How Setting Intentions Daily Can Help You Reduce Stress
A no-pressure technique worth trying
Photo by Cup of Couple from Pexels
Is trying to find the stress-management method that’s right for you, stressful? I mean, you’re already stressed out, now let’s add on the pressure of finding the best way to reduce your stress. Then on top of that, add the pressure of worrying none of them will work for you.
So many people will give up before they begin due to the stress of adding “manage stress” or “reduce stress” to their to-do list. All it does is add to the “things that stress me out list”.
As someone who helps people find ways to deal with daily stress, this is exactly what I don’t want for my clients. And it’s not what I want for you.
Recently, I began exploring the idea of daily intention setting and how it may help reduce stress. Setting intentions is a well-known practice, but I hadn’t heard it being talked about much in regards to how daily intention-setting may help reduce or relieve stress. So, I thought I’d share my thoughts and some basics around the practice so you can figure out if you’d like to try it too.
What are Intentions?
Merriam-Webster defines the essential meaning of intention as:
the thing that you plan to do or achieve: an aim or purpose
Yoga class was my first experience with intention setting. It’s common for yoga instructors to offer students the opportunity to set an intention at the beginning of class. The intention is unique to the individual. It could be a feeling, a desire for what they want to achieve during the class, a phrase or mantra to empower them, a reminder of what brought them to the mat that day.
Of course, intention-setting can be, and is, done outside of yoga, but it can be easily confused with setting goals or affirmations. This is understandable as they are similar, but let’s look at why they are different.
Intentions vs. Goals and Affirmations
At a high level let’s agree that an intention is something that embodies an aim or purpose you have or would like to explore. It can guide you in how you want to show up in your life - your way of being. It’s like a theme, whereas a goal is attached to something specific to achieve or attain. One of the best explanations of the difference between the two I found in this article, by Melissa Eisler.
But an intention shouldn’t be confused with a goal — it’s not something you attach an expectation or evaluation to. It is something you want to align with in your life. It’s an aim, a purpose, or attitude you’d be proud to commit to.
Affirmations, on the other hand, can be a bit harder to separate from intentions because they are both focused on positivity. I like to think of it this way: An intention is an idea or concept, while an affirmation is a positive reinforcing statement. Let’s break it down a bit.
Try to keep the intention positive, so instead of saying “stop being a coward,” or “spend less time alone,” choose the intentions, “be courageous” or simply, “community”.
- Melissa Eisler
So what are examples of affirmations we can associate with these intentions?
I am courageous.
I am brave.
I enjoy spending time with others.
I will contribute to my community
So goals and affirmations can support your intention. Your to-do list can be a list of actionable, achievable goals that support your intention.
For example, if your intention is to live more mindfully, your affirmation might be: “I am aware and present to the beauty around me”, and your to-do list might look like this:
Read books about mindfulness
Take a walk in nature
Meditate
Do a mindfulness exercise daily
Keep in mind, you do not have to have an affirmation and a to-do list to go along with your intention. This is purely to illustrate how they are different but can work together.
How Intention Setting Can Reduce Stress
I want to be clear that what follows are my thoughts and opinions about how setting intentions can help reduce stress, based on my reading and experience thus far. I will continue to research this topic and the supporting scientific evidence.
First, understanding that setting an intention does not come with expectations or judgments. This reduces the pressure and stress we put on ourselves to tick every box every day.
Second, I believe setting a daily intention can provide an overall framework or focus for our mind and can affect our approach to the day. It can help to clear mental clutter and allow us to not be as easily distracted. This improved focus or sense of purpose on its own can reduce stress.
Third, and this is something I’m curious to see if it’s true, is if by clearing some of this clutter, are we able to improve our productivity? If so, many people, myself included, feel less stress when they feel they are being productive. I realize this may seem counterintuitive to my statement about removing the pressure of ticking off boxes every day, but I’m looking at this from the perspective of will it help my productivity, not it must help my productivity.
Finally, I come back to my yoga and meditation practice. The places where intention setting first came into my consciousness. Here we used intentions as a focal point or a place to come back to when we need to during our practice. Similarly, setting a daily intention gives us an anchor or touchstone that we can come back to when we start feeling stressed. A safe place to reset.
How to Start Setting Daily Intentions
If by now I’ve convinced you to join me in starting a daily intention-setting practice, here’s a quick how-to to get you started. Don’t spend too much time on this. Take a few minutes each morning. That’s it.
Start by asking yourself some questions
What's important to you today, this week, etc?
How do you want to show up in your life today?
What are you feeling, what do you need?
What is currently causing you stress?
Set your intention for the day
Imprint it in some way that works for you (i.e. ‘make it stick’)
Journal it
Write it on a Post-it
Type it into your notepad on your phone or computer
Repeat it to yourself like in a mantra
What if the idea of doing this daily is too much for you right now? My two cents is when it comes to reducing stress, we need to build consistent habits that help us to do that. It’s easier to build a habit if we practice it daily and it’s easier to forget to do something if we space it out too far.
That said, you are in charge here, friend. You decide if you want to set a daily intention, a weekly intention, etc. Your best chance at success is to meet yourself where you are and do what feels right for you.
Summary
I’m at the beginning of my personal practice with daily intention-setting so I’ve got much more to research and explore. I’ve only scratched the surface on this topic. But, I think there’s potential for this to be a beneficial technique for people that does not add more pressure and expectation to their day.
If a person experiences a positive shift, then setting daily intentions may open doors to other methods for them in the future. And on the other hand, if it doesn’t yield the results we look for, my hope is that there is less feeling of failure surrounding it not working out. By removing the inherent stress that is created simply by saying, “this has to work”, perhaps we can stop applying personal value judgments upon ourselves when something isn’t the right fit for us.
Bottom-line, this technique may or may not be for you or me, but it doesn't hurt to try. So let’s give it a go and see. This “just try it” approach is what I advocate with many stress-management techniques.
I teach/coach methods that work for me and that I'm trained in, but they are merely a drop in the bucket of what's out there to explore. There are so many out there, there is certainly one out there that will be a good fit for you, but give yourself some grace and time to explore and find what works for you. Take the pressure off. It’s your journey and no one else’s.
If you are interested in learning more about affirmations, you may like my previous article.
Positive Affirmations: Beneficial Self-Talk, or Just a Bunch of Woo?
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