GUEST POST: REFLECTIONS ON INTENTIONS BY SHIRA HESS

I write this at the still point of the year, the winter solstice. The standing still of the sun, and the shortest day of the year, at least in the northern hemisphere. And it is about intentions that I write, with an invitation to step into this velvety darkness and bathe in its softening, tender inner light, as the external light is waning for a while.

So yes, it is coming up to the season of intention setting, and whilst it a beautiful ritual, I also love Mooji’s words that when we are “free from intentions, desires, and obsessive planning, true life unfolds”. Perhaps in this moment of stillness, we step off, jump off the fast lane and into quietude and relax into this moment without the tension of intentions, as he says. We recognise the power of silence. It is not passive. It is about feeling that we are complete even without any intentions, achievements or goals.

So this year, perhaps you approach this no-tension- intention-setting process from this sweet, still silence, without any effort to make yourself into something, in fact without any ‘efforting’ at all. Maybe, over the last days of this year, you wake up early one morning, before anyone around you. You do your practice, and perhaps light a candle, burn some essential oils or incense, if that’s your thing, and then sit quietly. You might begin to feel this spontaneous harmony with all of life, just sitting quietly, listening to the sounds outside of your room, feeling your breath, and the air on your skin. And then without anticipating, projecting or planning, write down how it is you want to feel in 2022. Let the words come out like waves, unprompted. And when there is nothing left to write, read your words a few times, etch them in your heart and burn the piece of paper, and with it any grasping to achieve any of it. Trust that what needs to be remembered will be remembered, and what needs to be realised, will be realised.

“Something in us is already complete. And from that completeness a revelation comes to the mind like a gift” Mooji says. Let your field of perception expand and let the gifts be revealed to you in the dawn of a new year.