothes you wear and so on. Intention is the power of creation. It has been described as an inner motivation directed to a certain wish and as containing the seeds of what you are able to create. It can be good to pause at times to ask yourself " what do I want "... "what do I desire "..." where do I want to be in one year..three years, etc. "? Too often we focus on what we don't want and dwell on it endlessly. " I don't want to be in this job " or " I don't want to live in this apartment " or "this relationship is not what I want ". Similarly, we forget to envision ourselves and create space in our minds for what we want instead.
How can we create a life that is of great value to us and fulfilling if we don't know what we want instead?
If we only have a picture in our mind of what we don't want and not what we want , how are we supposed to be able to change what is not serving us? Thinking about it brings us closer to what we want, helps us pay attention to it and thus make room for it in our lives. This is how we can set down an intention.
Do you hear what your heart is calling for?
For the lyrical part of me, intention is the calling of the soul or heart. There are few things in life as important as being connected to our inner self, our heart, our intuition, our deepest wisdom, will and desire. With intention we sowed a seed, and the seed contains all that can possibly become. It is up to us to water the seed and create the soil for the seed to grow and flourish. Who knows what we can reap? An intention to me is therefore more like a vow than a goal.
We've all heard the phrase "everything you put your attention on grows". The art is to live with this in mind. What we are preoccupied with at any given time is what we see around us. I sometimes take a simple example of the intention to buy a bigger car for the family. Let's say I've decided which type. Suddenly that type of car is the only thing I see when I'm moving around the city and town. Suddenly I see this type of car everywhere. My brain shuts out everything else for me. I've told my brain what I want and it helps me to notice it by putting lazer focus on that. Another example are couples who have made the decision to have a child together or people who are expecting a child and start seeing pregnant women all over the place. Our attention goes to what where our intention is. That's why it's so important to not only focus on what's going wrong in our lives, but focus on what we want instead. This is one of the things you are training for when you practice meditation, for example. Where you put your attention. You learn to direct your mind in a certain direction, like your breath.
Once you have formed your intention, it is good to rest in the knowledge that you have planted the seeds and visit the intention for a short time every now and then. Also to start taking steps towards what you desire. It can be small steps or big, you know where you are headed.
Opening up to possibilities
The power of intention lies in opening up to possibility. To open up to the idea that all kinds of things are possible. If I define myself and decide that I'm just not an artistic person at all, I'm closing off possibilities, not opening them up. One of my meditation teacher gave me this example: Does a fruit seed know that it can become a flower or a fruit tree? Does the acorn know that it can become an oak tree? The only person standing in my way is myself! My fears, the limitations of my own mind. Everything I give attention to and nurture grows and thrives.
Creating art with intention
Shiloh Sophia has formulated the concept Intentional creativity. It simply means using art to set an intention and get closer to your inner wisdom. You use IC to enrich your spirit and grow as a person. It is assumed that everything we need resides within us. That we have an inner wisdom, an intuition that knows all the answers. That our own wisdom can lead us to mental and physical health, to fulfilment and happiness. That we know deep inside what it is that our body, mind and spirit need.
In general, creating art with intention looks like this: you write down the intention, for example, on paper or canvas (often after meditation) and then you paint from your intuition over the written intention. An example of such a creative process is thinking about something you aim to achieve in life. For example, you may want to gain more strength in a difficult situation or you have a certain dream that you wish could come true. You would simply visualise the intention and not just write it down.
However, IC can also be used to get closer to your own intuition. To hear better the inner wisdom (get access to more files in the brain). Let's say you were in doubt about which way to go in some situation. You would then use IC to connect with you and help you find the answers through your art making.
When we create with intention, we gain easier access to our own wisdom and begin to understand how we can use it. We learn to listen to our inner voice, intuition. Creating with intention is a method to better understand who we are and who we want to become.
You don't need any artistic experience to be able to paint and create in this way. With this method we are constantly discovering something new or rediscovering what we have forgotten. All that is required is the willingness to receive information from ourselves through creation. Let go and celebrate life!
Turn on your creativity and tune in.
Kristín Berta Guðnadóttir
