Harnessing our invisible powers
In my last blog, I shared a story about a key that had been lost for decades in our house. I had almost given up on finding it but then reached within to tap into my power of intention. I said I am really going to make this happen- I will find the key! And sure enough I did, making life easier for me as that key allows me come into the house from the garage door easily instead of walking around the whole walkway at the front of the house, especially in these bitter cold days. And this was not the first time this happened.
You can call it focus or concentration or anything else- I call it the power of intention. Often it works- I am not going to say it always works- on the small things like finding something or the big things like healing relationships. I don’t think it works on mega issues like a genocide- wouldn’t it be great if millions of people marching and praying could actually stop bombs from falling on innocent people? Actually, the famous spiritual master Wayne Dwyer wrote a book called “Power of Intention” — which I have not read I admit, but will have to now that I have published this blog. He speaks about the untapped powers we have and that we can reach for them!
I believe that we are energetic beings and that we can tap more deliberately into the universal energy that we are all connected to. There is a vast infinite pool of energy and power. If we seek it and let it soak into our beings- our minds, hearts and soul- we can find more peace and achieve more positive actions. In Arabic the word for intention is “niyah”. In Islam, we are told that if we make an intention to fast for example, but then are not able to keep it, it still counts as our intention counts like an action.
That reminds me of a communications course called “Crucial Conversations” which I used to teach in organizations. It had various steps to help people have difficult or “crucial” conversations. The first step was “Start with Heart”. I loved that, because it asked you to go within and review your intention- are you going into a difficult conversation to win, to get back, etc. or are you sincerely trying to heal the rift? That small step made you examine yourself in honesty, like looking at oneself in a mirror, before you even interacted with anyone else. It helped you shift your intention from a negative stance to a positive and productive one.
And it struck me how similar to the Sufi teachings I am learning this approach was- it asked you to subdue your ego and seek the larger whole of healing and repair. All healing starts with how you view or interpret people and events around you. You have to let go of negative interpretations and try the path of understanding and compassion.
That does not mean that you do not speak up against what is wrong- injustice has to be called out for what it is- there is real horror and there are real facts and it is our duty to call it out as globally conscientious human beings. Leave the tribes and nations and faiths and race out of it- just feel the pain of other human beings and speak up for them!
These days I often think of how human beings have not achieved their potential to live peacefully leveraging and celebrating their diversity, sharing in the immense wealth of our planet and using technology to help and heal, not hurt and kill. What if we all made a planetary intention to transcend our tribal ways of thinking, which force us into arrogance and opposition with others and instead embraced differences, implement justice and equality and distributed wealth and power more equitably? I hold onto that power of intention and breathe into it every night as I pray. It is not impossible, but it might take time.
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