When we think about sacred practices, especially ones that engage with the mysterious realms of creativity, imagination, and the depths of the soul, we often think of complex practices and rites. But sometimes, the most impactful ones are the simplest. Sometimes letting the soul speak is as simple as closing your eyes, asking yourself what you really want (who you want to be, how you want to act, what you want more or less of) and setting an intention for the day (or week or month or year or liturgical season or whatever).
Living with intention is another one of those ideas that suffers from having been buzzy a few years ago. But irrespective of any pop cultural trend, I think it’s important. Without it, everything is reduced to unthinking routine, habit, and what we’ve ingested from our culture. But with it, anything—anything—can become a place where we can encounter God. This was my main takeaway from my long series on sacred practices a few years ago: that intention can turn any action into a sacred practice, from handwashing to eating to customer service to putting your kids to bed. If we think about it, this is actually the heart of mindfulness meditation: our intention turns something as simple and basic as breathing into something sacred. Or, better, our intention reveals to us that our breath is sacred.
This puts a different spin on the idea of setting an intention for the day. It’s not about goal-setting, but about tone-setting. It asks the heart to distill its needs and wants for the day into a single word or phrase. While it’s hard to pin down a practice like this, since in my experience, it tends to be what it wants to be, where possible it’s helpful for it to be as specific and practical as possible. Esoteric or broad intentions are fine and good, but harder to know how to live out. (One for me a couple weeks ago was “Leave the shallows”; that’s fine, but how? When? How will I know when I’ve done it?)
Unsurprisingly, the extent to which I find this practice helpful is directly tied to my attitude towards it. If I, ironically enough, set the intention without intention —‘just because’ or out of habit—I never think about it and so it doesn’t do anything. But if I remind myself of it, whether through reminders or triggers, then it can become very meaningful and even transformational. This became apparent to me a few years ago, when I was in the habit of setting monthly intentions. I’d write it out on the whiteboard on my fridge and build out my month’s plan around it. Eventually I moved into a different season I really felt the need to simplify things and I stopped that practice, but during the time in which I did it, it was a wonderful game-changer for me.
Again, the greatest thing this practice has going for it is its simplicity. It’s very low-effort and low-stakes, and so it can be a good place to begin, especially if it’s been a while since you’ve engaged with listening to the soul speak.
Matthew Root 