Setting a clear intention is one of the most important parts of mindfulness practice. At the beginning of the day you might set an intention to act respectfully towards everyone you interact with, to be grateful for what you have, or to exhibit generosity.
Setting an intention often is the easy part. Remembering and sticking to your intention is the hard part. How often have you set an intention only to have it flee your mind within a few minutes, never to return until you lay down in bed at night and kick yourself over all of the times you failed to stay true to your intention throughout the day?
Regular mindfulness practice can help to bring your intention back to the forefront of your intention more frequently, so that you can re-set your intention between your formal meditation sessions. Today’s tip is to use technology to give yourself a gentle nudge to remember your intention before it has slipped from your consciousness for too long:
- Display your intention on your lock screen, screen saver, or desktop background. Would you be more likely to re-set your intention if you saw the words, “Act respectfully” every time you picked up your phone? I think so. And it only takes a few seconds at the beginning of the day.
- Set a reminder to remember your intention. Create a to-do to “Act respectfully” with a repeating reminder. You may need to experiment with the number of reminders throughout the day to strike a balance between helpful and annoying.
- Anchor your intention to a technological trigger. When you set your intention, also pick a “trigger” to remember that intention, such as the phone ringing. Practice hearing the phone ring and letting the ringing sound remind you of your intention. Then when the phone rings throughout the day you can use that sound to trigger you to re-set your intention.
Give these a try and see if they help you to return to your intention more frequently than before. Have you found other ways to use technology to help you remember your intention? Let us know!
