How to Set Monthly Intentions for a Happier, Healthier Life
Monthly intentions are a great way to set the tone for how you want your month to go. They can help you focus on what you want to achieve, and can provide guidance for your daily routine. In this article, we will discuss how to set monthly intentions for a happier, healthier life! We'll cover how to eat healthily, take time for yourself, move your body, and connect with yourself. These simple steps will help you create healthy habits and achieve your goals!
Table of Contents
I feel like I catch myself saying I can’t believe another month had flown by at the start of each month. And, witg each new month, I try to set intentions for the month ahead to help keep me on track with my goals.
Monthly intentions are a great way to set the tone for how you want your month to go. They can help you focus on what you want to achieve, and can provide guidance for your daily routine. In this article, we will discuss how to set monthly intentions for a happier, healthier life! We'll cover how to eat healthily, take time for yourself, move your body, and connect with yourself. These simple steps will help you create healthy habits and achieve your goals!
Each month, when I set my intentions, I focus on making them more about how I'm feeling, truly tapping in. Intentions are what fuel what I do every day. They get me to actively think about my life and how I want to feel my goals, and the habits I am making to get to those goals. They're the little things I want to keep in mind within that particular month.
How to Set Monthly Intentions
When it comes to setting intentions, it's important to be clear about what you want. What are your goals for the month? What do you hope to achieve? Once you have a good understanding of your goals, you can start thinking about how to make them happen.
One of the best ways to set monthly intentions is to focus on healthy habits. This means eating nutritious meals, getting enough sleep, and staying active. You might also want to take some time out of each day for yourself – whether that means reading a book, taking a yoga class, or going for a walk. It's important to find things that help you relax and recharge so that you can stay focused on your goals.
In addition to focusing on healthy habits, it's also important to move your body. Exercise is a great way to release endorphins, improve your mood, and boost your energy levels. Even if you don't have time for a full workout, there are plenty of other ways to incorporate movement into your day. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator, going for a walk on your lunch break, or stretching before bed are all great ways to get moving!
Finally, one of the most important things you can do for yourself is to disconnect from technology. This means putting away your phone and spending some time in nature, meditating, or journaling. These activities will help you connect with yourself and find peace in the present moment.
Define your mission
The truth is that our focus drives everything in our lives. It basically determines if we’ll experience a high quality of life and accomplish things that are meaningful to us or not.
But, in order to focus, you must first know your mission.
Your mission will determine, what should you do with your precious time. So have a clear mission in your life, where you want to go, and what you want to achieve. Once you do that, your all actions get a direction. If it is towards that mission, then do it. If not, then simply skip it or postpone it, until you do your key things. Your intentions for the month should work towards your mission.
Choose the right intentions
Now that you know your mission, let’s focus on setting the right intentions. The first step in setting an intention is to choose the right ones. This may seem like a daunting task, but it’s really not as challenging as it seems.
There are two things you need to consider when it comes to intention setting:
What do you want to achieve?
What you are willing to do to achieve it?
The key is to find an intention that you want, but that you’re also willing to work for. In James Clear’s 'Atomic Habits', he touches on envisioning the person you want to become. This process of envisioning has given me a deeper awareness of who I am today, which helps me identify when I’m making decisions that are not in alignment with my vision, allowing me to self-correct. If you do this, write down what your future looks like—start there and work backward. Can these fit into your intentions?
Write down your intentions
When you’ve chosen your intention, it is important to write it down. This will help us focus on the goal and keep in mind as work towards them throughout this process
This simple act of writing enables intentions that solidify them into reality by bringing their goals alive through visualization every time we see our Intents or affirmations written out plain for all to see-- a place where ever see fit! Visualize yourself achieving each milestone along the way; what does success feel like? What does achieving these milestones look
There are many ways to write your intention, but I find the following format works best:
“I intend to _____ in order to _____.”
For example, “I intend to incorporate daily movement in order to feel more energetic.”
Make your intentions specific
When it comes to setting intentions, be clear and specific about what that intention is. The more precise and specific it is, the easier it will be to achieve it at the end of each month.
For example, instead of setting a monthly intention to “eat healthily” or to “be happy,” try setting an intention to “incorporate more greens” or “practice daily gratitude.” Not only is this specific enough to be achievable, but it’s also something that you can measure. You’ll know you’ve achieved your intention when you start smiling more often.
The key is that the more specific you are with your intentions the more you’ll have a clear plan of action that you can follow.
Themes for Your Monthly Intentions
In order to set your own monthly intentions, I recommend that you pick four or so categories to focus on. With my monthly intentions, I like to pick health and wellness, self-care, my creative pursuits, and my career. These categories and themes can be adjusted to fit your own life, interests, and goals. In all four of these areas, I know that there is room for growth and self-evolution.
Theme 1: Health & Wellness
In the Health & Wellness category, I write down practical ways that I can foster holistic health throughout the month and how I’m going to do this. This might look like, staying active, drinking lots of water, going out in the sunshine, establishing a more mindful morning routine, and getting a restful night’s sleep.
If eating healthier is part of my intention, I like to think about what I’m eating and what I would like to eat to help me feel more vibrant and energetic. I love this intention theme. It's not super strict like "Don't ever eat carbs again" or “only eat vegetables and healthy things”, but will allow me to make conscious decisions about what I'm eating.
Eating healthier has been something that is always my main focus. Sometimes we all fall out of balance and our eating habits shift, so if this is a focus for you, don’t just focus on eating more healthy, but focus on how it will make you feel and that you are enjoying the foods that you are eating.
Theme 2: Self-care
Do something every day that's just for YOU! You’re tired. You’re exhausted. You have probably been running on autopilot for so long that when you finally stopped and experienced some sort of strong emotion, you just lost it. It’s so easy to find ourselves putting everyone else’s needs in front of our own. I do it all the time. Doing something for yourself every day, even if it’s 10 minutes out of your day, is needed self-care.
Self-care is not selfish to take care of yourself. When I am drained, exhausted, or running around like a chicken with its head cut off, I can’t give my family and friends the kind of love and care they deserve. But caring for myself means that I can then care for the people I love, too.
Setting this intention can be something simple like picking up a new book to read this month, finding 3 minutes to meditate or taking five minutes to journal with The Five Minute Journal, going on a walk, have a mini one-song dance party (trust me on this one!), or a simple self-care ritual with gua sha tools.
Making time for myself to do something I love is a way I practice self-care and helps me stay balanced. If this is a theme that you are going to incorporate, find something that you can do for yourself for 10 minutes a day. For more ideas, check out my FREE Self-Care Menu download.
Theme 3: Daily Movement
Finding daily movement in your day is a great way to boost your energy and get in a better mood. Starting with something as small as a 10-minute walk or yoga flow in the morning can set you on your way to incorporating more into your day.
Regular exercise often leads to an improved body image, makes your heart and bones stronger, lowers your risk for chronic disease right along with your blood pressure, keeps your weight under control, and reduces feelings of anxiety and depression. While you're boosting your energy levels, oxygen capacity, muscle tone, and general fitness, a side benefit is an increase in self-esteem. Just the success of creating an exercise plan and sticking to it allows you to enjoy a sense of achievement.
Getting a move on is good for your body and mind. The Cleveland Clinic suggests exercising for 20 to 30 minutes every day, picking an activity you enjoy so you'll stick with it, varying what you do to ward off boredom, and mixing classes to keep things interesting, keep pounds off and keep your confidence high.
When I want to get back into a routine, I personally love I just want to keep active by doing something like practicing yoga at home, taking a class whether in-person or at home with Alo Moves; Dancing it out with a virtual Barre3 class, or going for a run - keep those endorphins going!
Theme 4: Disconnect in the morning and before bed.
I am totally guilty of waking up, and instantaneously checking my phone to read email, post on Instagram, and so on.
I’ve made it into a habit to go to bed early, and because I do like waking up at 5:00 am almost every morning. I give myself about an hour to fully wake up, drink water, brush my teeth, write in my gratitude journal, and make coffee.
I cherish the ritual of making coffee in the morning. There is something about this one hour in my day that I love and is special. It’s probably because there are zero distractions, and I can really focus on setting my day.
Conclusion
Setting monthly intentions is a great way to keep your goals top of mind and make sure you’re taking the necessary steps to reach them. Maybe the challenge for you this month is to try and limit the constant need to be connected and save your phone time for something that really matters. Do you open your phone and read something that bothers you that affects your sleep and how you start the day? What are some things you want to accomplish this month? Write them down, put them somewhere visible, and get started!
What are your intentions for the month? Share them here, I’d love to know!
Cover Image Credit: Unsplash.com
