When I first started practicing Reiki, I was struck by the way that experienced practitioners always stressed that intention was the most important part of Reiki practice. I was always assured that as long as my intention was clear and for the highest good, Reiki would take care of the rest. The hand positions I had studied so carefully and the techniques I had learned were secondary to the intention for healing I set at the beginning of a session. As long as the intention was there, they told me, I could not mess up. It did not really matter if my hands were in just the right place or held in just the right way. All that mattered was my intention.
Since then, I have found that Reiki is not the only place that this rule of intention applies. When I build a crystal grid, it is my intention that powers it. When I do a Spiritual Mind Treatment, it is my intention that is given life. When I use affirmations, I am declaring my intentions and claiming their fruition. I trust the power of my intentions every step of the way in my work life.
I have recently realized that intention is not only the most powerful ingredient in my spiritual work and healing practice, but in all areas of my life. I trust the Universe, Spirit, will find a way to bring all of my intentions to fruition. It is only when I forget this that life seems hard and things seemingly go wrong.
Several years ago, I was struggling financially. I had been for years. I always managed to find a way to keep the utilities on, rent paid, and food on the table, but it took a lot of effort and creativity. I had a habit of saying, that no matter how hard things got, I would always find a way to scrape by. I did not realize that was an intention I was setting, but it was. I kept getting exactly what I intended. I scraped by through tough times.
When my Fibromyalgia symptoms got so bad I could no longer work, even if I could find a steady job which I hadn’t been able to do after a year of looking, I decided to apply for social security income. I changed my intention from, “I will always find a way to scrape by in hard times” to, “as soon as my SSI comes through everything is going to be fine and I will never struggle like this again.” Again, this was not a conscious setting of an intention, I did not know about that sort of thing yet, but it was the setting of an intention. Again, I got exactly what I intended. It took a while to go through, but when it did, the SSI backpay and monthly payments lifted me out of struggle for good. The backpay was enough to pay off the credit cards I had been living off of and pay back people who had loaned us money. The monthly payments gave me the freedom to start putting all that creative effort I had put into paying bills into healing my life and that led me to where I am today; healthy again and able to serve others and earn my own income. I never again struggled with money.
When we see our intention coming to life exactly how we had envisioned it is a thrilling and empowering experience. It is absolutely beautiful. However, is does not always work that way. Sometimes nothing looks the way we envisioned it. My younger children and I recently set intentions to make more good, close friendships. I envisioned exactly the right people coming into our lives and making them fuller and brighter. My son would find a companion that would be able to understand and relate to him. My daughter would have a good influence to play with. I would find someone to confide in.
Well, I still know all that is going to happen. That is the order I have put into the Universe, and as long as we are in alignment, the Universe will provide. I did not envision the hard part though. The part where the Universe must first remove the people who do not fit our intention for our friendships to make room for better things. People quickly, and at times painfully, began falling out of our lives. The knee jerk reaction to this was to resist it. Change can be hard, even when it is for the best, even when we are experienced in working with intention and have a strong spiritual practice to help us. After getting my egoistic response out of the way and rising above it, I was able to clearly see that even though it is painful, this is just part of the process.
I do not know how things will unfold. I only know that in the end, we will each have good, healthy friendships that we can count on. It is this end result, the intention, that needs to keep my focus. As the path to my intentions comes known to me, I need to remember that it is all part of the process and give thanks for everything. Rather than mourning relationships lost, I need to be thankful for the relationships that have ended and thankful that room has been made to fill with people who will better resonate with our current selves. As long as I hold onto my intention and stay in alignment with it, I can be sure that everything happening is in the best interest of that intention and is something to be grateful for.