Lately, I have started following a simple notion in my life:
Move with intention.
It sounds like a simple phrase, but the more I practise it, the more I realise that it has very little to do with movement alone.
It has to do with how I choose to live my life.
From my personal life to my professional life, I am beginning to ask myself:
“What is my intention here?”
Not just What am I going to do?
But how do I want to do it? What do I want to create through it? How do I want to feel? And what do I want the other person to experience?
Even a walk can have an intention
When I go for a walk, I don’t want to simply cover a certain number of steps.
I intend to walk briskly, with ease and awareness.
I notice my feet touching the ground.
I notice my breathing.
I notice my posture.
I allow my arms to move naturally.
The walk becomes more than exercise.
It becomes an opportunity to be present in my body.
The same activity can feel completely different when there is intention behind it.
When I teach, my intention changes everything
When I walk into a classroom or begin teaching a group, my intention is no longer simply:
“I have to complete this topic.”
My intention is:
“I want to be coherent. I want to connect. I want to reach every participant.”
That intention changes the way I teach.
I become more aware of the person sitting quietly at the back.
I notice the participant who may be hesitant to ask a question.
I pay attention to whether my words are actually reaching people—or whether I am simply delivering information.
The intention moves me from teaching at people to teaching with people.
And perhaps that is the real power of intention.
Intention is different from expectation
This is something I am learning.
An intention is not a demand that life must unfold exactly as I want it to.
I can intend to have a meaningful conversation, but I cannot control how the other person will respond.
I can intend to teach with clarity, but I cannot control whether every participant will understand everything immediately.
I can intend to walk with ease, but I cannot control how my body will feel every single day.
Intention is about what I bring to the experience—not about controlling the outcome.
That distinction has been freeing.
The power of intention
Many teachings around the power of intention remind us that our attention and intention influence the way we experience our lives.
What we repeatedly focus on begins to shape our thoughts, our choices and our behaviour.
If my intention is to notice problems, I will probably find many problems.
If my intention is to connect, I begin noticing opportunities for connection.
If my intention is to learn, even a difficult experience can become a teacher.
If my intention is to be grateful, ordinary moments begin to acquire meaning.
Where intention goes, attention follows.
And where attention goes, our experience often begins to change.
This does not mean that simply thinking positively will magically change everything.
Life will still bring uncertainty, disappointment, difficult people and unexpected situations.
But intention gives us something important:
a choice about how we show up.
What if we moved through life this way?
Imagine waking up in the morning and asking:
What is my intention for today?
Not:
How much do I need to accomplish?
But:
How do I want to move through my day?
Perhaps the intention is:
Today I will move with patience.
Or:
Today I will listen before I respond.
Or:
Today I will be fully present with the people I meet.
Or simply:
Today I will move with ease.
Then imagine carrying that intention into everything we do.
The way we speak to our children.
The way we respond to our partners.
The way we conduct a meeting.
The way we teach.
The way we exercise.
The way we eat.
The way we rest.
The way we deal with a difficult situation.
Suddenly, life becomes less about moving from one task to another and more about how consciously we move through each experience.
My new question
I am beginning to replace:
“What do I have to do?”
with:
“What is my intention as I do this?”
And I am discovering that this small shift creates a very different experience.
I don’t always remember to do it.
I don’t always get it right.
But each time I remember, I pause.
I breathe.
And I choose.
Because perhaps intentional living isn’t about making every moment perfect.
It is about becoming more conscious of the moments we are already living.
The result
Maybe the ultimate goal isn’t to get somewhere faster.
Maybe it is to arrive more fully wherever we are.
To walk with intention.
To teach with intention.
To speak with intention.
To listen with intention.
To work with intention.
To rest with intention.
To love with intention.
And eventually, perhaps, to live with intention.
Because when we become intentional about the way we move through life, our movement begins to reflect who we are—and who we are becoming.
Move with intention.
Live with awareness.
And let every movement have meaning.
Minaz Ajani has a Master’s in Sp. Ed with a focus on Learning Disabilities. She is an Internationally Licensed Brain Gym®️ , Touch for Health®️ , Movement-Based Learning™️ and RMTI ®️ Instructor and consultant and founder of Manifest Your Potential (http://manifesturpotential.com)