Is Intention Enough on your Spiritual Path?
By Dawn Mellowship
Have you ever wanted something really badly, so badly you could taste it? You could picture yourself realizing that desire. Yet, no matter how hard you held that image in your mind, no matter how much you wanted it, that dream, that desire, never became a reality. Your powerful intention amounted to nothing. Sound familiar?
Some individuals proclaim that if we intend strongly enough we can manifest our desires. I would in turn contend that this would only be the case if what we desire happens to be everything we need on a universal level. Our aspirations, I feel, should be a little more humble. We should allow the universe to guide us and learn to want what we need, because only this can bring true happiness.
Good intentions are undoubtedly useful tools, but an intention is absolutely useless without the appropriate course of action to back it up. Having good intentions alone is just not enough. You can say to yourself, “I am going to join a gym and exercise several times a week and lose some weight,” but the reality is, unless you actually do some exercise and adopt a healthy eating regime, your intention will not manifest. If you develop an illness and you fully intend to get better, positive intentions may help aid your recovery. In fact, Dr Glen Rein PH.d. (Quantam Biology Research Labs) has carried out research into healing tumour cells using intention and visualisation. The most effective intention used was that the cells return to their natural order and harmony of the cell’s normal rate of growth (i.e. before they were transformed to tumour cells). This intention combined with a visualisation technique provided 39 per cent inhibition of growth of the tumour cells. Intention is incredibly powerful, but if for example, you intend to become healthy and live a damaging lifestyle that stalls or even prevents your recovery, all your intentions were in vain.
Having the intention without the action also means we can avoid taking responsibility for ourselves by constantly delaying the action required to match our intentions, saying to ourselves, “Well at least I had the good intention to stop smoking,” or “At least I had the good intention to apply for a job.” Self-help literature frequently claims that we can all achieve what ever we desire with the power of intention. Hazard a guess at how many people have actually followed their intentions through with the right course of action.
What is more, the action you take in any instance needs to be precisely the right action to do justice to the admirable intention. I once had the good intention of becoming fit and healthy, but I embarked upon a protein-only diet whilst running several miles or more and participating in various other exercise classes five days a week. So, whilst my initial intention may have been laudable my action was dangerous and resulted in chronic damage to my health and wellbeing. I was not intuitive or aware enough at that time to translate those intentions into appropriate actions.
Many people in this world have good intentions, but the actions taken are actually detrimental. For instance, a parent may sincerely love their child and want to make them happy, but in a bid to do this, bow to all their child’s whims, thereby causing the child to become spoilt and never learn the value of taking responsibility for their actions. French author, Albert Camus, once said, “The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.” I am the first to hold my hands up and say that I have translated well-meaning intentions into ignorant actions in the past. Most of us have been guilty of doing this at some point.
Our interpretation of what a good intention is should be born out of intuition, rather than our physical or emotional desires. If we lack an intuitive connection we make decisions based on our desires, which can never lead to genuine happiness. In many cases we might also need to do a fair bit of research. After my poor dietary habits in the path I researched relentlessly and trashed faddy dieting in favour of a permanent healthy lifestyle change that focuses on nourishing the organs rather than losing pounds. This didn’t happen instantly. I had to put in the effort, scouring resources for information about healthy foods and then I had to put my newfound knowledge into practice. Doing nothing achieves nothing. The majority of millionaires do not get where they are by resting on their intentions. Doers get things done, people who sit on their backside and just dream about getting things done inevitably don’t.
If you can learn to trust in your intuition you will find that your life becomes more guided, that you learn to let go of your physical and emotional desires and take your lead from the universe. When you trust in and follow the guidance of your intuition, everything in life becomes instinctive. You don’t need to think about what to do, you just do it implicitly. If you are constantly trying to achieve a certain goal and you just can’t seem to jump the hurdle then ask yourself if you are meant to be doing it in the first place. Perhaps you should be aiming for something else. If we focus all our intentions in one area, we may miss out on other valuable opportunities that would genuinely be the right ones for us to take.
It is also important to be aware of the limitations of our intentions. We cannot heal the world and make it a better place with intention alone, we cannot feed the third-world with intention alone, we cannot prevent natural catastrophes with intention. We can help some individuals; those that cross our path for that very purpose, but one human being or even millions of human beings are not God and cannot tamper with the laws of the universe.
Sending well-meaning intentions to victims of tragic disasters will not change their lives. If you really want to help someone that has suffered some tragic event, such as a hurricane or earthquake, donate some money to a charity that provides disaster relief or join an organisation such as Christian Aid and physically offer your help. Again, it is action that brings about positive change. Intention and action are soulmates.
Dawn Mellowship is an author, journalist, spiritual teacher and a Reiki practitioner and teacher. Her main website can be found at www.dawnmellowship.com
This article was posted by Dawn Mellowship
