How To Set Daily Intentions & Manifest Your Soul Desires
Setting daily intentions is a powerful way to consciously choose how you want to feel and what your soul wishes to manifest and honor your values and beliefs each day. Because if we don’t choose, we leave the door open for life to happen “to” us. For other people’s opinions and agendas to upstage our own. To run on auto-pilot without tending to our own needs. This leads to unfulfillment, stress, burnout, disconnection, victim mentality, and feeling like you’re out of alignment with your soul and off track with your purpose.
There’s a lot of talk about intentions these days, and it can either sound far too vague for some of us or yet another thing to add to our never-ending to-do list. But while setting daily intentions can be an hour-long process, it doesn’t have to be. It can be as short and sweet as five minutes. And my invite to you is to think about something else you do each day that is unsupportive and does not nourish you the way that setting an intention for your day would.
Can you, and are you willing to, re-allocate these five minutes to a daily intention-setting ritual?
In this piece, I will clarify what an intention is, how it differs from a goal, examples of intentions, and some simple tips for setting intentions. Are you ready to see how setting a daily intention can transform your life?
Setting intentions: a definition
An intention is a feeling, a vibration, or a frequency you wish to embody, whether it’s today, over the next week, the next month, or the next year. It’s about being rather than doing.
The difference between setting intentions & goals
Intentions are of a feminine frequency, while goals are of a masculine frequency. Intentions focus on feeling and being, while goals focus on doing or taking action and achieving. These are the basic principles of feminine and masculine energy.
There is no better or worse; we need both intentions and goals to manifest our deepest desires. They work in tandem.
Your intentions are your internal foundation, your day-to-day frequency, and mindset, an extension of your principles and belief system. These intentions then support you in achieving your goals in the external world by keeping you calm, focused, and fluid.
Here’s an example:
Your goal may be to run a marathon one year from now.
Your intention to support this goal could be to enjoy moving your body in ways that feel good. To soak up the beauty of nature. To nourish your body with food that energizes and fuels you. To feel strong.
A goal is a future achievement, while an intention focuses on who you strive to be today and what frequencies you need to embody to get there.
What are the benefits of setting daily intentions?
Setting daily intentions helps you manifest your goals
Some people distance themselves from setting intentions because they believe they are a weak, flimsy, watered-down version of goals, but this is not true. As you now know, they are two different things, both of which are important. They feed into one another.
Setting an intention each day is the first step toward achieving your bigger-picture goals. This is why it’s important that your intention aligns with your values and is authentic to you (more on that later).
They help you choose how you experience life
A lot of what happens in life is out of our control. But being proactive with what we do have control over can make a huge difference in how we experience life each day.
When you set an intention, you take responsibility and accountability for what you can control. Instead of going through the motions of life, you have the opportunity to live with more purpose and presence.
They help you transform limiting beliefs
Intentions will not automatically fix any limiting beliefs on their own, so doing the inner work is equally important. But setting daily intentions for how you wish to feel and show up in the world is one way to open your mind to the possibility that you can cultivate this specific frequency, behavior, or quality.
Setting intentions helps you connect more deeply with your soul
Taking time to unplug, ground in, and connect with yourself and what you need and want today, this week or this month is one of the most beautiful and powerful things we can do for ourselves. It’s a way to connect to your intuition and receive soul guidance that helps you move closer to your true purpose. This is how we live an authentic, aligned, and meaningful life.
They help you cultivate greater self-awareness
Setting intentions helps you show up more presently and pay attention to how you feel each day and how you’d like to feel. It can illuminate how you are subconsciously sabotaging yourself or limiting your happiness or growth. From here, you can make conscious choices that help you move toward the person you wish to become.
Examples of intentions
- I choose to trust my inner guidance.
- I hold space for whatever emotions want and need to move through me.
- I will show up authentically today.
- I release anything and everything that no longer aligns with me.
- I choose to move through the day at a pace that feels good.
- Today I will speak with love and kindness to myself and others.
- I will nourish my body with healthy food and exercise.
- I invite deeper connections into my life.
- I will act from my heart rather than my head.
- I will be intentional with my words and actions today.
A simple guide to setting soul-aligned intentions
1. Create an intention setting ritual
I love to weave intention setting into my morning ritual, but it can also be its own ritual if you’re setting intentions for the coming week, moon, or beyond.
It’s simple to make a ritual out of anything. What matters is that it feels sacred and special to you.
So choose a place that inspires and relaxes you, where you can sit comfortably without interruption. Put your phone away. Light a candle and burn some incense. Gather any objects you want with you (crystals, tarot cards, jewelry, etc.). Cleanse the energy of the space before you begin by burning some herbs, putting on a diffuser, or visualizing the room (and yourself) being cleansed by golden light.
2. Connect with yourself
As soon as you wake up, it’s easy for your mind to fill with thoughts, emotions, worries, and tasks for the day ahead. This inner “chatter” can distract you from truly connecting to yourself and your inner voice.
One of the best ways to create this connection is to slow down, bring your energy and focus back to yourself. Meditation can help, or you may prefer to sit in stillness with your hand on your heart and breathe for a few minutes.
This is the optimum state to be in when setting intentions, so don’t skip this step.
3. How do you desire to feel today?
Now you can ponder your desires for the day (or week, moon, etc.). Focus more on how you wish to feel rather than a specific outcome. Because for every particular dream or goal you have, there will always be an underlying, deeper desire that relates to how you wish to feel.
For example, you might have a goal to get a specific job that has been your dream job for a long time. But underneath that desire, there is something else. Perhaps you wish to feel fulfilled when you’re at work. Or you want to help people and help the collective through your work.
Can you identify the deeper feeling underneath your desire? This is a strong place to begin crafting your intention for the day.
4. What qualities will support you in becoming who you want to be?
When setting intentions, you can also think about the traits, behaviors, and qualities that will support you in achieving your bigger-picture goals and evolving into your highest self.
One of my big goals in my twenties was to write and publish a book. So, my intentions were often to prioritize my creativity and to believe in myself and the message I had to share.
Spend some time reflecting on the qualities you’d like to embody, which will help you achieve your dreams. Who do you need to be on the inside to manifest what you desire on the outside?
5. Journal
Journaling is one of my favorite tools for connecting deeper with myself and my soul desires and working through any wounds, shadows, and worries ruminating within me. Journaling can also help you with setting intentions. Write about what you’d like to feel and radiate more of. What is your intuition trying to tell you or guide you toward?
I recommend journaling old-school style with pen and paper rather than in a digital form in an app or note on your phone. The act of putting pen to paper is sacred and will help you be fully present in the moment and increase the chances of you getting to the truth without censorship.
Once you’ve set your intention for the day, you might also wish to write it out several times or place it somewhere you’ll see it throughout the day, like on your altar, on a mirror, or in the pocket of your jacket.
6. Do the shadow work
I briefly touched on this earlier, and I think it’s necessary to explore it in more depth. Setting daily intentions is a wonderful thing to do for yourself and can be transformational, but only if it’s combined with other inner work. We all have limiting beliefs, childhood wounds, trauma, and stories that we need to heal from and transmute into wisdom. If we don’t do this shadow work, then there will be so many obstacles in the way of our intentions that they will be unlikely to manifest.
So be really honest with yourself. Explore the depths of your heart and soul. What lingers there? What needs to be met with courage and compassion? What is holding you back from your deepest desires? Because the truth is everything we need to become the people we dream of and achieve our wildest dreams is already within us. It just needs unlocking.
7. Be authentic
Another essential ingredient when setting daily intentions is ensuring you stay true to yourself in the process. The best intentions for you will align with your personal values and beliefs. They should inspire and excite you, make you feel hopeful about the future, and help you be the best version of yourself.
It’s far easier to stay on track with your intentions when created from an authentic place because you will care about them.
8. Be clear
Be clear when setting intentions and clarify what you wish to feel, embody or emanate. Carefully select each word and make sure the end result feels positive and inspiring and matches the frequency you are calling in.
Many intentions begin with empowering statements like “I am” or “I choose,” but go with what feels right to you.
9. What actionable steps can you take to fulfill your intention?
Once you have your intention, consider the steps you can take today to move toward it. For example, if your intention is, “I choose things that nourish me today,” that could mean many different things to different people.
So think about the specifics of your intention and how you can fulfill it. That might mean cooking at least one healthy meal each day. Making sure you eat at least five portions of fruit and veg. Moving your body for 30 minutes in a way that feels good. Staying away from things that bring you down (e.g., the news or social media). Doing one act of self-care. Reading an inspiring book. Talking to someone you love, etc.
10. Let go of the outcome
When setting intentions, it’s important not to be attached to a specific result or outcome because this will always be rooted in fear and insecurity.
When you let go of the outcome and believe that as long as you show up and do your part, everything will work out for your highest good, you open yourself up to bigger, brighter opportunities and possibilities. Intentions change and evolve as we do.
Life never quite goes as we plan. But if you believe in yourself and your infinite potential and power, you won’t need everything to go as planned. Can you release control and surrender?
11. Stay connected to your intention throughout the day
Return to your intention throughout the day, whether you recite it to yourself or check in and see if you’re embodying it. Is there anything else you can do today to step into alignment with it?
12. Trust that you are held by the universe
The final thing I invite you to remember when setting and working with intentions is to trust as you co-create with the Universe, and know that you are always held. When you set an authentic, soul-aligned intention, the Universe will work tirelessly behind the scenes to help you manifest your desires. So know that even if it feels like nothing is happening or shifting, it is.
Are you ready to start setting & manifesting daily intentions?
Setting intentions doesn’t need to be another thing on your to-do list that creates more stress in your world. When you select the right intentions that align with your soul desires and the woman you want to be, you will bring more peace and harmony into your world. It will become easier to discern your priorities and needs and what is no longer serving you and needs to fall away. The right intentions will help you step into the frequency that allows you to attract everything you want and manifest your dreams.
I’d love to know what your ideal intention setting ritual looks like. Do you have any questions about setting daily intentions or are you looking for more examples? Share all your thoughts, comments, and questions with me below.