Written by: Jennifer Degen, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Having recently returned from running more than one yoga retreat in Costa Rica, I am noticing more and more how renewing my intention after transitioning back home is such an anchor in my daily practice. It feels more needed during transition because my routines were surrounded in a warm climate, supported by others, and built intentionally for the purposes of collaborating and bringing about a collective intention.
The more transitions and changes, the more my brain’s tendency to unknowingly be distracted or hijacked if I am not intentional, consistent and aware of where I place my attention.
Compassionate relaxed states of being are a result of clear intention, integrity in following the practices that work, and clearly making choices moment to moment to release unhelpful thoughts that hijack our negativity bias, ultimately releasing hormones that affect our mood.
Why is Intention from a heartfelt, soulful, connected place so important? A great percent of our days are living unconsciously, without asking ourselves what we care deeply about, we just follow our routines, partners, parents, or any authority’s commands as a way of living. We lose meaning and bypass our own voice when we live without intention or ask ourselves what we are doing. . Agency is recognizing that we each have something to offer the world and that our contribution matters. When we wake up in the morning, if we listen to our body, heart, intuitive felt sense, we are then tapping into a deeper level of somatic intelligence. When we ask our whole body to help – we are stepping closer to the highest good for our day. If we feel connected, aligned and intuitive with our intention, that is a good sign that we have tapped into a place that is right for us at a given moment; this will help us focus our aim and day on what truly matters to our greater purpose.
Setting up our day with intention will help us grow our attention and attunement to the creative engine in the brain.
This increases our chances to focus on important details that are fruitful to our thriving. An example of an intention could be:
‘Today I will focus on being present, creative and clear.’ A micro practice that will help you stand in your body is to feel from the ground up your feet and legs, sense into the fullness of your core, and follow your awareness to your heart, neck and head.
Being in Integrity with our actions and how consistent and aligned we are can make a huge difference. Integrity of our actions takes time and skillful discernment. We need to execute on our commitments to help us stay the course of our own deeper desires. We also need friends to keep us accountable, to hold ourselves to our personal agreements with ourselves. When we are consistent and regular we are most effective and our brain creates new positive pathways forward. The key here is that we feel the integrity in our actions energetically and we have a feeling of ease, traction and flow. Checking in with the effects of our actions can make a difference in our desire to keep doing things as well. Our body knows the flow intuitively and functions well in these states. We can usually feel energy, vitality, and delight, and punctuate our awareness with – yes “that felt great” appreciating our actions' effects, and highlighting what is working well from our own inner feedback: this accentuates positive habits that lead up to lifetime happinessand change.
Another big difference between those who are feeling the effects of conscious intention and integrity; is making choices moment to moment to stay out of our negativity bias or default mode network (DMN) and conditioned tendency to be attracted to negative material. This on its own is a long-term endeavor and there are many ways to practice – refocusing our attention to what is more healthy for our brains. Shifting can take more effort and a set of tools and a community to get there, but essentially knowing that we have a choice on focusing on healthy brain activity or not is essential to our happiness. We are not our negative thoughts, judgments or our beliefs that we inherited.
We are conscious beings, learning a higher form of development. Presence and observation of our thoughts is a first step to seeing our agency to change. Happiness is a conscious endeavor, some of us have more natural learning environments to grow our happiness capacity, but the majority of us need mentors, coaches and communities to gain the skills and tools to make small and big shifts that make the difference in the end.
Jennifer Degen, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Her work as a Somatic Coach and Resiliency Expert draws on 30 years of eastern and western traditions. Jennifer’s post-traumatic growth from having brain surgery was a catapulting force that led her to shaping sustainable wellness solutions. Her work with health professionals, caretakers and leaders focus’ on Expanding connection, Opening to creativity, Life work balance, Embodied mindfulness, Self-leadership, Insight and Sustainable change. Mind Body Awareness is the intersection of somatic psychology, neuroscience, mindfulness and personal growth.
