The Power of Intention Part 1 of 10: Defining Intention
March 2, 2009 by dr. lam
I think we are naturally drawn to a subject by what might appear to be happenstance or in fact might reflect a need in our lives. I was talking with Carl Reynolds, a member in my EO forum group, a few months ago about an exercise in which his wife and he attained great meaning in their life called “Intentionality” and which we actually performed in my EO retreat last week (and I will present this exercise for your consideration at the conclusion of this series). It coincided with my reading Wayne Dyer’s book, The Power of Intention, and it got me to start understanding the power of intention and what it can do in our lives. My first reading of Dyer’s book (I have now covered the book 3 times) was a somewhat limited response, as the topic seemed simply too amorphous for me. The more I thought about it and started to implement it into my life and clinical practice, the more that I thought it was simply amazing. Accordingly, I shall be doing an extensive 2-week blog series on Dyer’s thoughts with a lot of my perceptions thrown in. As all my blogs, this is not a rehashing of his book. You need to read his book if you want all of his thoughts. This represents how I perceive the key elements of his book as it relates to me and perhaps that would rub off on you, the reader, as you explore your own ways for self development.
I like to think of an athlete whose pent-up energy can be pushed in one direction or another depending on which way his feet are planted and ready to be launched. If one’s feet are planted in one direction, it takes more energy to switch and move in an opposite direction. Similarly, if our intention is aimed toward a certain direction, we might more easily carry ourselves toward the path of least resistance and move toward that direction. For example, “I will certainly get sick this weekend because there is a flu going around.” Is that not a self-fulfilling prophecy? How about, “I am physically fit and will withstand all illnesses.” The power of intention allows us to create our world the way that we want to and not be dictated by external circumstances.
As Dyer opens his book, he uses the conventional definition of intention (just to get that out of the way): ”My research reveals a fairly common definition of intention as a strong purpose or aim, accompanied by a determination to produce a desired result.” He further imagines someone with great will and determination to overcome insurmountable obstacles. In short, an overachiever. In fact, this is not what he is talking about in his book. He is focused more on what Patanjali suggested more than 20 centuries ago: ”Dormant forces, faculties, and talents come alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” The idea is more focused on this concept that it is an energy state (more about that next week) than anything else. That energy state resides in you and resides all around you. I love his idea of energy states and it will be important to understand this idea in bringing to life one’s own power of intention.
Dyer aims to move ourselves out of being isolated life forces but into a connection through a larger life force, or “universal spirit” or “universal mind” of intention. Thanks Paul P last week for your insightful comments to my blogs. As promised, here is our “coincidence”, which does not mean happenstance, but a “fitting together perfectly”, i.e., we are harmonizing on the same wavelength or energy state. As the idea of intention unravels in front of you this week, repeat almost as a mantra the words “intention” and “intent” today to get you moving toward the spirit of intention. When you enter a state of anxiety or fear, repeat those words and start to connect with a universal life force and enter a peaceful state.
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6 Responses to “The Power of Intention Part 1 of 10: Defining Intention”
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This is a very interesting topic! I’ll try to keep the word “intention” on my mind today to try to enter that power or intention state. You always come up with these amazing topics! Love it!!!
We all really really appreciate all the effort you put forth in these excellent blogs, Dr. Lam, and I hope you didn‘t over exert yourself this weekend while in that zen trance.
thanks heather. no problem. i really appreciate your appreciating it. i finished all 10 blogs and am now working on “mastery of love”. whoops, shouldn’t have given that away. JK. i actually find it part of my mission in life to write these blogs. they really help me a lot too. thanks always for being so kind in your thoughts of me!
Wow, that’s pretty amazing that you can just whip those blogs off like that!
That’s wonderful that part of your life’s mission is to write these blogs. 
I am sure that you touch a lot of people’s lives with them. Great!!!
Yeah, you don’t want to spill the beans too early…lol I’ve heard a lot of good quotes from that book, but haven’t actually read it and probably won’t need to from your extensive blog coverage.
thanks so much. i tend to write pretty fast. that is my forte. i’m glad my energy can reach out to you with love, wisdom, and all things positive!
Funny you are giving the two examples about getting sick/staying healthy. A few years ago I switched from “I’ll probably get sick too” to – believe it or not – “I don’t intend to get sick” or “I intend to stay healthy” when others were talking about the flu, etc.
Hadn’t heard about Dyer’s intention until now though. Oh, and I haven’t had the flu for years…hmmh…
brava!