Living Intentionally is a journey made of choices. Each of us will define that journey differently (because we’re different). If you could fill a bowl with words that describe the life you want to live, what would they be? When I do this exercise these are some of the adjectives that I want to put before the word “life”:
joyful
faithful
healthy
wonderful
family-filled
graceful
honest
friend-filled
adventurous
truthful
relaxed
loving
laughter-filled
serene
knowledge-seeking
gentle
prayerful
light-filled
caring
happy
God-centered
creative
kind
peaceful- Peace Full

Think about how YOU want the rest of your life to play out and make a list of words that embody that reality. Choose as many descriptors as you want, but then decide which are YOUR top three, and fill in the blanks:
I intend to live a ____________, ____________ and ____________ life!
Write the sentence you created on a piece of paper, in a journal, on your computer, heck on your wall…..somewhere you’ll see it regularly. Even better, write it down in many places. Remember thoughts become words, words become actions.

Does your life, today, reflect the sentence you created when you filled in the blanks,
or is it a narrative with words like these?
chaotic
argumentative
insignificant
tense
unheard
invalidated
greedy
unimportant
stressed out
bored
unappreciated
overwhelmed
disrespected
sad
painful
lonely
unloved
intolerant
unhappy
abused
cynical
self-absorbed
angry
empty

Two dozen words in each list.
Two lists with very different stories.

Does the life you’re currently living lift you up or push you down?
Are the people and situations in your world life-giving or life-depleting?

Think of yourself as a giant magnet, able to pull toward you any manner of energy, including people, experiences, and things. What would you intentionally pull your way? Thoughts have frequencies.  When we harness the energy of thoughts, like we talked about last week, we begin to create intentionality in our lives.  By becoming people who live with intention, we’re less likely to run through our lives and we’re better able to BE present in the moment.

overstimulation
We live in an action-packed world. Whenever we want, we can be bombarded by a myriad of stimuli. What we choose to absorb impacts who we are. I don’t watch programs with violence. Flipping through television channels can sometimes feel perilous to me because I simply don’t know how to (or have any desire to learn how to) process this kind of stuff. It’s been pointed out to me (numerous times) that brutality is part of the world we live in. I simply prefer not to absorb it. It’s not only violence that’s being fed to us.  Have you ever been watching a program or movie and thought, “this is really awful”, but instead of changing the channel or walking away, just kept watching? If so, why? Our minds are constantly processing information while we’re watching TV, reading a book, talking to a friend (or a salesperson), listening to music or driving down the street. What are you letting in?

Remember “sowing and reaping”? What we think about becomes the seeds we’re planting. 

choosing to think only good thoughts
Trust me, those six words are a lot harder to do than write. So, what ARE we thinking? Depending on which source I look at, estimates are that the average person has 60,000-80,000 thoughts each day. Wow!! That’s a lot of thinking and if we’re thinking about less-than-happy stuff we’re going to feel a whole lot different than if we’re thinking joy-filled, peace-filled, God-filled, love-filled things. This is a large part of why it’s important to
s l o w   d o w n
and breathe intentionally.

You’ve probably heard the question, “what would you do if you knew this would be the last day of your life?” The question invites us to think about what’s truly important to us. That’s part of being purposeful–knowing what really matters to you. You’ve probably also heard the saying, “live each day as if it’s the first day of your life“. There’s a “fresh start”, or a “clean page” on which to write your story. You honor where you’ve come from and imagine and choose how you want to live moving forward.

What if we choose to live each day fully present, fully aware, and fully intentional?
Kay

©2016 Peace Full Home/Intentional Living
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