Intentions Blueprint for 2022

Last week, I shared in my post, Mind, Body, Spirit, that intentions for the new year began stirring and forming in my mind. Today, on the last day of 2021, I made a blueprint of those intentions. As I’ve shared before, I abandoned resolutions because they always abandon me about three weeks into the year. Instead, I find intentions are a friendlier presence, an invitation to greatness rather than a set-up for failure.

For the three areas that make up me, mind, body and spirit, I’ve crafted three intentions. You may be asking why all the threes? Well, other than my attraction to threes as a writer, and my love for symmetry, three is a significant number. According to, thebookofthrees.com , “three is the first number to which the meaning “all” was given. It is The Triad, being the number of the whole as it contains the beginning, a middle and an end. The power of three is universal and is the tripartide nature of the world as heaven, earth, and waters. It is human as body, soul and spirit.”

Three seems like the perfect number of intentions to focus on for the three components of the self. I am sharing my blueprint with you in case you are interested in coming up with some intentions of your own.

Mind

• I intend to read at least 50 books this year. About a month ago, I joined Goodreads.com. It’s a free community for bibliophiles to review and recommend books in all genres. It’s my new favorite hangout. I started by selecting the books I’ve read (and it organizes them into shelves for other organization freaks out there), and the site will then recommend books it thinks I will enjoy based on my past selections. It also displays new or trending books in each genre with summaries and the ability to shelve each selection on your, Want to Read list. You can read reviews by other members and write your own, if you choose. There are also book lists to browse and giveaways to enter. The icing on the cake is a place to establish your reading goal for the year and track your progress. This is the tool I will use to keep me on track. I’m aiming for a mix of historical fiction, memoire/biography, and non-fiction to give myself a balance of learning and entertainment.
• I intend to write daily. This will be huge for me. I am a champion procrastinator of putting pen to paper, or fingers to keys, as it may be. I believe if I practiced my craft daily, I would see exponential results. I’ve embraced the fact that writing is my medium; my way of connecting with and interpreting the world around me. I am setting the intention to journal daily as my baseline, and write at least one blog post per week. This will keep me on the page and on the screen, where I invite the magic to happen.
• I intend to complete three online courses. To fulfill my desire for life-long learning, I purchased a membership to MasterClass (December 31 is the last day to receive a 2 for 1 membership, one for you and one to give away). I chose the areas of writing, photography, dog training, and gardening to start, but there are so many different categories and topics, all taught by experts in their fields. I’m going to start with Writing, taught by Amy Tan, then move on to Dog Training with Brandon McMillen (much needed in this house). My intention is three courses, but I hope to complete more!

Body

• I intend to eat in a healthy way. Ahhh, yes. The body. If you follow my blog you know that I’ve said farewell to diets. This is a slippery slope because I have gained some weight over the past year. But I’ve learned enough to know, thank you Abby Langer and Christy Harrison, that if I start some new restrictive diet this month, I will suffer through losing weight and then slowly gain it back again. I’m through with weight cycling, and am trying to settle at a weight that both my body and mind feels comfortable with. I’ve had to take in factors such as slowing metabolism and perimenopause. But I am not able to be happy just letting myself eat whatever, and weigh whatever. So this is very much a process and a journey. Currently I am at the high end of numbers I’ve weighed throughout my life (minus pregnancies). I know I’ve been eating too many sweets. So my intentions in this area are to pack a healthy lunch everyday and limit my desserts to a few nights per week (instead of a few times a day). My rock bottom moment was yesterday morning, when I opted for cake for breakfast (but it was carrot cake!). Sigh.
• I intend to move (exercise) five days a week, and over 8,000 steps a day. If left to my own devices, I tend to be sedentary. Enter, Fitbit Luxe, a Christmas gift from my husband. I had been monitoring my daily activity on the Health app that comes standard with the Iphone and was surprised by how low my daily step count has been. Wearing the Fitbit for almost a week now has equally surprised me with how hard it is to hit the default daily step goal of 10,000. So to start, I am aiming for 8,000 with more daily walking (getting up more frequently and moving) and exercise like nature walks or the Eliptical for at least 50 minutes, five days a week. I feel like this is doable and will produce results…and can be increased as I get in better shape.
• I intend to do yoga three evenings per week. In addition to more moving, I desperately need more stretching and strengthening. After having knee surgery last year, I notice my knee getting stiff and sore. My posture has always left something to be desired and is probably getting worse with age and a weakened core. I feel that a regular yoga practice will fix these issues. Plus, I chose the evenings because it will get me off my after-dinner default of mindless games on my phone (what a waste!).

Spirit

• I intend to have quiet time every morning. This is essential to setting up my day. It requires me to set my alarm and be up when the house is quiet. In this time, I listen to my daily devotional (Abide app), pray and journal. It involves about 30 minutes, but I find when I’m faithful to this routine, my day is 100 times better. In short, it’s worth it. This daily practice also sets the tone for sober living. In this time, I center on where my strength comes from, reflect on where I’ve been and where I’m going, and give thanks for where I am.
• I intend to connect with someone once a week. This may sound strange or infrequent, to have to set an intention to connect. But here I’m talking about meaningful connections. We are faced with hundreds of surface connections every day and they are fleeting and not memorable. But in this time of universal struggle, we need to be intentional about touching another person’s soul. So I am going to organically choose someone each week, and this person will be my choice based on him or her floating through my mind, or listening to their words. I will focus on connecting with or blessing this person in some way. An email, a phone call, an act of kindness, an in-person conversation over coffee, a note of encouragement, or a warm hug. This here is so, so important; and a gift to my spirit as well as someone else’s.
• I intend to go out into nature once a month and practice photographing beauty. I am so excited to break out my new camera! Getting out into nature, hiking, birdwatching and breathing deep nourishes my spirit. And now I have something to capture these moments of transcendence. I have long admired my fellow blogger Lisa and her beautiful nature photography in her Peace of Life Today blog. I am inspired by her talent and ability to capture God’s creatures in their element, and I intend to practice this craft as well. Stay tuned…

So these are my intentions for 2022. Thank you for reading and sharing my experience. I’d love to hear about your intentions for the new year. And I wish your mind, body and spirit a Happy and Healthy 2022.