October is my month. Literally, because it is my birthday month but I also just really feel my best in October. It’s time to get cozy after a busy few months of summer activities and I just love pulling out my big sweatshirts and hiding under blankets with Harry Potter. I reread Harry Potter every year, starting in September. By October I’m typically in full Harry Potter mode and it’s my favorite way to start and finish the day.
Each month I write out my monthly intentions and way back in the day I used to share them on here. I’m feeling really inspired to do the same again. I started making monthly intentions instead of monthly goals because I felt that intentions were something I could work on all month long with mindfulness, while goals feel more like something that will stress me out. I’m very particular with wording that I use. I pay close attention to words when I’m in conversation with others and just love to explore (in my head) how different words can really deconstruct a whole conversation. That’s probably the writer in me!
I write out monthly intentions and I look back at them throughout the month whenever I feel like I need to recenter and focus back in. Ideally I’d love to get to a point where I hang them up somewhere but I write them in my notebook and that’s where they stay at this point. Maybe an intention should be to hang them up somewhere too?! We’ll see.
OCTOBER INTENTIONS
Take more pictures - Okay, I’ve wanted to do this for the past few months and still haven’t done it. Holding myself accountable by sharing publicly. I’ve gotten into a bad habit of never using my dslr camera and just taking my phone everywhere. It’s more convenient and that’s my only reasoning. But I love love love taking photos with my camera so much more. Now that the leaves are starting to change I really think that’ll be the motivator that I need to pick it back up and get into the photography flow again.
Meal + Snack Prep Weekly - I let go of meal prepping all summer because I wanted to spend more time outside and because, well it’s a lot of work and I just needed a break. It didn’t do anything positive for me though because I just ended up being really unprepared and either under-eating or eating random things put together because that’s what I had. Starting today I’m going to meal and snack prep. I have a really busy week this week and I need to be prepared. I’m excited to feel that satisfying feeling of having a fridge full of nutritious and filling meals and snacks again!
Socialize twice - I’m introverted. That’s not a secret. If I don’t actually write down an intention to socialize then I won’t do it. By socializing I mean going to get coffee with a friend, or something along those lines. Just sitting down and chatting/connecting with someone. I socialize in other ways but I really enjoy the connection that I get from a coffee or dinner date that you can’t necessarily get from other things. It’s something that I need/want to work on and twice is a relatively attainable amount of socializing that I can achieve without getting stressed out about trying to fit it into my life.
Work diligently on my CPT course - I haven’t talked about this yet and I’m not going to go into too much detail but I’m becoming a personal trainer! I just enrolled in the course three days ago and my textbook is arriving today. I’m so stinking excited to get started! This is something that I have wanted for years and I’m finally doing it. I’ll be sure to make a whole post about this in the future, but for now, I want to really dive into all things fitness/personal training education.
Mindful meals - This is another reoccurring intention. I’m someone who eats way too fast, hardly chews my food, and is completely out of the moment during meal time. I know that it’s not helping my digestive issues AT ALL and it’s something that I work on month after month. It is a process and one that I know that I probably won't ever reach an “end point” with. That’s totally okay! But it also means that I’m going to keep working on it month after month. Details include; chewing my food completely, being mindful aka no phone or distractions at meal time, and paying attention to my body which will look like listening to it’s cues and working on sharpening that intention muscle to see what my body truly wants and not what my mind thinks that I “should” have.
That’s it! I typically set five intentions each month which gives me enough to focus on without feeling overwhelmed. I’m excited to get started and to check by in at the end of the month to see how it all went!
Are you an intention setting too? Share your intentions with me so that we can inspire each other to grow and look back in November with accomplished and happy hearts. xx