How to Set Intentions in the Most Powerful & Effective Way

Before We Begin

The key to setting intentions boils down to creating feeling. The Universe speaks in vibration and nothing vibrates quite like energy in motion aka emotion. A lot of people do their intention setting rituals as just going through the motions, and that may work for them here and there, but to really set highly effective and power intentions, you need to invest emotion into it. Each of the following steps is designed to help you manufacture strong emotions to communicate what you intend to create in this world to the Divine. As you complete the ritual, be sure to spend time infusing as much emotion as you can. Don’t speed through the steps and mechanically go through them like some robot. We live in a feeling Universe — start speaking its language.

Make your intentions memorable

Today’s world is incredibly fast paced. Our attention and focus is constantly getting pulled from one thing to the next, especially so with the rise of social media and short form content. This means it’s far too easy to set intentions and just completely forget about them. If we aren’t pouring energy into our intentions on a regular basis, that momentum that we started out with begins to fade until eventually it completely wears out.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably read the journal entry you wrote a year later and cringe at how long it took you to remember you even set that intention. It’s important that you put reminders of your intentions where you will see them/think about them often as to avoid this whole issue. Not sure where to start? Not to worry, here are a few of my best tips!

Vision Boards

Vision Boards are a great way to remember the intentions that you’ve set and they are a powerful tool for creating inspiration and motivation towards creating the life you desire! Hanging it somewhere where you will see it and mentally engage with it frequently will keep your eyes on your why. It will propel you forward and keep your attention (energy) on what you truly want to create.

If you need a powerful ritual for creating a vision board, be sure to check out my favorite process here!

Sticky Notes

I love to write reminders, affirmations, and motivational sentences on sticky notes and hang them up all over the places I frequent. On my bathroom mirror, or my car visor, the walls in the hallway, my computer monitor, the remotes, my water bottle. You get the point. Seeing little reminders all over the place also helps to keep my mind trained on where I’m going instead of getting lost to the doom scrolling on social media, or the ‘I just don’t feel like it’ attitudes that tripped me up way to many times.

(Bonus Tip: I also like to hang visual reminders in the picture frames that hang on my walls or sit on our end tables. Immersing yourself into an environment that promotes the normalization and frequent enjoyment of what you desire, you’re bound to create that energy at some point!)

Wallpapers

Make your current intention your wallpaper on your phone, tablets, computers, TVs, gaming consoles, or anything that gives you the ability to! Pick a variety of photos that make it feel like you’re already experiencing what you desire. Be intentional when you turn on your electronic devices and spend a few moments allowing yourself to visualize and experience it.

This helps you to feel the feelings before you have what you desire, which is one of the most important steps to the manifestation process.

Coordinate Your Wardrobe

Another great way to keep your mind focused on what you intend to create is by dressing yourself and adding accessories with intention. I wear a 555 necklace every day so that every time I look in the mirror I am reminded of my commitment to growth and transformation. You can paint your nails with colors that coordinate towards your specific intention, or wear those colors when you need a little extra boost. You can create individual symbols for your intentions and draw them on small pieces of paper that you can carry in your bag or your pocket or in your shoe even. Get creative!

Figure Out Your Next Step

In order to successfully set intentions (in my opinion, of course!) you actually need two different intentions! Your Big Picture Intention (the images you probably put on your vision board that are your end game outcomes) and your Next Step.

A lot of people will say, “Well I don’t know what the next step is?”

To which, I respond. There’s always something you can do next. Even if that is googling your next step, or going to the library to look for a book on your next step, there’s always a next step that will take you closer to where you want to be. The art of manifesting has two key ingredients: Feeling the feels and following the bread crumbs of next steps.

You won’t have all the answers right at the start. You won’t know exactly how you’re going to fulfill that intention. You won’t have the whole roadmap, but you will always have a next step. Your success hinges on your ability to take that next step.

Visualize & Visualize Some More

Science tells us that our brain cannot tell the difference between reality and the scenarios we play out in our heads. Athletes utilize visualization to help them reach peak performance all the time. Normal people use it all the time and don’t even know it. Most people unintentionally use it in the way that visualizes the worse case scenario. In doing this, we create a lot of unnecessary anxiety, overwhelm, sadness and other heavy emotions into our lives for no reason. Rarely ever is it the worse case scenario.

So if using visualization in an unintentionally negative way can have such extreme effects on us, what would using it in an intentionally positive way do for our lives? For our mental health? For our self worth? Speaking from experience, it does so much more than you even know.

Spend time visualizing fulfilling your Big Picture Intention. Feel the positive and exciting feelings that you will feel when you are experiencing that in real time. This continues to build the momentum of energy that is pulling your desires to you!

Next, spend some time visualizing your next step! Even if your next step is just googling your next next step – visualize it anyway. This builds a special component of trust with yourself as you associate visualizing something to then actually achieving something.

Visualizing your next step opens you up to creative solutions for roadblocks you might encounter, allows you to pre-determine the best way to execute your next step that is in alignment with how you want to feel, and makes the next step feel completely attainable. All of this makes the chances of you actually taking that next step so much more likely that if you didn’t.

Shift Your Identity to Match Your Intentions

This step might sound a little “woo-woo” but trust me, it is more powerful and more necessary than most people truly understand. Right now you have a certain idea of who you are and who you are not, based on years of experience of being you. Even if you aren’t consciously aware of them, there are certain judgements of yourself that you identify with, even if they aren’t true.

What the subconscious mind believes to be true about ourselves has a much larger impact on our lives that we think. One of the most helpful things we can do when setting intentions is to start convincing our subconscious that we are are the type of person who has/is (insert intention here).

My preferred method of doing this is through mirror work.

Every day I stand in front of my mirror and I tell myself things like:

• Girl! Your book is flying off the shelves! People can’t wait to get their hands on it and it practically sold out everywhere!
• Your DM’s are literally flooding with women all over the world who want to learn from you!
• It’s so easy for you to make money everywhere you go, it’s so empowering to watch!
• You made it! You did what you said you were going to do! I’m so so proud of you!!

(Bonus Tip: I will write out 15-20 sentences like this and record myself saying them in various orders for 5-10 minutes, add some inspirational instrumental music in the background and listen to it while I’m driving, doing my make up in the morning, or even as a full meditation before I fall asleep at night!)

After a while of doing this, your subconscious mind will have heard these things so many times that it will start to accept these as truths about yourself. When your intention becomes a part of your identity, you start moving in ways that someone who identifies with that intention would.

If you were intending to manifest a million dollars and every day you told yourself, “I can’t believe how easy it is for you to turn thin air into a million dollars.” At some point, you would start to truly believe that you could make money out of thin air. When you start to believe that to be true about yourself, you start looking at the world like someone who finds opportunity in everything and when you start finding opportunity in everything, you start taking creative steps towards making money until eventually you’ve secured your first million dollars.

This is why what you believe to be true about yourself is so important in the world of manifestation.

Take the Next Step

This is where everyone fumbles the ball. It’s one thing to think about all the things you’re going to do to fulfill your intention. It is something completely different thing to actually take the step. I spent a lot of my life talking myself out of doing things I know I needed to do to become the person I always wanted to be. The conscious mind can be tricky like that.

The steps towards your success aren’t always the most fun. That’s why the process of setting intentions is a declaration of commitment to yourself. If you do not take the steps to bring your manifestation into reality, it will always remain ‘just a dream’ and a big, giant ‘what if’.

If you’ve found yourself unmotivated or struggling to take the next step for whatever reason, here are two of my favorite ways to just do the damn thing.

5…4…3…2…1

Mel Robbins created the 5 Second Rule and ever since I heard her talk about it, it’s something I’ve utilized constantly for actually taking action in my life, even if I don’t want to, even if it feels scary, etc. It’s very simple. Whenever you find yourself knowing you need to do the thing, but you don’t want to do the thing; Count yourself down like NASA. 5…4…3…2…1… and go! This blocks your brain from having the time to talk you out of doing it.

Pair It With Something Fun

I like to turn my action taking moments into little rituals. Pair the action itself with something that releases dopamine and creates a pleasurable experience, even if the action itself isn’t inherently pleasurable. You can do this in so many ways, so get creative with what you specifically like. To give you some inspiration, here are a few ways that I open my action taking rituals:

• A yummy drink! Whether that’s coffee, or tea, or lemon water. Whatever feels the most appropriate at the time. (Bonus points if your drink is a protein shake as protein is proven to increase your dopamine levels!)
• Eating a protein bar
• A dance party to my favorite uplifting music to get those endorphins flowing!
• Meditating/Visualizing (*cough* see why this is the step before this one?)

Repeat Steps 2-5 Until You Fulfill Your Big Picture Intention

There you have it! An easy, no bullshit recipe for powerful and effective intentions! Your intention setting rituals don’t need to be overcomplicated or three hours long every single new moon. This proves that they can be short, sweet, simple rituals and still lead you farther than most intention setting rituals will take you.

Remember the key components: Feel the feels and follow the bread crumbs of next steps.

Happy Manifesting!

XOXO

The Daydream Witch