A new month means a new intention. After January’s intentions to be calm, I thought being Deliberate would be lovely for February. My intention with being deliberate is about taking ownership and control over my life. Even though listen sounds like a passive word, like it’s something that’s happening to me, I think of it as a very active word. When I chose listen for 2014, my intent was to move into the realm of listening actively. I think the word deliberate lines up wonderfully with that overall intention.

My intention this month is to really pay attention to what and who I am listening to and be deliberate about those choices. I think that if I don’t pay attention, I won’t notice, and my hunch is that I am listening to what’s urgent (or what feels urgent) over what’s important.

So time to get deliberate.

In this week’s sketch, I used a little lovely angel for no reason whatsoever except that I liked it. I wanted her to have some shimmer so I added some stickles after I colored it. The lettering I used is from a computer font called Feel Script.

Here’s to a month of listening deliberately.

Listen with Intent is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.

We’re still continuing with the monthly intention of Listening Calmly. As I thought about what it means to listen calmly, I knew that one of the things I can try is the opposite of what I mentioned two weeks ago. Instead of taking a walk, I can try to be still. I can try not to move, talk, react. I can try to not even make an effort to breathe. Instead, I can just be still. I can get really quiet and be in this moment. I can listen to what my body is feeling, what thoughts are coming up, what feelings are trying to take over. I can pay attention to what’s going on and I can be curious about my “reaction.”

With being still and paying attention, I will also allow my higher thinking to kick back in and instead of judging myself for feeling a certain way, I will just be with it and, hopefully, I might be able to watch it disappear.

Being still, like with calmness in general, has never been my forte. But I know it has tremendous value. I am hoping that setting it as an intent this week will help me intentionally choose to be still more.

Let’s see how it works.

The lettering I used on this page is here somewhere and I chose to use candles because somehow I always associate being still with candlelight. I love going to other people’s houses and seeing lit candles but I never really use them in my house. Maybe it’s something else I can try this week.

Listen with Intent is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.