How can I not be attached to my intentions?

In the beginning of class, many times we bring the hands to the heart, and set an intention. I speak many times of having intentions, working on them but not being attached to the results.

Today Julia asked me, “How can I not be attached to my intentions?”
“What would an intention be?” I asked her and she replied “ Walking, playing the piano…”
These are more like Goals than intentions. Goals are good to have and it is mostly to the goals that we do not want to be attached.

When you set intentions, at a beginning of class or in life in general, it is best if you look for small actions you can do. So no more New Years resolutions, or lifetime resolutions, but smaller, short term actions. Examples may be, “I am setting an intention to practice meditation for 20 min every day for the next 2 weeks”, or “this week I intend to add 5 more minutes of breath work every day”. It might be “I intend on practicing more patience this weekend with my relative that is visiting.”

As you can see there is always a time frame. It is important to set this so we can follow through. It’s always possible to extend it when needed. These intentions are manageable, they are things that while may be difficult for you to do, you know you can do them. Intentions are form of actions (or non actions, like not reacting to the annoying response my friend will tell me); they are small manageable things that may add up to a bigger picture.

It‘s great to have the big picture in mind, but then you need to let it go. Enjoy the process; be with every moment of practice fully. Then one day, maybe the big picture, the goal, happens.

I would like to be enlightened. If this is my goal, and my intention, nothing will happen. I need to decide on this goal, find out what I need to do in order to get there, these are my intentions, and then allow the goal to sit aside, knowing that I might achieve it and may not, and either way is fine.

May all your intentions develop into the fulfillment of the big picture.
Love, Doron