Daring to Rest

by Karen Brody

  4

  INTENTION

  Aligning with Your Heart’s Desires

  Days 1–5

  During a yoga nidra meditation, you are prompted to state an intention—a positive resolve that gives purpose and meaning to your life. Sometimes you say your intention at the beginning of a yoga nidra meditation, but you always repeat it toward the end, when you’re in the deepest state of consciousness, because that’s when the subconscious mind is open. Planting an intention here is like planting a seed in fertile soil. Your mind is so still that there are virtually no thoughts to self-sabotage your intention. So the moment you repeat it, your mind absorbs it without question. The results are like magic; you begin to see unhelpful habits and patterns shift in your life and align with your stated intention. Because the intention is planted so deeply in your consciousness, whenever something in your daily life begins to shift out of alignment with it, you will feel a tug pulling you back to it.

  For these first five days, you’ll be resting deeply with yoga nidra meditation and discovering your intention for the Daring to Rest journey ahead. You’ll be getting used to listening for soul whispers, a voice from your soul that’s hard to hear in your everyday life, at the end of your yoga nidra practice.

  Basic Instructions for Days 1 to 5

  1.Practice the Phase One: Rest Meditation daily for five days. Be sure to hold your touchstone in your left hand or keep it nearby as you do the meditation.

  2.Discover your intention by tracking your soul whispers, asking for one to three intention words, and creating a concise statement using these words.

  3.Optional: Process concepts from this chapter with prompts to help you dive deeper into your intention, soul whispers, and rest.

  Discovering Your Intention

  Your intention is a statement that captures your heart’s deepest desires for your life at this moment. It’s like the trunk of a tree, growing out of the deep, strong roots of your heart. Think of your intention as a prayer: a short, powerful statement that comes from your heart and supports your total well-being.

  An intention has the following qualities:

  •It is one sentence and concise.

  •It is stated in the present tense.

  •It is always positive.

  •It resonates deeply.

  •It is not dependent on outcome.

  Here are some examples of intentions from women in my programs:

  I am loving and loved.

  I trust life.

  I am calm, joyful, and carefree.

  I feel.

  I am enough, I have enough, and I do enough.

  I am patient and loving to myself and others.

  As you rest throughout the next forty days, think of your intention as the seed you wish to plant for your life. It’s not a goal. It’s important to know that yoga nidra intentions are not dependent on outcome. That’s where an intention differs from a goal. You’re not willing something to happen; you’re putting out a statement of what your heart desires, to bring you more in alignment with your most authentic self.

  For example, “I am patient and loving to myself and others” is the intention used by a woman who had made an overseas move and had a baby. Now her baby was getting older, and she was finally taking a breath to ask herself, “What am I doing in my life?” Rather than focusing on a goal she wanted in her life, her intention didn’t state a desired outcome; instead, it was a positive statement of how she wanted to feel toward herself (and others) during a big transition time. And it was stated in the present tense, as if she were already feeling it. The two important points are that she did not discover this intention from her head and that she claimed her intention as if it were already happening.

  There are questions you can ask yourself to think your intention, like “Where am I stuck in life?” and “What do I need to feel unstuck?” but I would never tell you to make an intention only from your head. Why not? Because yoga nidra intentions don’t come from your head; they come from your heart. They come from listening—listening deeply—to your soul. They address the “why.”

  A typical challenge women have when creating an intention statement is stating it in the present tense. Imagine stating, “I feel worthy,” when that’s what you feel the least at the moment. An intention often needs tweaking until you get it both positive and present. One woman told me her intention was “I can enjoy the life that I have created.” I suggested she tweak the intention by taking out “can” and simply stating, “I enjoy the life that I have created.” She explained that the reason she chose the word can was because “it feels like I’m giving myself permission.” It’s important to remember that an intention doesn’t give you permission; instead, it is phrased as if you have already granted yourself permission. It’s a statement phrased as if the choice has been made to live in alignment with your intention. I know this phrasing can feel uncomfortable if what your intention is saying is not yet true. Try to think of your intention as a seed you’re planting. You’re not planting permission for the seed to grow; you’re planting exactly what you want to grow, so your intention is stated as if it’s already happening. Then you need to water the seed. That’s what yoga nidra meditation will do: your yoga nidra practice gives your intention permission to grow. This is similar to repeating an affirmation in the mirror—you repeat it as if it were true until you feel it.

  You may already have an intention in mind after reading the beginning of this chapter or you may have had one when you bought this book. Even if that’s the case, please follow the three steps outlined in the following sections to discover your intention during these first five days of your Daring to Rest program. Because your ideal intention is not necessarily the one you have in mind; it’s the one lying awake in your heart and soul, the one speaking to you through your soul whispers, as described in chapter three.

  Step One: Record Your Soul Whispers for Four Days

  In this step, you’ll listen to your soul whispers to help you identify your intention.

  For the first four days of this program, you will practice the Phase One: Rest Meditation. When you are prompted to repeat an intention, please say, “I am a well-rested woman,” or any intention that spontaneously arises. At the end, you will be guided to listen for your soul whisper.

  After finishing the meditation, write your soul whisper in a journal. If you receive a soul whisper that doesn’t make sense to you, don’t worry. Just write it down. There’s no need to try to decode your soul whispers. The most important thing is listening for them because, in doing so, you’re reestablishing the lines of communication between your inner and outer worlds. You’re also tapping into how in or out of rhythm you feel. Recording them may allow you to see patterns or messages later, as you continue your Daring to Rest program.

  Sometimes soul whispers do not come as words, but as images, sounds, or even something else, like a scent, a song, or an emotion. Many women who are artists get soul whispers that are images. One woman told me she once heard the sound of cows being milked in the early morning, a familiar sound from her childhood. Be open to your soul whisper coming through in both expected and unexpected ways. The key is to keep your senses open and feel your soul whisper, which is exactly what the Daring to Rest yoga nidra meditations guide you to do.

  It is not uncommon to get nothing at least one of the days, or even every day, because modern life doesn’t prepare us to tap into our souls easily. When we’ve lived as the worn-out woman for so long, many times we’ve gone numb to feeling and hearing our inner world. That’s okay; these are just the first few days of this program. There is no pressure to achieve anything. Enjoy the rest!

  If you received nothing when you asked for a soul whisper, then write “nothing” in your journal for that day. I assure you that you’ll eventually get more than “nothing” for your soul whispers. And “nothing” is always something.

  Step Two: Notice Words that Resonate from Your Soul Whispers

  On day fiv
e, write your four soul whispers on four pieces of paper. Even if all of your papers say “nothing,” write the word “nothing.” If your soul whisper was not a word or phrase, write down key words that describe your soul whisper. If it was a song, write down the name of the song or lyrics that stood out. When you lie down to do your day 5 yoga nidra meditation, place all four soul whispers at the crown of your head.

  At the end of the meditation, lay all four slips of paper in front of you face up, plus your day 5 soul whisper, and then close your eyes, put your hand over your heart, and breathe in and out once or twice through your heart. Now open your eyes, read each soul whisper, and notice one to three words from your soul whispers that resonate the most. Don’t overthink this. If you can’t make a decision, then turn the pieces of paper over so that you can’t see them, close your eyes, shuffle, and with your left hand (your feminine, receiving hand) pick one to three pieces of paper. Trust that you always get what you need, even if it surprises you.

  Worthy, possibility, peaceful, and courageous are just some of the soul whispers women I’ve worked with have received. Whatever you get, you will use these words to create your intention through the rest of phase one. In the Release and Rise phases, you’ll have the option to change your intention, but only if it feels right.

  It’s important that your words be positive. If one of your words feels negative, then consider using the opposite of that word. For example, if you receive the word war, change it to peace. If your word was nothing, change it to everything or something if this feels positive. Also, if you do freewriting in your journal after you receive a soul whisper, as mentioned in the “Optional: Diving Deeper” section at the end of this chapter, look at your freewriting to see what words resonate for you. This can also inform your intention and help you find words that feel positive.

  If none of the words from your soul whispers feels right, that’s okay. Your intention may not be ready to present itself. If it feels right, you can use the placeholder word rest because rest is most likely why you picked up this book.

  Step Three: Create Your Intention Statement

  Right after you discover your one to three words, put an “I am,” “I” or “I feel” in front of them and read the resulting sentence aloud. Then tap a few times on your heart with the index and middle fingers of your right hand and ask yourself, “Do I feel a yes when I read this statement?” If you do, this is your intention. For example, if your words were safe and calm, your intention would be “I am calm and safe” or “I feel calm and safe.” Those phrases are great intention statements.

  Depending on your words, you may need to tweak the wording a bit to achieve the best intention statement. For example, if you are using the word rest, you might want to consider saying, “I am well rested” or “I am a well-rested woman.” One woman got family as her only word, and it didn’t make sense to say, “I am family.” So she reviewed the words she got from her soul whispers freewriting and saw the word embrace, which felt right in her heart. Her intention became “I embrace my family.” You may need to use connector words like this.

  Think of your intention statement as capturing a quality or state of being your heart wants to align with in your life for these next forty days that will serve your highest good. It might be “I am love” or “I feel worthy.” Many women love the statement “I am enough.” If it feels right, you can use just one simple word, like peace or allow. Ultimately, the intention that’s right for you comes in your own words.

  You always want to word your intention as if it has already happened because during yoga nidra, intentions imprint in the fertile space of your subconscious mind, where anything you plant can grow. One woman in my program, whose financial situation had radically shifted to a challenging place after the death of her partner so that she needed to increase her business revenue, shared with me that she was repeating the primary intention “I am readying myself to be of service” during her daily yoga nidra. Gently, I pointed out that her intention was not phrased as though it were already true right now, and I suggested that if it felt right, she might want to change it to “I am of service.” She liked my suggestion, but she put it into her own language and included a reference to her health, which had suffered since her partner’s death. Her intention became “I am in rhythm with my body, sleep, and creativity.” Two months later, she was beginning to see signs of her vibrant self, and she had finished her new website. While we do not use the intention to produce an outcome, the pompom-shaking truth is that aligning with your intention often sets in motion the wheels that move you toward reaching specific goals.

  Typically, when women go through the three-step process of discovering their intention, they find one they like. But occasionally, someone won’t. If this is you, I suggest you use the intention “I am a well-rested woman” during phase one, or practice without an intention and let one come to you while practicing yoga nidra meditation. Intentions often arise spontaneously when you’re asked to state your intention during a yoga nidra meditation. Be patient and let the right intention come to you in its own time.

  Also don’t get hung up on getting your intention right or perfect. (Remember our Daring to Rest mantra: chuck perfect.) Many times, when you think you have a great intention, you might feel inspired to tweak it after a new soul whisper arises during a later yoga nidra session. As you continue to practice your yoga nidra meditations in the days ahead, don’t be afraid to adjust your intention statement if you get a soul whisper that deeply resonates in your heart.

  Use your new intention for the first time during your day 6 yoga nidra meditation, presented in the next chapter.

  Your Intention Continues Working on Your Behalf

  After a while, when you wake from yoga nidra, your intention will be programmed into your entire being, so the moment you stray off your intention, you’ll feel it, and your subconscious will naturally redirect you back to your intention. That means you don’t have to do anything to accomplish this intention.

  This scenario happens all the time with the women I coach. Margreet came from a dynamic of not feeling safe with her emotionally needy mother, and this paralyzed her in many areas of her adult life. She had tried talk therapy, and while it was helpful, she never felt a deep shift in her issues of safety until she began practicing yoga nidra.

  Her intention was simple, but powerful: “I am safe.” Very quickly, she felt this truth in her body and with her children. The more she felt safe, the more she gained confidence, and her exhausting dynamic with her mother began to improve as she developed a new perspective. Today, as a result of feeling safe for the first time in her adult life, she is not running herself to exhaustion, but instead, through aligning in her yoga nidra meditation with the feeling of her intention, she is finally free from the chains of her childhood story with her mother.

  When an intention imprints into your subconscious mind, there is a profound shift in priorities. You take action as if it’s your mission in life, but this action is not fueled by “doing” at any cost. Margreet has her yoga nidra practice, and this grounds her back to her intention and, at the same time, deeply relaxes her body, so she is able to manage physical exhaustion. On the days when she feels those old safety issues rise she tells me she will often practice yoga nidra twice, to keep her internal power switch fully on and to stay connected to her intention.

  I get asked all the time, “When will I start to see my intention take hold in my life?” This is a normal question given how our culture trains us to want results for effort. What you have to remember is that an intention is not being planted to do anything more than point you back to your most authentic self and purpose in life. How the intention expresses itself in your life may be obvious quickly, but it varies from person to person. And sometimes we don’t see specific tangible results, like a new job, but rather changes in our state of mind that often lead to getting a new job. You may feel more vibrant or less worried. For Margreet, feeling safe did not suddenly mean she had
lots of contact with her mother. Instead, she came to a more peaceful place in their relationship.

  There isn’t a checklist to tell you when your intention has taken hold; that’s not the point of yoga nidra. You practice with your intention until you feel ready for a new one or until a new one presents itself during your yoga nidra meditation. Without an attachment to an end result, you are truly free to just rest. I always tell women, “You don’t have to work on yoga nidra. Let it work on you.” The same goes for intention. During these first five days, let the focus be on rest and listening to your soul whispers without a huge investment in getting the right intention for the next forty days. Your intention will come.

  Optional: Diving Deeper

  Looking to dive more deeply into your intentions, soul whispers, and rest? Consider these Daring to Rest optional prompts:

  •Freewrite in a journal about your soul whispers. Instructions on how to freewrite can be found in chapter three.

  •If your intention were a dance, how would it move? Dance your intention.

  •Paint or draw a tree with your intention as the tree trunk and your soul whispers above the tree, as clouds in the sky, or below the tree, as roots.

  •What activities take priority for you over rest? Which ones could you shift so you can find time to rest? Do you ever purposely avoid rest? If so, why? Freewrite to reflect on these questions.

  Key Points in Chapter Four

  •Setting an intention is an important part of yoga nidra meditation.

  •Your intention should be a positive statement that captures what your heart desires, but not based on outcome. You’ll use this intention throughout the Rest phase, with the option to change it when you enter the Release and Rise phases.