Intention-Setting
Recently I enjoyed a lovely lunch with Phaedra Purdue, the representative from one of my vendors on Home and Family. We did not know each other well, but I had invited Phaedra to read my Survivor’s Guide: 12 Tips to Gain Inner Peace. As it turned out, Phaedra is aligned with this work and our lunch was nothing, if not provocative.
Phaedra’s background is such that women in her community were treated as important members of any community decisions. They were respected for their connection to consciousness and long term insights into future events. Phaedra had been a contributor to a book that emerged from a Google conference on Innovative Women. Our conversation quickly turned on the topic of quantum mechanics and quantum consciousness.
I enjoy having this type of discussion. I have long felt the connection to Source Energy which has been underscored by the descriptions of a vast ocean of consciousness in which we float. We are not separate from it. It is in all places.
However, even though such a connection is always possible, many people do not know how to access quantum consciousness because their ego, conscious mind and activities block the messages if they believe they are separate from it. If we are to access the fields of infinite possibility in order to manifest our dreams, we will want to reduce the impact of our ego in order to develop a relationship with the subconscious (or non-conscious) mind. Quantum physicist, Amit Goswami provides several practices we can use to accomplish this connection. The first is intention-setting.
As Dr. Goswami explains it in his book Quantum Creativity, the ego expresses the intention, but what actually happens depends on our alignment with the subconscious mind that is eternally linked to Quantum Consciousness. Therefore, the practice he recommends is a meditative one in which we expand beyond our limited self-interests to include the benefit to the greater whole. Wayne Dyer wrote of intent, not as something you do, but as something that already exists as an invisible field of energy within us. Asmit Goswami and other spiritual leaders describe our link to it as occurring through our subconscious mind.
Stating intention is an important concept when speaking about purpose, vision and goals (“PV&G). In order to pursue our PV&G, we have to bring our ideas, desires and will into alignment to take action, however, often we are blocked and cannot sum the will to take action. How do we clear the block?
The way described above by Goswami is one way. I have learned through personal experience that we can build a relationship with our subconscious mind by choosing nonlinear communication and by asking positive questions. Noah St. John recommends positive why questions (called Afformations), however, it is also possible to ask open questions like “what if.”
The ego may still rear its head after we leave the meditative state. Until the conscious mind has become disciplined, excuses may proclaim the reasons why our intentions are improbably. The choices become difficult to differentiate. How do we deal with that? How do we get clear on our intention?
Once again, a technique emerges out of the study of quantum physics. When making a decision, recognize that there is a period of time where the outcome of any choice is unknown. The outcome could go either way. In quantum physics circles, this is exemplified by Schrodinger’s Cat.
In that example, as you look at a closed box, you are asked if the cat inside is dead or alive. You have no way of knowing in that moment until you take off the box top and then you can see the true answer.
For Wayne Dyer, that translated into a guiding principle, that if a positive and negative outcome are possible in the lack of knowledge, then choose to act as if the positive will occur and stop worrying about the negative.
But what happens when you have a decided desire for one outcome over another? It has long been held that we can influence the results just in the process of observing. And Lynn McTaggert has documented studies that seem to demonstrate that we can influence the results by focusing the power of intention upon a thing.
One way we can do that is to act as if you are what you desire. By holding your thoughts there, you are influencing results that with what is possible, your desire is possible as well.
Another method is to define why you want a particular outcome. What does it mean to you? What difference will it make?
The discussion goes on and on. Intention is so much more connected to our energetic essence than we realize. Therefore, if you are lacking the will to act on your desires even though you feel passionately about them, pause and reconnect quietly to your inner self and listen. You don’t have to believe anything. You don’t have to subscribe to dogma that makes you uncomfortable. Just be still, center in the quiet and allow inspiration to emerge. When we are inspired, we shift into the appropriate action.
Blessings on your intentions,
Susan