Intuition, Intention and Decision-Making

Posted on June 24, 2008
Filed Under Embrace Your Highest Path and Purpose, How To Develop Your Intuition, Manifest Your Desired Outcomes, Spiritual Development |

One of the reasons I enjoy coaching so much is that I get to witness some truly inspired guidance from my client’s Spirit Guides. Because the Universe is an amazingly synchronistic place, that guidance is often as important for me as it is for my client.

The guidance that arose in a particular session was about making decisions without a lot of second-guessing or wasted mental energy. It begins and ends with our clarity of intent - seems to be a recurring theme on my blog lately! Here it is in a nutshell:

1. Be clear in your intention for the situation in which the decision is to be made.

Whether this decision involves beginning or ending a relationship, hiring a new assistant, going to your aunt’s birthday party … be clear in your intention. For example, if you are in the process of hiring a new web designer, what is your intended outcome for the project? It could be something like: “My intent is to create a profitable website that helps me attract an additional ten clients a month.”

As always, we need to tune in to the energy behind the intention. We know what we want to create. But what is this intention really about? What energies do we wish to express with this intention? In this case, the energy behind the statement may be one of “expansion.”

2. In every interaction within the situation leading up to the decision, ask yourself whether your intent is reflected back to you.

Let’s say you’re now interviewing three web designers. What is the experience of receiving quotes from them? Are any of them open to expanding the project as you go? How does speaking with the candidates make you feel? Do you feel as if possibilities are opening before you? Or do you feel restricted, constrained?

Look for the energetic qualities of expansion! If you are clear in your intent, a solution or decision will come that contains that particular energetic quality. One of your prospective designers may suddenly expand on your ideas in a very creative way, for example.

Follow the energetic qualities of your intent and your decisions will become obvious. In this case, you might hire someone who has a very expansive view of your project!

You can’t fake your intent.

This method of decision-making depends on our clarity of intent. It’s easy to write a statement of intent that sounds pretty, and say that the energy behind it is something really positive, like “joy.” But the process won’t work unless we’re being completely authentic and honest with ourselves about why we want to create our desired outcomes. If we want to believe that we’re creating “joy” because we’re not honest enough with ourselves and what we really want is “security,” then we are going to be extremely confused in our decision-making.

It’s common sense, really.

Aren’t all decisions so much easier to make when we know what we truly want? Often, though, we get hung up on details of what a desired outcome “should” look like. This process, on the other hand, stimulates our inner inquiry - “What do I want to create and why? What energetic qualities do I want my life, business, career or relationship to express?” When we have a clear understanding of what we are truly creating, our allies in the creative process quickly reveal themselves. If our business project is about expansion, then we are going to attract opportunities and people who support this energy. Not only that, but we will recognize them clearly!

Putting the process into practice.

What decisions are currently on the table in your life? They may be big or small, but we all have choices to make, all the time. From finding a new daycare center for your child to deciding whether this is the right time to put in new hardwood floors … pick a pending decision that you’ve been putting off.

Ask your Guides to support you as you visualize your desired outcome. Write down a statement of intention - nothing too long. A sentence or two will do.

Look at your statement. Visualize your desired outcome one more time. Tune in to the energy of that intention. Describe it in one or two words. It’s important to be succinct here! Write down your one or two words.

Now have a look at the various possibilities before you. If you are, for example, trying to find a new daycare situation for your child, go and look at the various places available. Notice the energies in each, how each interaction unfolds and how you feel afterwards. If you’re wondering whether to put in hardwood floors, take a trip to the hardware store and see what energies you perceive during the experience. Or interview a few contractors and notice how each conversation unfolds.

Hopefully, you will notice a new certainty in your decisions - a certainty that is based on knowing what you truly want to create.

Blessings,
Andrea

Comments

5 Responses to “Intuition, Intention and Decision-Making”

Irene | Light Beckons on June 24th, 2008 9:10 pm

Gosh Andrea … this is so simple and structured. I absolutely love this!

One way that has helped me to assess the authenticity of my intentions is asking “why?”. For example, if I set an intention to lose weight, I ask “why do I want to lose that weight?”, and perhaps I’ll get the answer, “to look good”. And then I’ll ask again “why do I want to look good?” and then I’ll probably get the answer, “to attract love into my life”. And so on it goes. Often I do discover that this method eventually reveals a deeper intention that I want to manifest - beyond all that “pretty” statements at the surface.

Excellent post Andrea … this will be my exercise for the week!
Evelyn Lim | Attraction Mind Map on June 24th, 2008 10:57 pm

I like it when you said to tune into the energy of the intention. I can most certainly relate to this because the few times when I’ve done so, I’ve gotten answers within less than a day. However, when I was confused and not sure with what my end goals or intentions are, I never quite got clear answers.
Mags | Woo-Woo Wisdom on June 25th, 2008 2:46 am

Excellent post, Andrea! In spite of our attempts to complicate matters, it really is common sense, isn’t it?!

I’ve been finding that focusing on the energetic qualities of my intentions is key. As you mentioned, we can get very caught up in the specifics of what an outcome “should” look like, but when we look deeper, we may find that many of those specifics are rooted in fear rather than expressive of what we truly want to create.
Tom Volkar / Delightful Work on June 25th, 2008 4:30 am

Thanks for this Andrea. I intend to use it. This will make my decision-making more conscious. I tend to follow my gut a lot and charge forward without tuning in. It will be interesting to take the time to tune in and write down the two focusing words and then watch how things play out.
Andrea Hess on June 25th, 2008 11:01 am

Irene - so glad this resonated with you! I love your process for going deeper and deeper to the root of your intention. I think that kind of self-inquiry is so important if we really want to be conscious creators …. emphasis on “conscious!”

Evelyn - thank you! Yes, it all begins and ends with our clarity … law of attraction at its finest, right? If we put out muddy intentions, we get back one big mess! I’ve certainly been there many times!

Mags - thank you! I attempt to complicate things all the time … Like you, I love focusing on the energy rather than the specifics. It helps me practice detachment.

Tom - Let us know how it works for you! I bet you’ll get more profound results from fewer actions when the actions are aligned with a very clear intention. Oddly enough, this can lead to doing less, which can sometimes also drive us crazy … this is where we get to explore our attachment to “doing.” I personally have lots of fun with that one!

Blessings,
Andrea