Our time and attention are the most precious currency we have. At the end of our days, it won’t be money or things that will matter to us. What will matter most is how we spent our time and who we spent it with. In this modern age where we’re constantly attached to our screens and addicted to dings and likes — we often lose sight of what’s really important.
Living intentionally is about learning how to live with purpose and meaning. When we’re in our bubbles: working the 9–5, living only for the weekends, and placing our attention in the digital world and the media — it’s very easy to fall into autopilot. It’s a mental state where we lose touch with reality and the things that truly matter to us. It’s important to recognize when we’re in that state, and wake ourselves up to be more conscious of what’s happening within us and around us. Here are ways to be more intentional every day.
1. Check in with your body. Ask what it needs.
Our body is our vessel for life, and we often take it for granted. When you breathe into your body, you bring the attention and awareness back into yourself. Then you start feeling things you’ve never felt before. You may notice more subtle feelings like your hair touching your neck and shoulders, or which part of the body your emotion is coming from. To be more in tune with your body, it could help to move first thing in the morning. You can either go for a walk, do yoga, go meditate, go for a run or a cold water swim and rejuvenate yourself mentally, spiritually, emotionally. Don’t forget to breathe through it all.
2. Choose what you consume and where you place your energy.
Feeds, screens, ads, media are constantly around us and bombarding our spaces for attention. Tech companies and major corporations profit from our attention alone and we often let them. Look at where you place your attention, your intentions, and all the habits you’ve learned. Ask yourself if this is still serving you or if it’s depleting your energy. Look at the people you follow and how many hours you spend on your social media or screen time. Then do the spring cleaning, unfollow accounts that don’t bring you joy and spend less time on your phone. Another way to consume wisely is to check the Recs portion of our app and see what activities you’d rather replace it with. Check if where your place your attentions is worth your energy and time, then look to where you want to pay more attention instead.
3. Practice self-awareness.
The downside of being on autopilot is that our self-awareness is limited. Because we’re not completely conscious of what’s going on around us, it’s also hard to listen and be aware of what’s going on within us. Check in with yourself and ask: Why do I think the way we do? Why do I get triggered when people say certain things? Am I even paying attention? Am I living in the moment? In order to be more intentional with ourselves and our feelings, we have to ask the hard questions and dive deeper within to figure out what’s really going on. When we create a healthy space for our needs and nurture a loving relationship with ourselves, it allows us to do the same with our interactions in our relationships with other people.
4. Cultivate a positive and healthy mindset.
We’re all perfectly imperfect. There’s no doubt that we’ll make mistakes and experience negativity in our lives — we are human after all and it’s a fact that we have to accept about ourselves. However, if we want to live more intentionally, it also comes with a shift in perspective and thinking. When we create a healthy and positive space for our thinking, our thoughts naturally shift and change as well. Our lives are often a reflection of what’s going on internally. If we focus on the bad, then we’ll continue to experience that narrative in our heads. But if we focus on the good: being grateful for what we have and finding joy in the small things in life, then we’ll feel happier and more content. When we shift our perspective to look at brighter days, it can lift us up and flow over all aspects of our lives.
5. Reflect and set your intentions.
Now, to tie everything together, you can apply this to your life by setting your intentions every day. Having some time in the morning to reflect upon the day helps you build momentum and inspiration, or cultivating a morning ritual can be the perfect practice for creating healthier daily habits. Then before you go to bed, journal and reflect on your thoughts, then think of your favorite moments of the day and document it in the app. But it doesn’t have to begin or end there. When you apply your intentions and practice mindfulness in almost everything you do — you’ll find there is a purpose for you everywhere.
