Set Your Daily Intention to Connect with Your Deeper Why – Your Soulful Purpose
What is your why? Your purpose in life? Is there an ache or longing from within for a deeper connection? A desire to make life meaningful? Do you want to grow your spirituality? To be a more loving individual? A better neighbor? Whatever your intention, what helps you connect with your deeper why – the soulful purpose of your being? And how do you live it daily?
Everything can be taken from us but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
Viktor Frankl
The Deeper Why
In my own life, I am committed to living this one, wild and precious life as fully as possible while seeking to live authentically, listening with compassionate understanding, and putting love in action by helping others find meaning along the way.
In this short period of human life, however long that is, I want to love unconditionally as much as I can. That is my deeper why – to love – self, others, and God wholeheartedly.
Your Soulful Purpose
Your why, your intention, is meant to be integrated across all aspects of your life. On the flip side, how do you connect the various activities and motions of daily living with your intention?
What is the connection of your soulful purpose with your goals? How do you combine it with your commitment to self-growth? Within your relationships? In what ways is your intention scattered throughout the mundane tasks of ordinary life – laundry, meals, groceries, cleaning, paying bills, running errands, helping kids with homework, etc.?
Practice Declaring Your Intent
Practice your soulful purpose by beginning your day with a moment of intention. Write it, speak it, say it aloud, journal about it, sing it, etc. Express it in some way that will help you remain close to your deeper why, especially when the relentless cacophony of daily activity outpaces the soulful cadence of life.
The writer, Elizabeth Gilbert, writes a letter to herself every morning. It is a love letter of self-compassion to keep her grounded in who she is, and to ward off fear and anxiety. The self-expression through letter-writing each morning is a way to stay rooted in her intention.
….It begins when you declare your intent. Stand up tall and say it aloud, whatever it is….Speak it. Let it know you’re there. Hell, let you know you’re there – because this statement of intent is just as much an announcement to yourself as it is an announcement to the universe or anybody else. Hearing this announcement, your soul will mobilize accordingly. It will mobilize ecstatically, in fact, because this is what your soul was born for. (Trust me, your soul has been waiting for you to wake up to your own existence for years.)
Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic, p. 94-95
How I Practice Setting Intention
I usually set my intention in the morning. Sometimes I do it the night before, depending on what I have the following day. I take a moment to sit quietly, usually in my rocking chair, close my eyes, and reflect on how I want to set my intention for the day. I think of a word or phrase, or sometimes a song lyric that is a symbol or anchor point to help keep me grounded.
Throughout the busyness of the day, I often go back to that word or phrase that allows me to integrate my daily activity with my intention. The morning reflection is a brief moment to ground me in the center of my truth and purpose for the day.
Your Turn
What is your intention for living the day? What will keep you grounded in your heart’s desire? For love? Gratitude? Awareness? Peace? Blessing? Forgiveness? Understanding? Compassion?
How do you express your soulful purpose in your daily living?
You are Here for a Reason
Life can be lived in any one of three ways: unconsciously, haphazardly, or intentionally. The choice we make among them determines the quality of the life we live. To live life unconsciously is to refuse a sense of purpose, to become a kind of barnacle on the side of the rest of the world, the pilot fish of life, people who hang on and watch while everyone else takes us where we’re going. To live life haphazardly is to understand purpose but to abandon the demands of it when those demands inconvenience us. To live life intentionally is to know that I am here for some reason. It means that I have found my place in the universe and honor it.
Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB
Key Takeaways
- Set your intention to connect to your deeper why with the ordinary stuff of daily living
- Begin the day with some form of ritual to declare your intent (e.g., quiet reflection, writing, drawing, speaking your purpose aloud, journaling, meditating, deep breathing, etc.)
- Understand integration is a long journey – practice with consistency
Find out who you are and then be that on purpose.
Dolly Parton
What is the reason for your soulful purpose in life? Comments and insights are welcome here.
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