This post is part of a series of journaling prompts exploring Deepak Chopra's The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success - a book of spiritual guidance for mindful living in the modern world.
Whatever your own spiritual beliefs, there are some powerful insights to be gained from reflecting on these seven concepts and considering what difference adopting them could make to your life and your self-employed work.
Each of the seven posts in this series will explore one of the spiritual laws further, and then offer writing prompts for you to reflect on your responses.
Intention and Desire
The law of intention and desire is about two qualities: attention and intention.
Firstly, Chopra suggests that whatever we choose to focus our attention on will grow and expand. Whatever we take our attention away from will begin to fade.
If we then set an intention for whatever we are paying attention to, then change starts to happen.
The idea of planning our business future and 'manifesting' outcomes has received a lot of buzzword attention recently, and can often be taken out of context. Maybe you've heard manifesting being mocked in the media? Me too!
However, when explained properly it's pretty undeniable.
It makes so much sense to spend time visualising exactly what your intention is - whether that's material possessions, work projects, relationships, whatever... if you can't even imagine it, that's a pretty big barrier to making it happen.
Think of the saying 'you can't take the first step if you don't know which direction you want to go.'
Strong Visualisation Habits
Setting an intention and then giving energy to it (paying attention) is like building a habit. These habits can then become fundamental in shaping who we are and how we live - both in our personal lives and in business.
Deepak Chopra suggests a five-step plan which I have simplified here. Once you have set your intention:
Tune in to your breath, and find stillness.
Release your intention out to the world: this could be speaking it out loud, or writing it down.
Spend time visualising the desired outcome. How will it feel? Imagine yourself there.
Let go of timing - no 'grabby' or desperate energy here! Smile and trust.
Don't worry about all the details. Just think of one small thing you can do today to make progress towards your intention becoming reality.
This is a beautiful practice to repeat anytime, anywhere. The most valuable part is the feeling you dream into during step three - spend as much time as you can here. This 'tops up' the visualisation and puts you into a brilliant mindset for step five where you think of steps you can take to get there.
Act as if it is a foregone conclusion - your intention is happening, and you're on the conveyor belt to get there! Each time you have doubts and think about stepping off, just focus on your desired outcome again, and how it feels to be there with the desired end result.
Here are a set of journaling prompts to further anchor into your visualisation. You will also notice if there are any places you'd like to take attention away from, in order to redirect it somewhere that you really want to see progress.
Journaling Prompts for the Law of Intention
Are there certain things that you currently give a lot of your attention to?
Are these things that you would like more of, or less of? Make notes next to each one.
Make a list of things that you would like to have more of in your life:
Write in clear, sensory detail about one thing that you really would love to become a reality. (The 'thing' can be a situation rather than material.)
Describe in writing how this reality this would make you feel.
How can you take one step towards this outcome? (If you can think of more steps, add those too!)
Enjoy journaling your reflections, and if you have any questions, you can message me on Instagram or email hello@strengthinfeathers.com . The next post and set of journal prompts are for The Law of Detachment and you can find them here.