Intention: The Magic Ingredient of Yoga
A Guide to Setting Strong Yoga Intentions, by Hannah Moran
January is a time for fresh starts, new beginnings, chances to ditch your bad habits and develop new, healthier ones. That’s right - it’s New Year’s Resolution season, baby…
But here’s the thing. How many times has January come around, and even though you said you were going to eat healthier, play fewer video games, walk your dog every day, do more yoga (whatever your resolution is), but by March you’ve practically abandoned all motivation? If this sounds like you, don’t beat yourself up - this is how it works for most people.
The reality is, staying motivated is hard. But why is that?? Why do we seemingly always fail at New Year’s Resolutions? I think it’s because we’re setting our goals without enough of the magic ingredient:
Intention.
In my experience, goals and resolutions are nearly doomed to fail without intention. It’s like trying to start a car with no gas in the tank - you have the car, the keys, the goal to get from point A to point B, but no fuel to make it happen.
This isn’t to say that goals and resolutions are bad, or that you’re doomed to fail just because you’re a human being. On the contrary! Goals have the potential to be great motivators and can lead to immense success - if they’re fueled by intention.
What is an intention, anyway?
We talk a lot about intentions in yoga classes. There’s often a moment towards the beginning of class where the teacher might say something like, “Now close your eyes and set an intention for your practice today.” So what does that mean and how do I decide on one?
An intention is like your “why” behind an action or goal. It’s what brings meaning to your practice. Without intention in yoga, we’re just moving through shapes with our bodies and hoping to feel something. Without intention in goal-setting, yoga or otherwise, we’re setting ourselves up for failure.
Ahlia Hoffman from mindbodygreen.com defines an intention as follows:
“An intention is bringing your attention and awareness to a quality or virtue you wish to cultivate for your practice both on and off of your mat.”
I love this definition because it addresses a few key pieces… Let’s break it down:
First, intention-setting involves actively “bringing your attention and awareness to a quality or virtue.” In other words, it’s not a passive thing. It takes some work and lots of practice, just like meditation or yoga.
Next, we’re bringing our attention to a “quality or virtue.” This can mean many things: health, family, relationships, patience, gratitude, sobriety - anything, really! It could even be a person in your life.
What it’s not is something like: “I want to practice 3x/week every week.” This is a goal, while the intention is something that you use to fuel that goal, like “wellness” or “self-care.” The key is that it has to be powerfully important to you, which brings me to the next piece…
Your intention must be something “you wish to cultivate.” Meaning it must be something that has a strong enough meaning to you that it motivates you to keep your “inner fire” lit, so to speak. Choose something that is powerful to you and close to your heart.
Also key here is the word “cultivate” versus using the word “achieve” or “accomplish.” This reminds us that it’s not about achieving anything specific, but rather the very act of working towards something. This is a core concept of yoga as a practice and can be a game-changer if you can internalize it. It’s not about the end goal, but rather all the effort you put in along the journey.
Finally, intentions are “for your practice both on and off your mat.” This cannot be stressed enough. Your yoga practice does not end with savasana, and neither do your intentions. Your intentions, if powerful enough, will permeate every aspect of living.
For example, if your intention is good health, you don’t stop caring about your health after your yoga class is over, right? The true embodiment of an intention never really ends, as with the ever-evolving practice of yoga.
How do I choose an intention?
Let’s revisit our definition:
“An intention is bringing your attention and awareness to a quality or virtue you wish to cultivate for your practice both on and off of your mat.”
As long as you work within these parameters, whatever you choose for your intention is sure to motivate you. With a strong enough intention, you’ll blow your New Year’s Resolutions out of the water!
Try an exercise… Close your eyes and ask yourself, “what’s important to me?” Seriously, try it now!
Whatever comes to mind is probably a pretty good option for you. Often your gut will point you in the right direction, as our intentions are meant to be very close to our hearts. So my advice here, as underwhelming as it might be, is to trust your gut.
If you’re feeling stuck and nothing comes to mind, below are some examples of intentions that I’ve known people to have great success with (myself included). Disclaimer: This is just a shortlist to get your creative juices flowing. In the end, your intention has to be yours.
Health and/or Wellness
Loving Kindness
Family
Education
Self-Acceptance or Self-Love
Healthy Relationships
Joy
Non-Attachment
Courage
Empowerment
Trust
Letting Go
Creativity
I’ll reiterate that whatever you choose as an intention has to be meaningful to you - not to me or your yoga teacher or anyone else… It might be shared, as in - someone else might have the same intention as you, but as long as it’s important to you, it doesn’t matter.
How do I use my intention in practice?
So you have a strong intention - now how do you use it? When it comes to using an intention as fuel to keep yourself motivated, the answer is simple: consistency and dedication.
Be consistent with your intentions. Consider them and meditate on them often. Otherwise, you’ll likely forget about them. Mornings and evenings are great times to do this.
Make an “intention meditation” into a little ritual for yourself, or add it to a ritual that you already have. Perhaps even keep an intention journal and write something down every day that you did, said, or thought which was consistent with your intention(s).
Be dedicated to your intentions. Don’t quit when the going gets rough. It won’t always be easy, and there may be times when you want so badly to stray from the path that you’ve set for yourself. That being said, we all have moments of weakness (reminder: you are human), so when you slip off the wagon a little bit, just forgive yourself and get back on.
This concept of dedication circles back to the process of setting the intention to begin with - the stronger and more meaningful you make it, the less likely you are to slip up. But again, when you do (and you will), always forgive yourself and get right back to it.
I wish you all the best as you set your intentions for the coming weeks, months, years, or perhaps just for your next yoga class. Keep your intentions close. Namaste.
What are your intentions this year?? Leave a comment below to let us know!
