What Setting Intentions Means, And How It Effects Your Yoga Practice, and Everyday Life

Whether you’re a spiritual warrior or a novice on the mat, you will have at some point been encouraged to think about your intentions during a yoga session. Our lovely yogi, Lucy Hibben from YogaStrong & Cognitive Sports Therapy, has shared with us some helpful hints to ensure you gain clarity around this subject & pick the best intention that works for you, your practice and your daily life.

Have you ever been in a yoga class and been invited to set an intention for your practice and struggled to really understand what you’re supposed to be doing? Well you’re not alone. In this article, I want to explain why we use intentions in our practice and the sort of thing you might want to consider setting as your intention. 

What do we mean by intention?

Put simply, an intention is just bringing your awareness to a certain quality that you would like to cultivate during your practice and into your life. That quality could be something like gratitude, awareness of your breath, compassion. It’s like a metaphor to translate your practice from your mat to your life. It could be that you want to invite more love, more forgiveness, more acceptance or more balance into your life,  anything you feel you need to bridge from what you work through on your mat to what you continue to focus your mind on when you step off your mat. It’s an energetic tool to take out into the world. It makes our practice more mindful and takes it beyond just the physical. 

I usually set my intention each month. Something I’d like to focus on over a period of four weeks rather than daily or weekly. I find this gives me time to really focus and deepen. It doesn’t mean you have to do that too though, you might find that each time you step onto your mat there is something different you want to focus on. There is no one size fits all. That being said, if I’m having an imbalance somewhere, I’ll go with the flow and adapt. This month for example, my intention is to invite the quality of resilience into my life. 

When I set my intention I make sure I come to stillness, focus on my breath and then think about what it is that I want to cultivate more of in my life, sometimes I already know what it is, other times it comes up during these moments of meditation.  You might find you do this at the start of your yoga class. Most classes begin with some moments of stillness, so that’s the perfect opportunity to set an intention for your practice. Some teachers won’t mention it, but that doesn’t mean you can’t set your intention. You are in control of your own practice. Equally, other teachers might invite you to join them in an intention. Again, do what feels right for you. 

Positive vibes only

I am careful to word my intention positively, so if I’m inviting more peace into my life, rather than saying something like, I am not going to lose my temper this month, I will use a mantra like “I am peaceful”. If I’m inviting more forgiveness into my life, instead of focusing on all the things I need to change or fix, I might use the mantra “I forgive myself and others”.  So it’s really just framing the words in a positive light. 

Once I have chosen my intention, I will bring my hands to my heart centre, bow down to myself and seal the intention by uniting body and mind. During my practice, I carry these words with me. During the pauses in my practice I come back to it, notice it, feel it. At the end of my practice I will always revisit and close out my practice by silently repeating the intention to myself. 

Taking it further

So whilst we set the intention in the class or our home practice, the important bit is taking it out into the world with you. Manifest it and call it forth into your life as your point of focus. As you return to your intention through your yoga practice, you will anchor yourself to this and will stay committed to that intention off your mat as well. Pay attention to it, you’ll start to notice the positive impact these powerful intentions can have on your life. By enriching your own life in this way, you can positively impact the energy of others around you as well.  

Lucy x

Join Lucy every Thursday for her incredible Vinyasa Yoga class, now streaming live on Zoom via FRESH. Book here: www.freshandwell.co.uk/timetable