Have you ever set an exciting New Year’s resolution, only to forget about it by the end of January? If you’ve been there, you’re not alone.
Each year, millions of people establish inspiring goals for the year ahead—going to the gym more often, following a healthy diet, or pursuing a new project are just a few common New Year’s resolutions. Unfortunately, these fun and empowering intentions quickly fall by the wayside for many of us once the initial excitement wears off.
In this blog, you’ll learn a few practical tips for sustaining your New Year’s intentions throughout the entire year, not just during the initial novelty period that wears off by February. All of these tips are based on the principles and practice of Qi Gong.
Turn Your Goals into Daily Intentions
Many goals fail because they’re not connected to specific daily intentions. Without clear and consistent actions, even the best intentions can have little staying power in your life.
For example, “getting healthier” is a great goal, but it’s too broad and vague. It suggests that health is a future destination, as opposed to a path you can walk every day. To give this goal more power, try turning it into a set of clear, easy-to-follow daily intentions.
Getting healthier may mean exercising for thirty minutes, eating a large salad, and doing at least one Qi Gong routine every day. Intentions such as these turn big goals, getting healthy, into easily digestible daily intentions.
To take it a step further, try to make your daily intentions as clear and specific as possible.
If one of your daily intentions is to get outside and go on a hike every day, try to establish when your hike will take place. Make a decision to walk outside each morning before breakfast or perhaps early in the evening before dinner. The more specific and clear your daily intentions are, the easier it will be to stick to them throughout the year.
Create daily intentions that you believe you can sustain year-round. Deciding to run ten miles per day sounds great, but will you actually have the time or energy to stick to that goal? When you set your daily intentions, think about how they’ll fit into your life. Ten miles might be a bit ambitious for some, while two or three miles might be more manageable.
Your daily intentions should be based on your individual goals and priorities. Only you know what’s right for you, so pay attention to your mind and body when establishing goals. No one else can decide these things for you.
Build Healthy Habits that Support Your Intentions
Your daily intentions are like the architectural plans for a house. They establish clarity and direction for your path ahead. On the other hand, habits are the brick, wood, and nails you use to build your house.
Once you’ve set clear daily intentions for yourself, it’s time to build healthy habits that support your intentions. This is where you take action and put theory into practice!
In the beginning, it’s often easy to stick to your intentions. For example, many feel a burst of inspiration in the first week or two of January as they pursue their New Year’s resolutions. But, after the novelty period wears off, it’s easy to stop staying consistent with your intentions.
It’s important to recognize that you’ll likely hit a wall, and staying consistent could become much more difficult. This is where the real work begins.
When it becomes difficult to follow through with your intentions, try to recognize that you’re building a positive habit, and habits take time and energy to establish. However, once positive habits take root in your life, sustaining them for the long haul is much easier.
When you realize that the habit formation period is relatively short-lived, it’s much easier to put in the hard work needed to build them. January and even February may present some challenges, but your daily intentions will become pillars in your life once you reach mid-March. At that point, habit energy takes hold, making it much easier to stay consistent in your practice and true to your intentions.
Integrate Your Intentions into Your Qi Gong Practice
When you’re trying to manifest new intentions into your life, connecting them to your Qi Gong practice is helpful. With Qi Gong, you can integrate your intentions into all aspects of your being, not just your conscious mind.
While it’s important to establish your intentions in clear intellectual terms (i.e., thoughts), you also want to bring them into the deeper levels of your consciousness. When your heart and body also understand and commit to your intentions, your intentions become much more powerful.
Qi Gong helps you align your entire energy system with the goals you’ve set for yourself. It establishes congruity between all parts of your being, so you can fully focus on following through with your intentions. Not only does it allow you to be more effective in accomplishing your goals, but it also makes the process much more fun.
One simple yet powerful Qi Gong exercise to integrate your intentions is called Pulling Down the Heavens.
Pulling Down the Heavens
Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart and let your hands rest by your sides. Then, bring your hands up above your head as you inhale. On your exhale, bring your hands down with the palms of your hands facing your body.
As you do this movement, hold your intentions in the forefront of your mind and imagine that the universe is collaborating with you in accomplishing your goals. When you raise your hands on your inhale, visualize that you’re scooping energy from the universe. As you bring your hands down on your exhale, imagine that you’re washing that energy over your body.
Continue focusing on your intentions and feel the universe charging you up and strengthening your intentions. Do this exercise for a few more minutes. Then, bring your hands over your lower abdomen and take a few deep breaths to center your energy. Take that feeling of strength and alignment with you into the rest of your day.
If you enjoyed this brief exercise and want more great ways to cultivate your intentions and goals consistently, check out our Thirty-Day Qi Gong Challenge.
Strengthen Your Intentions and Build Healthy Habits with the Thirty-Day Challenge
When you sign up for the 30-Day Challenge, you’ll get access to thirty unique Qi Gong routines that are all just seven minutes long. One routine is released each day for thirty days, so it’s easy to find time to do some Qi Gong every day. This helps you to establish consistency in your practice.
Even though seven minutes isn’t very long, it’s enough time to completely transform your energy system—allowing you to let go of stress, get more energy, and reaffirm your daily intentions.
Click on the banner below to discover how the 30-Day Challenge can help you begin your day with purpose and clarity.