I have a mantra that I use to set intention every morning. It came out of a week-long retreat in my home last fall. That intention is to prioritize activities that create meaning, purpose, and healing. This helps me choose where I am going to apply my energy resources. I still have to take care of all the mundane paperwork and tasks of daily living, but I try not to let that suck up all of my creative energy. I make it a point to do the things that feed my spirit first, while my energy is fresh and vibrant. The tasks can wait.

At the same retreat last fall, an amulet that someone had given me resurfaced. I decided to wear it around my neck as a reminder of what it feels like to be in retreat––in charge of my own time, self-directed and creative. For nine months I have been saying my intention while I put on the amulet. Recently, this practice morphed from an action to an energy state. As I held the amulet in my hands, the words and thoughts of my intention merged with physical locations in my body.

Meaning merged with my head, my intellect and sensor, the generator of my choices. Meaning determines where I place my attention. Purpose merged with my heart, the purpose of my spirit walking the Earth, the location where I generate and express positive energy, Love and compassion. Healing merged with my pelvis, my grounded energy presence, my connection to the Seed of Being, all of the ancestors. Honoring head, heart, and pelvis simultaneously describes a state of balance.

I also noticed that before I put the necklace on, when I am holding it out in front of me, it forms a circle. The circle is like a portal. When I consciously put my head through this portal, I am entering an energy state. I am allowing my brain, my analytical intellect, to expand into the mind space of unknowing. I am allowing my heart energy open into Universal Love. And I am allowing my root to connect with the Earth and beyond, supporting both my heart and mind.

I hold the circular portal before me with attention. As I put it on I honor the three centers of my body and join them with the energy of my spirit, and I walk in this all day long. This is the beauty of Being.