In these days of constant newscasts about the downturn in the economy, layoffs, and crises around the globe, it becomes even more important to consciously choose where we focus our attention during the day.  Otherwise, we run the risk of being carried along on collective waves of fear, worry, and other distressing feelings.

I used to do a workshop I called “Living with Intention.”  It focused on helping people become more aware of how they enter a new day and invited them to consciously choose the qualities and attitude they wanted to bring into any given day.  I emphasized the fact that – while we can’t control what comes our way – we can choose how we engage and move through life’s moment-to-moment events.

In the workshop, I asked people to imagine that it was the beginning of a new day – that they were just awakening – and to notice their usual state of mind and feelings at the moment of first coming into wakefulness.  I asked them to explore their initial responses to that new day.  Did they feel grateful for the gift of actually having a new day or did they groan and feel as though they were going to have to just get through one more day of hardship?  

Then, I asked them to explore how the qualities of their thoughts and feelings might affect how they interacted with events as the day unfolded.  The exercise revolved around becoming more conscious of how we greet a new day and then creating a conscious intention to engage the day with qualities and attitudes that would most likely generate a more supportive and positive quality of experience.

sFor example, I would ask people to consider what it would be like if they chose to greet the day with kindness as their focus, or with curiosity, or maybe a sense of creativity or adventure.  The invitation was to discover what qualities they wanted to bring into the day.  By setting this kind of intention, they put in place a rudder that would help them orient to their chosen quality as the day unfolded.

To support Experiment #337, Coping with Fear, this experiment focuses on creating the intention to resonate with states of body-mind being that are positive and constructive.  And so, I invite you to begin your day with a conscious choice to orient yourself to a state of mind or attitude that supports a sense of well-being.  The particular quality or attitude that you choose will be something that has specific meaning to you.  There’s no right or wrong choice.  The key to this experiment is to take a moment to consciously enter the day and participate actively in the quality of your internal experience as the day unfolds.

As with all these experiments, be sure to bring along curiosity as your constant companion and allow any judgments that may arise to simply move through your awareness as birds move through the sky, giving them no place to land.  Remember that generating an intention is a powerful way to create a supportive rudder that helps you stay in the flow of your chosen state of mind or quality of being.