How to lead an intention setting exercise

How to lead an intention setting exercise

Ready to go beyond stamping and actually lead the intention setting exercises? Heck yeah!

In a traditional yoga class it’s quite common for the teacher to ask students to set an intention before they begin to move. While this may be enough for some, others may want more guidance, “What is an intention? How do I think of one? What should it be?”

If the yoga studio manager is open to it, you could ask them if you could partner with the yoga teachers to open up each class that day with an intention setting activity that takes 5 minutes. Explain that the students will be guided through the process of uncovering their personal intentions and asked to choose their WORD that can then be stamped onto their daily reminder.

To help students find an intention, one must be able to define what an intention is. Here is a sample of how to begin the conversation:

“Hello, my name is ____ and I am a MyIntent maker I’m here to help you think of your 2019 WORD of intention. I’d like to start by explaining what an intention actually is. I like to think of an intention as the act or thought driving one’s actions. This can be looked upon as the “why” behind everything you do, think or feel.

To help you think of your own personal intention let’s begin by closing your eyes and focusing in on your breath. (Pause) I am going to ask you a series of questions to help you discover your WORD of intention.

• First, What is a Virtue you would like more of? (Pause, allowing for thought)
• Secondly, What is a Challenge you are overcoming, and what is one quality that will help you overcome that challenge? (Pause, allowing for thought)
• Lastly, What are you most passionate about? (Pause, allowing for thought)

Gently open your eyes. If you were able to find your WORD of intent I will be stamping bracelets with your WORD on them after class. Otherwise, give yourself time to reflect on the questions I shared or feel free to talk to me after class. Thank you for your time.”

Then you can transition the class back to the yoga instructor for them to continue onto the yoga portion of the class.

To set the mood, you can download this song to use in the background: http://bit.ly/2OWpkEI

Some additional thoughts on how to help the class find their WORD here