Set your intentions and make 2021 the best year ever

January is a traditional time of the year to refresh and renew. When goal setting and making New Years Resolutions, creating intentions is important. Intention is about focus, and directing your mind toward a specific outcome.

Intention is really focused commitment, as author Cyndi Dale puts it in her book, Energetic Boundaries (Sounds True Inc., 2011). “We use it (intention) to declare our objective and to alert the universe that we are serious about changing our patterns,” she writes. Think of setting your intention as sending out an alert to the universe. “Intention is a critical force for shaping reality,” Dale notes.

Setting your intentions  

The basic idea of how to set your intentions is to get quiet and go within as you create your intentions. Then it’s important to detach from the outcome after you “put it out there” in order to manifest.  Of course it’s not about sitting back; you need focused commitment, and action to achieve your objective-intention.

Before you set new intentions, get rid of the old ones which are no longer serving you. Much in the way you set new intentions, you can release old energies and intentions which may cloud your new intention messages. You can put a general message out to your soul and the universe to help you identify them and release the old energies and intentions which hold you back.

All the better if you can specifically identify your old intentions to release them more fully. Don’t be afraid to go deep in questioning yourself about why you want something when setting new intentions, or when if negative feelings come up as you are identifying and releasing old intentions. For more on this when making new intentions or resolutions, see the Spirit Times blog on how to change your mindset.

Optimize your creation process  

Meditation and prayer

Mediation works to help clear out the old, calm the mind and get clarity. Prayer works to support and amplify intentions. Rebecca Rosen recommends practicing visualization exercises to draw in clear, positive energy. Try this visualization: picture a disco ball. Imagine yourself in the center of it. The ball is “filled with light and the mirrors deflecting any and all of the dark, lower energies off an away from you. With this intention, we are better able to stay high vibe and be the light!,” Rosen writes in a recent year-end newsletter.

Prayer and meditation of course aren’t just for when you want something or need it. A regular practice of prayer and meditation will help you find more ease and grace in your life.

Using objects   

As you create your intentions, you can also give them a boost by putting your intentions into objects such as using jewelry, talismans or objects, such as those containing quartz stones, precious gemstones or metal. Again, you can find resources on the internet for blessing or programming objects.

Select objects that already contain the particular qualities you are seeking or that match the energy of the intention. For example, malachite is a green crystal and green is a color that represents healing and renewal, so using a malachite stone could bring a healing or cleansing-related intention to bear.

Other energy maximizing tools

After you create your intentions, you can boost your potential results is to strike when the timing or “energy” is right. One way to make sure your efforts and time are well spent and optimized to do things when the timing is right is to consult your astrological forecast. Numerology and cosmic forecasts also leverage the aspects of types of action to take and timing.

For some great overviews of what to expect this year, see Susan Miller’s Astrology Zone and Lee Harris’ latest energy forecast for the current month.

In addition to these resources, if you are wondering what the outlook for each month is like from that big picture perspective—including numerology and cosmic—we invite you to visit our monthly blogs at Spirit Times.