Energy goes where awareness flows…
At our Holistic Health Retreat 1/28 – 1/29, we were blessed with a wonderful group of 14 participants and 4 teachers! Together we dove into a weekend of peaceful living, peaceful being, and the sweetness of sharing with community. We enjoyed many special classes and activities together, including but not limited to discussions about Holism and how to integrate into daily life, 3 amazing yoga classes of various styles, meditation, pranayama, chanting, and more! A favorite for many retreat participants was the Mala Making Project. With the loving guidance of yoga teacher and artist Lisa Eaton, we created wrist-malas and instilled them with a personal intention or Mantra representing where each one of us is at along our journeys. Following are some of the beautiful intentions set at our retreat….
“The intention for my mala started as the ocean.. then turned into the galaxy.. and ended up landing on “spirituality”
‘gratitude’ (for my health and my family), and ‘listen’ (to learn more)
“Remember to BE Me”
“I AM a powerful Creator for peace!”
“To release darkness and negativity out of my life and become a lighter, healthier person in body and mind.”
An intention is any word or short phrase that has meaning to the individual which, when repeated as part of a meditation or daily life, can become a powerful point of focus. We can describe an intention as being any word or group of words that is considered capable of “creating transformation”. When we set intentions in our meditation practice or daily life, it gives a deeper meaning to our experience and can also help a person to set and achieve their personal goals.
Quantum physics tells us that everything is made up of vibration, that the essence of anything could be described in terms of how it vibrates at a fundamental level. The vibrations of a repeated mantra penetrate deep and create resonance within your own body and mind. This can be very effective when seeking your inner space, with some rhythms becoming triggers for theta waves in the brain that are associated with the deepest meditative states.
Choosing your intention
It is helpful to choose an intention that is meaningful, light, positive, clear and short. Feel free to use any mantra that is meaningful to you, whether you wrote it yourself, heard it in a song, learned it from the Sutras, or saw it in a dream. The language you choose is often not as important as how you relate to the mantra or intention itself. If you find it difficult to connect with mantras in Sanskrit then so be it; the point is for these sounds to induce a resonance within, and many do find it easier to access this using a mantra in their native language.
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