You’ve probably heard of the “law of attraction.” If you haven’t, it goes like this: If you want something in your life that you don’t have, you need to be in a state of having it to attract it to you. The basis of this comes from physics and the law of resonance, that when one object is vibrating at a particular frequency it sets up a vibrational field that motivates another object that has the same resonant frequency to start vibrating as well. So, like attracts like.
Then, there’s the “law of attention” which is a more complex subject. It teaches us that by focusing the mind on a concept, object, or sound, etc., we can enter into a state of connectedness to all things, beyond the ego. This state is the true us, the core of our being, not entwined with the material world, but existing in a formless state where consciousness has expanded into knowing without knowing, and ourselves are without being. If that sounds complicated, read Edward Salim Michael’s, “The Law of Attention.”
What I’m here to talk to you about is the “law of intention.” This is the law that gives purpose and meaning to our lives. Have you ever walked down a road and counted your footsteps as you went? Not just to the count of 100, but into the thousands. You may ask, “Why would I do this?” Because it gives the road meaning beyond the destination… and how many of us are walking thru our lives with no destination in mind? There are times when our lives lose meaning, when the day-to-day existence of going to and from work, making yet another meal, doesn’t hold meaning. The truth is that life is important, and everything we do with our lives is an experience that our soul is having. We want to make life as rich as possible. We want to intend our lives into a place of purpose, no matter how big or small. When we lose site of this goal, we lose site of our true nature, which is to be of service to the soul and its human experience.
The other very important thing that intention provides for us is the focusing of our minds to create the world around us. This is the root for the previous two laws of attraction and attention. Before you can have attraction and attention, you must have intention. Ask yourself, “What do I want, where do I want to be, what do I want to do?” This is purpose, and without purpose, we wander aimlessly in a world of confusion and chaos. With purpose, we wander through a world of order and design. There’s a saying that goes, “Not all who wander are lost.” This is an important concept because when I use the word, “wander”, I’m talking about the difference between the illusion of control, and the presence of adaptation.
We are creating the world step by step with our subconscious beliefs about what the world should be. You see, evolution isn’t keeping up with us. We still have reactions to the world that are based on established beliefs that we acquired as infants. Our brains are attempting to rationalize the world around us so that we don’t react in ridiculous ways. The truth is that by the time the prefrontal cortex has determined that something is not a threat to us, our body has already triggered a chemical reaction that quite possibly doesn’t serve us physically or emotionally. For example; your boss comes in and he’s wearing a yellow shirt. He complains that something you’ve done isn’t in line with his vision of what your task should be. What you want to say is that you understand his point of view but you have a very good reason for what you did, and provide a clear explanation to him. What happens instead is you get flustered, and the nervousness you’re experiencing causes you to completely clam up, and that brilliant explanation turns into a defensive and incoherent argument that annoys your boss, and makes you look incompetent. Why did that happen? Because when you were 3 years old, you were visiting your grandparents, and you took the rolls of film that your grandfather had shot at a wedding reception, (this is before digital cameras), and unraveled them to make an octopus. This was fantastic and when you went to show your grandpa who was wearing a yellow shirt at the time, he went ballistic and after yelling at you and scaring the waste products from your body, didn’t speak to you for the rest of your visit. This experience lodged itself into the forming neural network of your brain, creating a pattern that would later in your life reinforce itself time and time again until this experience with your boss.
I bring this up to help us understand the illusion of control. You see, there are so many things happening in our daily lives that are out of our control. The reason is described above. But consider that you’re not an island and that everyone is having the exact same problem. All of us are subject to this insanity of operating with a non-evolved regulatory system. Our rational minds see something as non-threatening but by the time we’ve made this determination, the rest of our system is in reaction mode. The presence of adaptation is to be vigilant; constantly intending our outcomes as we move through life. This enables the rewiring of our brains to respond to events in a rational way. We want to have outcomes that better suit our end goals, and at the least, to adapt to difficult situations in ways that create harmonious outcomes. This is the “law of intention”, to be as present to every situation as possible.
Whether we choose to use logic, or come from a place of love and compassion, we try to solve life’s problems. Intending our presence of mind helps us to operate from a place of objectivity rather than from pre-programmed response. We do this by intention, by being present in each and every moment, 2000%, and seeing our desired outcome.
