Setting Healthy Intentions for the Week
Start this week with a fresh beginning. This exercise serves a dual purpose: It helps clear your mind of worries, stress and unhappiness and it creates a clean slate for you to refresh your healthy intentions. To begin, find a quiet place and concentrate on your breathing. Take deep, steady breaths and visualize letting go of all your troubles: the stress, the worries and unhappiness. Let these negative thoughts drift further away with each passing breath, until you feel calm and centered. In these clear-minded moments, set a healthy intention for yourself. For instance, maybe you intend to develop a more positive outlook. Or become more compassionate. Or feel more confident. Set your intention and focus on it throughout the week. Reward yourself for making progress.
Clear the way to refresh your intentions
- Take long, deep breaths to get calm and centered. Notice your thoughts and feelings.
- Let go of anything causing you stress or unhappiness by imagining it drifting away with each breath.
- With a clear mind, set an intention for the week such as being more compassionate or confident. Refresh your intention during the week.
Relax and reset your mind with these audio meditations guided by Joe Loizzo. They’ll help you feel more centered and focused so you can set a healthy intention for the week.
This 12 minute meditation is a good introduction to the Monday Refresh practice.
This 7 minute meditation will help you relax your mind and set healthy intentions for the week ahead.
Dr. Loizzo is founder and director of the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science. He’s a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and Columbia-trained Buddhist scholar with over thirty years’ experience studying the beneficial effects of meditation on healing and learning.