Setting Seasonal Intents

It’s that time again – the time of year when light and dark are balanced – for a moment at least.

For me this means it is time to review my past Seasonal (90-Day) Intents and set new ones for the next season – Spring!

It’s kind of a 90-Day To-Do list – except that once it’s written, I don’t look at it again. Until the next turn of season, that is.

It’s a practice of mindfully writing out things that I would like to accomplish, qualities I’d like to play with, and my commitments to self-care for the next 90 days.

Today is the day to review past Intents and to set new Intents.

I’m going to share my process here. Want to play with me?

First, decide if you want to follow this process for your business/work life or for your personal life (or both).

Note: I tend to set separate Intents for both business and personal. In truth, they often mirror each other since my personal life and my work-life are so intertwined.

Now, quickly brainstorm as many things you’d like to accomplish project-wise (tangible stuff) over the next 90 days.

Here are a few of mine: Business

• Re-Launch my Owl Eyes E-Course – with more options and a lot more Owl Eyes goodness.
• Teach a 1-Day Sensing (and Play) workshop at Oxbow Park.
• Take at least one Shiva-Nata Class from a new instructor.

Personal

• Re-start my 15-mile/week walking plan.
• Plan something really fun for my boyfriend’s birthday.
• 2-3 movement classes per week (xinyi, yoga, pilates…)

Alright, that’s the tangible stuff.

Ok, let’s move on to the qualities we want more of over the next 90 Days.

Throughout Spring, I want to be noticing and interacting with the qualities of:

• ease, play, sweetness, and courage (in my personal life).
• Also: abundance, gratitude, trust and discernment (in my business life).

What about you?

Next, the commitments:

These are the practices and mindsets I’m committing to in order to support the projects and qualities I want to see more of this Spring:

• to focus on my own process and self-care (vs getting caught up in the drama and processes of other’s which continues, at times, to be the hardest thing in the world).
• a daily practice of invoking the qualities and guidance that will support me throughout my day.
• to ask for help daily combined with the discerning surrender of things outside my control or expertise to those who are better equipped. Also: expressing gratitude more for all the support and love that is present in my life.
• to be open to and notice new possibilities and opportunities.
• a willingness to be surprised and to let go of expectations. Yikes!
• spending at least a part of one day a week outside, preferably outside the city.

The final step: hiding it away until the next turn of season, in this case, the Summer Solstice.

Seriously. I don’t look at my list of Intents again until the full 90 days is up.

When the next turn of season arrives, I do review my previous Intents.

It’s generally quite fascinating because I’ve usually totally forgotten what I’d set as Intents 90 days previously.

And, it’s even more fascinating to note how many of the my Intents were actually realized (or, no longer seem important).

This practice is a way of marking time and checking in with myself.

This is where I was 90 days ago. This is what I thought I wanted.

Where am I now? Have things changed? How have they changed?

Did any of these things happen? If so, great. If not, do I want to add them to the next 90 day Intents or are they no longer aligned with my life?

Reviewing my Intents is not at all about beating myself up if something didn’t happen like I thought it should.

Rather, it’s a practice of noting what did happen and checking in to see if the things that didn’t are still important enough to add to the next 90 days.

In short, when I’m reviewing the Intents from the past 90 days, I quickly jot down notes next to each item. It’s as simple as ‘yep,’ ‘nope,’ or ‘this is what happened instead.’

And, it’s totally fascinating to see how some things that didn’t happen as I thought they should actually did happen in a more awesome way than I could ever have imagined.

The super-secret addition to my Spring Intents:

Last time I spoke about wanting to learn to Fail Magnificently. This Spring, I’m adding that to my commitments.

I’ve added a couple of secret (not written here) Intents for myself that feel waaaay beyond my present abilities… just to see what happens.

I want to find out what the process of approaching things from a perspective of failing magnificently brings up in me.

It might be an interesting 90 Days. 🙂

Comment Magic:

How do you mark time? Do you have a seasonal (or monthly perhaps) ritual to check in with yourself and to make notes of what you’d like to see in your life? If so, I’d love to hear about it.

Or, if you did this process with me, what was your experience?

As always, just saying Hi is adored as well.