Living with Intention, Grace & Humor

What does it mean to live intentionally? What if by taking full responsibility for your choices and aligning your actions with your true values, you could shift from being a victim to a creator of your own life? A life fully aligned with your true values and priorities? 

In this episode of Getting Quiet with Barb, we explore what it means to live life with intention ~ embracing a higher perspective to see the bigger picture and discovering the freedom that comes with it.

I offer suggestions to support you in assessing where you are now and setting a course to guide you in aligning your decisions with your values and priorities, and how doing so opens you into a life lived with intention, grace, and humor.

Website
Instagram
Facebook
LinkedIn

Transcript

Barb Robitaille: 0:13

Hi, I'm Barb Robitaille. I invite you to join me in the radical act of getting quiet. On one of our first walks together, my friend asked me about myself. You know, as you do when you're getting to know someone, and I remember saying to him I live my life with as much intention, grace and humor as I can muster. I looked over at him and I said some days go better than others, but those words are my trinity, my touchstones for living. He looked over at me and just nodded as I went on to say I'd probably have those three words as my epitaph, along with life was exciting but not uncomplicated, and we laughed.

Barb Robitaille: 1:19

So what does it mean to live an intentional life? For me, it means making choices that support less stress and busyness in my day. It means paying attention to how I spend my time, who I spend my time with, and getting clear about what is important to me. When I have those pieces in place, I can then make decisions that feel in alignment with what is meaningful to me, while still allowing me to fulfill the commitments I have to work and family. Living with intention opens us to being honest with ourselves. That alone can feel scary as we step into taking full responsibility for our choices, stepping away from being a victim and blaming others or outside circumstances for how we're experiencing our lives.

Barb Robitaille: 2:21

As humans, we have a tremendous capacity to adapt to circumstances and environments that do not necessarily support what's best for us, yet allow us to continue to function and survive. Most of our adapting happens so gradually. We aren't even certain of exactly when we shifted our mindset and adjusted our inner compass away from our true north, all in hopes to form habits to comply with outside expectations. And oh how we can feel the freedom of taking back creative control of our lives Because we didn't even realize we were in prison. We'd so slowly adapted to a false way of being and doing in living our lives. Living with intention frees us to create our lives in alignment with purpose. There is a fluency to living that comes with intention. We can begin again each day. Each day we take our temperature, we figure out what's working and what's not. Borrowing from the monastic tradition, this examination of the day is a quiet daily habit that keeps us centered in our heart space and is the foundation of living with intention.

Barb Robitaille: 3:55

Living with intention is tending to your soul and becomes a way of being, a way of being that supports you in choosing that you're doing in the world holds meaning for you. In alignment with what is important to you, you don't stay stuck for long. I always have an allergic reaction when I'm out of alignment with my intuitive knowingness. You will, too. You will also begin to spend your time wisely. As you take your temperature every day, you will begin to notice and question how you're spending your time. You will begin to look at your choices in terms of energy and how you are choosing to spend your energy. You may shift your priorities to include more downtime or look at creating strategies for working smarter, not harder Of noticing when you work best and if your sleep and self-care habits are nurturing your well-being. Sometimes time and energy spent in the self-care category can actually be adding stress to your days.

Barb Robitaille: 5:17

I'm going to be exploring that idea in a future episode. I have a lot to say about that, but there's a lot of sleuthing involved to determine exactly where we are before we can begin to move forward in shaping something new Like how can we know where we are going if we don't know where we're starting from right? Taking a step back and observing how we are living our days is the first step. So we begin where we are and commit to observing our life exactly as it is, without judgment and with an open heart. It took a long time to arrive where we are. It will take a bit of time and commitment to discover what's really true and begin to discern what stays and what goes. Be patient and trust the longing you feel in your heart that knows something more is waiting for you.

Barb Robitaille: 6:21

The suggestions I offer are simple. However, you do need to commit to the inner pilgrimage required to shape a simpler, quieter life, one of ease and in alignment with your inner rhythm. The quieter you get, the more you will hear, and so let's begin. First of all, find a notebook, dust off one that's been sitting on your bookshelf, or purchase one that you're drawn to that might have meaning for you. Choose a day to begin Tracking your time during the day, so you're going to keep a daily diary, and do this for a minimum of 10 days to allow for a glimpse into your work world, as well as social and family commitments. Be specific with what you record, if you're able to.

Barb Robitaille: 7:16

I would encourage you to do an hourly entry if possible, but goal here is to bring awareness to how you spend your time each day. Every task is worthy of your attention. Be gentle with what begins to take shape on the paper. Be honest, too. If you're not genuinely reflecting the truth of your days, then nothing will happen. Just relax and be curious about what you discover. Then look at how you've been spending your days and ask yourself with each entry Is this really important to me? Does this support ease in my life? Does it support what matters most to me? If it's a mixed response that you get, how might you reshape it to make it work better for you? Maybe pay that extra bit to join a gym that is closer to either your workplace or home? Ask yourself is this worth my time and energy? These are all the questions you want to bring to those entries that you've made and tracked for 10 days. And in doing this, you're becoming the sacred observer of your life, and this skill will serve you immensely in finding your heart and then living and leading from your heart.

Barb Robitaille: 8:53

When we live our lives with intention, we make a conscious choice to align our actions with our values and priorities. Personal living requires us to be the sacred observer, to rise above, to see the bigger picture, to bring a higher perspective and to recognize how each decision we make contributes to our vision for our life overall. Those familiar words from Annie Dillard how we spend our days is how we spend our lives are a wonderful reminder. A higher perspective often leads to being able to laugh at ourselves and situations we find ourselves in, to not take life so seriously, even when it is. With this expanded awareness, we gain a deeper sense of purpose and direction. We begin to know ourselves, to understand why we do what we do. We can feel more peace in ourselves because our actions resonate with our truths. We operate from a less reactionary place because we act from purpose rather than default habits. We connect us to the deepest, most fundamental questions about how we want to spend the time we have left to us. When we have asked ourselves the questions and answered them honestly, our choices become infused with authenticity. We create a life that honors our unique values and mirrors our inner world.

Barb Robitaille: 10:58

A life you can rest in, to feel content with an ordinary day lived with intention, grace and humor, to feel free and please feel free to visit my website, talkwithbarbcom. You'll find podcasts there, other episodes there's news about the upcoming retreat that I'm offering in January 2024 here in Seabrook, washington. I'd love to see you here and also, if you haven't signed up for my newsletter, you can do that on the website as well, and there's a free little gift for you if you do that. That will support you living with intention, grace and humor. So until next time, let's live and lead from love.