Podcast Episode 97 – Speak, The Universe Listens 3 Guiding Intentions
November 6, 2019
Greetings! This is Arvat McClaine with - Speak, The Universe Listens - As a very young person, I always felt that I carried the weight of the world on my shoulders, having to make grown-up decisions in order to survive a life marked with physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. While my face was smiling on the outside, on the inside I always secretly cried and felt miserable. However, over the years I learned some gems that helped to turn my life around. I now get to live the life of my dreams, filled with love, travel, and wonderment. And, I am absolutely passionate about sharing what I have learned with you. If you want to live your best life, tune in each week as I, along with some amazing guests, share these life-changing gems with you. Inspired to be more, do more, have more.
ARVAT: Greetings and welcome to today's episode of ‘Speak, the Universe Listens.’ Today's topic is setting “3 Guiding Intentions” and we have joining us once again, Shawna Halley. Shawna, if you remember, is a transformational speaker, she's also an educator, and an author. Welcome to this episode, Shawna.
SHAWNA: Thank you for having me. It feels amazing to be sitting beside you.
ARVAT: Thank you very much. The feeling is mutual. Okay, so talk to us a little bit about setting your guiding intentions.
SHAWNA: When we think about the word guidance, sometimes we get it misunderstood with guidance from outside of us. But, I'm an internal-out kind of gal, so when I say set three guiding intentions, we can do that for every season of life. It is to make sure that we're doing all the work on the inside so when we set intentions for our own personal life (because that's the only person we have control over), set the guiding intentions from the inside by being clear. What is it that I want for myself? What do you really, really want? Then, once I get clear on that, and sometimes we don't really know what we want, we think we know what we want and then someone asks us a question , “Well what do you want?” and I’m like, “I don’t really know.” When we get to that point we can ask ourselves, the easy answer is…What don't you want?
ARVAT: The way you said, “Know what you don't want and the opposite is what I do want,” setting three guiding intentions… The first one is to get clear on, “What is it that I want for me?” Then, once I get clear on that, then I'd make a decision. We know decision is powerful, because once we set an intention, we get clear, we make a decision, then everything starts to fall away that doesn't serve that purpose and that clear intention. Then, decision allows what doesn't work to start to fall away if we're truly intentional about where we're going. The final one is to be present. Sometimes we spend too much time in the past or we spend too much time on the future, or we're not present wherever we are in that moment. One of the things that came out for me is being in nature, again nature always gives me a lot, and it says, what I love about my life and what I love about today, what I love about this moment… it's already here! So part of the poetry that came out of it, I'm a poet, it said…
Stop looking to the future, and stop looking to the past. What about today? Don't let it slip away. You see, moments are plenty, stop making them few by spending your life on useless pursuits. Giving more to life generates more for like to gift back to you.
Give love today, don't let time slip away. So what I love about my life, and what I love about today, what I love about this moment is… if am present, is already here.
ARVAT: I love it. I love those words. it's just such a rhythm that goes with it and it just it kind of seeps into your soul. I like how you utilize poetry, because it's almost like I don't have to hear what you're saying. It's coming through anyway. Yes, okay, so you say clarity, knowing what do you want. How does a person go about seeking clarity for themselves?
SHAWNA: What I encourage people to do is to sit down and journal, and start to look at their lives. Where am I? What do I want? and if where I am? What I want is called my longing. There's longing in discontent in life. I'm discontented with some things, but I have a longing. So what am I? My thing is start where you are, with what you have. Sometimes we think, “When this happens, then,” “When this happens, then.” But the thing about it is, now being present again, you know all the three intentions go hand-in-hand. They are like a medley, like a salad. They're all in there together and taking turns on how they light up. So get clear about what you want. Make the decision. Then I find that your vision will pull you once you do. You get clear, decide all of a sudden, synchronicity starts to happen because you say you want this, you decide and you're taking action. Being present means that I am aware of what's happening, so when an opportunity presents itself based on what I'm clear about, based on what I decided I wanted, then I can see that. But if I'm not clear, opportunities are everywhere and they'll pass us by. Like I tell my students all the time, “If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there…come this way, come that way.” But, if I'm clear, I can say, “No. Not going there.” I don't feel the pull to go. I like Robert Frost’s words, he said, “Go down the path less traveled”, because sometimes what’s right for us individually when it comes to that clear intention, it doesn't look like what people tell us it should look like. in the scheme of life that's been living history. Sometimes the path has never been traveled and we have to create it.
ARVAT: Like you said, a lot of people if you say what do you want and people have no idea. That is not unusual like that's common because that's not something we're not encouraged to think about. What do we want, what do we really want? We might know what we want immediately, like immediate gratification, but what do we want in life? What do we want out of life? What do we want to offer to life? Right? We haven't actually sat down and really thought about it. It's almost like we don't even believe that we could have what we want, that we can create what want. I love that part, being number one is being clear, getting it clear. I would like to challenge everyone to actually sit down and do the journaling as Shawna has suggested to really think about what is it do I want? Not just for today but for your life. What do you want to give? What do you want to receive from life? What do you want to create? And then the word decide. I love that word because if you dissect the word you realize it has the word “cide,” such as homicide, suicide and that really means “to kill off”. Once you make a decision as you said, it's so powerful because you've just killed off every other thing that doesn't support your decisions. Right? So have clarity and decide on what you want to do and then your energies will line up in a direction of what it is that you want. So your next intention was being present. We talked a little bit about being present in the previous podcast last week and I think it's just so important because we tend to be in a society where busy is not just a buzzword, it's almost something that we strive to be. If you don't, if you can't say you're busy, then something's wrong. Right, right? I truly understand the desire to want to offer something to the world, so ‘busy’ does allow you to create things. But, honestly, you can create way more when you step back, take time to think about what is it that I want to offer into the world? What is it that I can that's the special unique for me? A lot of us think, “I don't have any special talents. There's nothing I have that’s unique.” But everyone has something that's unique, because no one can see the world the way you see it through your eyes. There's something that each of us is here to do. Whatever you might think, you might think, “I want to write a book about planting and gardening, but there are a thousand books about gardening.” What do I have that's unique to offer it? But, it's going to be through your eyes and it is going to be something different. Yes, and so I would just encourage people to really start getting present today, paying attention to what you're doing today and as they say being mindful. If it's as simple as, “What am I putting in my mouth in this moment?” I think we can, and I know for me, I can be eating and doing five other things at the same time then I’m like, “Did I eat today?”
SHAWNA: Right? If you’re going to eat, eat. If you’re cooking, cook. You know? Stop multi-tasking. Yes, I totally get that. I didn’t mean to cut you off, sorry.
ARVAT: Oh no, that’s awesome. So, then the third one was?
SHAWNA: That was there just being present so we have clarity we get clear on what is it that we want. Create that vision for our life, taking the time to write it down. Then go ahead and make a decision for that vision, to move in that direction. And then, of course, we get present. To add to what you’re saying, I think it was Einstein that said that if he had to just make a decision about something and he had an hour to do it, he would take 55 minutes just really getting within himself meditating, and then 5 minutes to make that decision. A lot of times when we are too busy, the answers that we need can't come to us. If we take the time just to do less and be present more, then it seems like stuff lights up everywhere, all of a sudden you’re dancing.. because it's already there and we just have to become aware by being present and then it lights up for us.
ARVAT: Yes! Everybody knows that Seven Spiritual Laws is one of my favorite books, next to my own, that whole concept that you just spoke of, that was the law that I just didn't get. I did not understand it because Deepak Chopra is the head of law in this book called a Law of Least Effort, do less achieve everything. I did not get it. I did not get it. I'm like, “No, Deepak. Let me see you do less and achieve anything in my life?” Oh, that’s cute, sounds good, but exactly what you just said, doing less does help you to achieve more because now you're aware of things and you can see as you use. You can see things light up in front of you. You don't have to spend time looking for stuff, it's coming to you, it’s showing up for you and then you can just pick and choose exactly what you want and you can do less and achieve everything.
SHAWNA: It's so true. One of the books that I read from Dr. Wayne Dyer, it’s called Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life, when I was going through my transformation. He studied the book I don't know if you've heard of it the Without the Chain. That entire book is basically about doing less and achieving more. Sometimes we are not present because we think we have to get all this stuff done. Some of the things that we're doing are not even adding value to our life. It's like we're doing it to be busy, to appear like we got it going on. You know, “I’m busy,” so that means I have a full life. But, sometimes we have a fuller life if we're doing less because we're just kind of sailing.. and things are getting done. It’s like, “Okay!” Can I put a poem in there?
ARVAT: Certainly. Of course you can.
SHAWNA: It's called “Now.”
Take a deep breath in this moment you see, because life is precious now, there's no need to store it
In nature's walk, surround-sound is at its peak. Come on, let's lift our eyes to heaven as we only speak.
Oh father, mother God, you are my rock and my light, an immense God, give us wings of flight.
We don't have to feel discouraged or lonely because you are our source, our glory.
What we need to do now is just be present. Stay in the moment. Everything else will fall in line for us.
ARVAT: Beautiful. Can you say the three intentions one more time?
SHAWNA: Get clear. Make a decision. Be present.
ARVAT: Will you share with us again the names of your books, where people can get them, and how people can reach you?
SHAWNA: Yes. My first book is called Prism of Poems Lost and Found: Not from Determination but Devastation. The second one is called The Will to Transform: Honoring the Goddess Within. The third book is called This Body Houses A Goddess.
You can reach me at PrismOfTransformation.com.
ARVAT: Thank you. Also, check out my website at ArvatMcClaine.com. Don't forget, I still have a free gift for you. If you haven't gotten yours, click the link to subscribe. Until next time.