Setting Intentions

0:00Hello and welcome. It's the Art of Gratitude with Margaret Alvarez. That's me, creativity coach, artist, and art teacher teaching people how to combine creativity and mindfulness for their mental well-being. Also helping people to continue a gratitude practice or creative gratitude practice if that's your thing. Thank you for being here. This is episode eight and I'm very excited to be back and it's a new year. I am just feeling very blessed.

0:37I feel like I had an amazing holiday and it was restful and I got a lot done and you know had a lot of family around and I don't know I just feel like it was a really good one. I hope that it was the same for you. So in today's episode we're going to talk a little bit about setting intentions for the new year and by this point you've probably already set some resolutions or goals and that's totally fine but I just wanted to talk a little bit

1:08about the difference between resolutions and setting intentions for yourself. And I think that it's important to note also that journaling is about that focus. Whatever you choose to focus on or your intentions, it's a really great place to just kind of put all of that. And so I use my journal to kind of help me to refocus if I get a little off track. I feel like intentions also are

1:38just a little bit less rigid. It doesn't feel like a resolution. Resolutions to me just it feels like if I fail then I just kind of give up on the whole thing and then it's done. And you know a lot of people set those resolutions or those goals for themselves and then you know once something goes wrong it's like ah forget it. And I think that an intention is a little bit softer. I think it's like something that you can you know a plan a direction that you plan on going. And so I think it just

2:11works better. For me it does. I also am not just setting intentions at the beginning of the year. I'm setting intentions on a regular basis for myself. You know I intend on doing this better. I intend on trying to implement this into my life and do it regularly and consistently. And so I think that when you can set some intentions like I'm going in this direction it's a little bit softer. It's like it just makes it feel less like a rule and more like something that you plan on doing. And that way

2:48if you do fail or if something does get in the way of it it doesn't feel so I don't know final. You know I failed this resolution. I failed this thing I said I was going to do and now you know I'm just going to give up on it. I don't know that's that is that's my thoughts. I'm wondering if you feel the same way. Setting intentions it's it's a little different and I don't know that it's a regular thing that people do but I know that for me it's it just it just works better for me. So I set

3:25intentions all the time it's a good practice but I feel like at the beginning of the year it's it's like a fresh start. We all feel like that like when it's a new year it feels like you know it's it's time it's time to do this thing that you've always wanted to do. It's time to focus on what you need to focus on. And so I do that through my journal. I do this through meditation. I do it through you know focus focusing and my journal does a lot for me in this way and I hope that you can find you know

3:56you can find a way to use your journal in this way. But what I do is I set my intentions and then if I need to take notes and it has anything to do with that intention then I'll use my journal. If I need just inspiration you know I'll find imagery and those kinds of things. I collage a lot and so a lot of my collages you know are almost like inspired by the intentions that I've set and I think it's really important that I'm constantly working on that and building on that intention. And so journaling,

4:29writing, creating, doing whatever it is that you do in your journal is really just a way to stay in line. And so I really love that about journaling and I hope that I can help people define that that piece. And I think that it's important and I know that that it it really is something that I can't I can't do without. So my plan for the new year is just to kind of refine some of the things I'm already

4:59doing. I think that making better choices you know there's a lot of things that I've been doing that are you know goal oriented. It's like I've already set in my mind what I want my business to look like. I've already set in my mind what I want my health to look like. I've already I already have that vision and in order to you know go in that direction and really be in that same frequency of what I want I am focusing on it a lot. And so I

5:30over the years I've gotten a lot less rigid with my resolutions with my intentions I just feel like I just want to do better. I just want to try to do that better and I'm going to just try to do a little bit more of this and it's just it doesn't feel so restrictive. And so I think that when I can do it that way and I think a lot of people feel like this then you end up being more successful. You become more consistent with what you want to do and it feels better when when you're doing that. So it's

6:03like you know the obvious example you know going on a diet and restricting yourself from this amount of calories and you know and then you go over and you feel guilty and then you just end up giving up and you know you don't reach that goal and it just it makes you feel worse. So it's like that guilt and the you know it's just like it's it's it's rules and I just don't like rules. I don't think a lot of people like rules so I just feel like it's it's important to to think about like those and

6:34it's okay to set goals for yourself but to really just be less rigid I think is is my point. So think about a time when you set an intention for yourself and you were able to accomplish that goal and write about it. I think it's important that we remember some of the things that we do so that we can say okay we did this. This is a possibility. There are things that that I've done that I've set an intention about and it happened and I did it and and I know I can do it again and so it's really important to kind

7:08of reflect on the things that you have accomplished and that you have done. So I think that's an important part of this kind of of it's a part of your homework I guess to to think about when you've set an intention and when you've when you've followed through with that intention and you know to remember that and to to feel that energy that you felt when you accomplished the thing that you wanted to accomplish. I think the bottom line is that people can pick apart resolutions, goals, intentions,

7:42whatever whatever whatever works for you. I think that that's what's important. I am encouraging you to kind of re-evaluate or the way that you set the goal or intention or resolution if that's what you do at the beginning of the year but to really reflect also on things that have happened and that's what works for me. And so your homework would be to set your intentions for this year which is a pretty obvious thing that we all kind of do but to really look at you know even if you've already set your

8:18resolutions even if you've already set your intentions to really look at how how do you maintain your your goal? How do you stay consistent and can you use a journal in that way to kind of keep you on track? And so I carry my journal with me almost everywhere that I go. If I know that I'm going to be sitting somewhere where I have the time to to go into my journal then I'll bring it with me and I'll bring pens. I have a little like bag of pens that I that I bring with me. Anytime that I have to

8:52sit down and really just focus. If I get a moment to myself which doesn't happen very often where I can go and sit somewhere have a coffee or something like that and actually journal it's like the best but I but you know we have to set those times aside for ourself at home if we need to or you know if you have a moment at work or during your lunch break you know you just have to kind of work out the logistics of it but your homework would be to set the intentions to also reflect on past intentions that we're successful. So those are the two things that I think that will be important an important

9:28takeaway from this and hopefully will help you and I plan on doing the same reflecting on what I want to do this year. I will be posting it on Instagram so that you can see you know what that looks like for me and you know this is pretty personal it's a personal thing and so it's not necessarily something that you always have to share. I think sometimes we need somebody to to hold us accountable so if you feel like you need to share it so that you can check in with that person if you

10:01have a person that you can do that with I think that's always helpful. Like to me I feel like when I say it out loud when I tell my husband like this is what I'm going to do it feels more real and it feels like yes like that's and and so then I can you know talk about it like oh my gosh you know I did this thing today and it's working towards the goal that you know we talked about and it just makes it feel more like it solidifies it for me and it makes me feel like I need to do this thing

10:32that I've been talking about and you know the language that you use and the way that you talk about the things that go along with whatever intentions you have it's really important. It's important that you you start to you know you start talking about it and you start kind of everything that you say and you do is going towards that intention and so if you're doing the opposite let's say for example you're complaining or you're saying like oh you know let's just say for example you want

11:04to change jobs and you know all you do is complain and complain and complain about your job because you're just over it and you set the intention that you're going to you know work towards finding a new job okay complaining and and really just oh I'm over this I'm I'm you know I've set the intention is not gonna help um you have to be happy where you are in order to set that goal for yourself

11:34to move into something else you cannot go you cannot change from a place of negativity or you know just bad energy and so um it it's the focus part you know again you go back to the journaling in the if you find yourself feeling like oh I don't like where I am right now I really you know you have to find a place to channel that energy and you know the journal the journal works that's what it that that's what helps me so I hope that it will help you so realistically we want to set goals that and

12:10intentions that are intentions that we we can see ourselves accomplishing you know the other piece of this is that sometimes we set our intentions and it's it almost feels impossible and so you have to kind of start small um you know start you know start looking around for jobs and maybe start you know start thinking about like what what does that look like like visualizing what that looks like in your

12:40mind um and then you just kind of have to take little baby steps and I think that um again when you set resolutions that are very rigid and the goal is something you know pretty outrageous and you already know that then you've already set it in your head that like this is my resolution but it just may not work out you know even and that's the language it's like people say well this is what I want to do but I don't know if it's going to work you know and it's like you're already doubting yourself then it's not going

13:11to happen um so just think about the words that come out of your mouth the thoughts that you have how you are focusing on this intention and direction and how can you make it better how can you you know set aside a few minutes a day to to journal about what what went well what went well and what is working towards that goal I don't know you have to kind of you just have to use your journal to focus and that's what I that's what I want for you so hopefully this will will encourage you to do that

13:43so I'm going to set that as your homework set the intentions think about something that you have you know accomplished after you set an intention in the past and see you know think about how it worked and why it worked and and use that um you know we learn we grow from the things that we've gone through and and so you know we all know this it's not like something that you know is profound and I've I've discovered and I'm sharing with you this is all stuff that we know um but my my job is going to be

14:16to help you to use your journal in the way that will help you to better yourself to better your mental well-being to better yourself to help you to focus um all of these things because that's how it works for me it it this is how I use it so that's it that is the episode I hope that you have a wonderful week um thank you for sticking around and and listening and please if you have anything you have questions or you want to um chat about you know coaching I've been I've been on a mission

14:53one of my intentions is to do more one-on-one coaching um if that sounds like something that you would be interested in then please please message me I would love to help you find you know how to use your creativity to help better your mental well-being and to help you to stay more positive I want to help you achieve your goals and I can do that by helping you um find your creativity and use your journal in a way that will help you so all of these things I say because I do them

15:27myself again it is something that helps me and I want to help you so I will talk to you very very soon we'll be back with another episode hopefully in the next couple of weeks thank you for joining and remember a moment of gratitude can change everything don't forget about your gratitude all right we'll talk soon bye