Setting Intentions for 2022

What?

Setting intentions to reduce anxiety

Why?

Setting intentions can be a powerful support for being the person you want to be, including being a person who is not held back by anxiety. Intentions are not goals, they are not things you can tick off your to do list, they are ways you want to live, they speak to who you want to be.

How?

The way to set intentions is to first look at what you value most in life and who you want to be as a person. Not what you want to have, or what you want to do, but who you want to be. To help you identify this, you can ask yourself the questions: Who do I respect as a person? why? When am I proud of myself, what makes me proud? How would I like to be in challenging situations, when I have anxiety for example?

Make a list of three. For example, I want to be kind, I want to take care of my body and mind, I want to be brave.

With this list, see what actions you can take on a daily (or weekly) basis – these are your intentions. For being kind (one of my ‘who I want to be’) I have set the intention to have 3 deliberate and friendly interactions with strangers. For taking care of my body and mind I have set the intention to eat well and move (and meditate!). That is the idea, just see how you go with it. Make a long list, make it specific. I have a list of 22 intentions for 2022 – these are all relatively easy and small ones, like ‘listen to music often’ or ‘invite people for dinner’ but together they build me up to live my values and be true to who I want to be.

Tip

Take your time to make this list. Make the list pretty and hang it up somewhere in your house or office. Share it with people and really own it.