Set your intention, and trust the universe to take care of the details.
Mike Fotheringham

You cannot change anything in your life with intention alone, which can become a watered-down, occasional hope that you’ll get to tomorrow. Intention without action is useless.
Caroline Myss

Everything I needed to know about Yoga I learned Motorcycle riding.

This week we reviewed Law 5 from Deepak Chopra’s “7 Spiritual laws of Yoga,” and when I read the chapter, I was reminded of when I was introduced to the word Svaha…and falling head over heels with the word.

This idea of offering it up to the fires of the universe (or as I learned it “Sanskrit for f*ck it)  A concept there heretofore in my control freakish nature was unheard of in my corner of the world. This concept of setting goals but not controlling every detail was mind blowing for me. And I suspect it is for many of us.

And with further study I also realized that the answer we got to this control freak nature was not serving our needs either. We went  from a culture of do and act and when that didn’t work the answer was affirmation and visualizations. Unfortunately we quickly realized that sitting around thinking about it doesn’t quite work either.

Deepak brings it all together quite nicely (he’s not the first or the only one – but I am reviewing his book)

1. Be clear about your intentions and desires

2. Surrender the outcome to nature

3. Do not allow any obstacles to consume or dissipate the quality of your attention in the present moment

From the perspective of our yoga practice this has such a cooling and softening effect. Our intention for practice can be set but we can give up the need to attain or reach a specific place in said practice.   This builds on the practice of non-attachment (aka detachment)and It compliments the idea of giving and receiving.

Truthfully he goes into the concept of energy and quantum reality – but I think it’s overkill. You can’t get where you want to go unless you know where that is, but you have to be willing to take detours and even adjust your destination…that’s about it…why do we want to make everything so complicated?  Everything I need to know about this law I learned from riding my motorcycle –

If  I don’t pay attention bad things happen

Silence can help you hear your true thoughts

If you don’t write things down immediately they will be forgotten but they come back when/if you need them

If you push yourself past your limits regardless of your original goal it can get dangerous and loses its joy

it’s better to yield than get run over – even if you are “in the right”

if you hold on too tightly it’s harder to avoid the bumps

and most importantly – Where you look is where you go

So I leave you with this – where is your attention and intention in your life currently? What areas of your life have taught you about the principle of intention and desire?