How To Set Powerful Intentions for 2026
Curating Our 2026 Intentions Together
If you’re feeling like riding the wave of new beginnings with the coming of 2026, please make yourself a cozy cup of something delicious - and join me for this session of CURATING OUR INTENTIONS FOR 2026.
I’ll be sharing:
Why the way we currently set intentions isn’t working
What we’re missing + an example of what that could look like in real life
How we can move forward to better intention setting methods
Here’s what I don’t want us to do:
Create some small habits based off of our bigger goals that we promise to keep doing daily to finally get to create the life of our dreams.
Typical example: I want to write a book, I will write 3 pages a day.
Or: I want to feel sexier, so I will do a somatic meditation every day to get back into my body.
Why? This is the surest way to set goals, according to everything online (and chatGPT), isn’t it?
Here’s my take on this.
If it hasn’t worked for you this far, it means it doesn’t work.
We’re so sure of the excuses we have for our “failures” of keeping our new set intentions, that we never ask the question “did I actually fail this, or did it fail me?”.
We say, “oh but I’m such a lazy person, it couldn’t have worked anyways”. Or, “I didn’t see the kids’ needs coming like this, and I have had to recalibrate”. Or “I’m really busy and by the end of the day I’m so exhausted, I didn’t have the energy to do it.”
And at the end of the day, we blame ourselves for not keeping up with our goals, and our desires. We think we fail ourselves, again and again. And we grieve the version of ourselves we wish we were, while trying to silently accept that the bar was set too high.
When we automatically assume we are the worst part of the deal, we don’t think to question the deal. And so we try again, and again, and again.
While the deal is meant to rip us off from the get-go.
I want us to avoid this this year, and the coming ones. So let’s walk through this together.
Here’s the missing piece of our New Year Intentions: OUR BODY.
Our wonderful, miraculous body, that has been collecting data beyond our dreams and desires, every second of our life. Our body, that assesses every 90 minutes how capable we are of doing any given task. Our body, that is still processing things that have happened in the last days, months, years. Our body, that sends signal to our nervous system to relax, fight, flight, freeze, or fawn in the face of every single stimulus we receive.
In order to create the life of our dreams, I believe we need to be present to our body IN THIS MOMENT. Because the life of our dreams only exists in the future… where our body has zero input.
To create a life of radiance, our intentions need to align with our needs of the moment. Our body at the moment.
We shift from “This is what I should be doing” (coming from a moral standpoint) to “This is what I need to be doing” (from an embodied standpoint).
I want us to give our body what it needs in order to build something (anything at all). We NEED to start with the body, otherwise we will never create the safety needed to unlock the life of our dreams.
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Let me give you a fictional example, again about writing a book:
Lisa has been dreaming of writing a book for ages. Some years, she really tries to get it going. She finds these really cool inspirational exercises, joins an accountability group, sets intentions and schedules for the year, has small actionable goals she knows she can easily manage, and gets into it. And it’s SO FUN! She loves the feeling of writing, she enjoys stretching herself, she feels so productive and artistic, when the house is still silent and it’s just her and her notebooks.
Some years, it stops after a few weeks. But some years, it’s only a few days. Lisa isn’t 100% sure why. She’s just so drained. Other things keep happening. Priorities keep shifting. Sometimes she straight up forgets.
And she feels so disappointed. But she reasons with herself. It’s not that big of a deal. She can try another time. When life is more spacious. She’s caught between feeling like she’s betraying herself and her dream, and her rational part that refuses to get destroyed by such a trivial goal that didn’t get accomplished.
When the next year come, she will get all the emails and the promos from the group she’s followed, she’ll get the inspiration and the desire again, and she’ll try again.
What Lisa is missing in an honest assessment of her body at the moment.
Her body has precious data that says:
I’m scared of becoming an author. What if I fail? I would rather keep on writing for fun, with no one to read my stuff, just in case it’s actually really bad.
I’m tired… I haven’t gotten enough sleep for the past few months, and the nutrients you’re giving me are not enough to sustain me for the whole day.
I’m really worried about Michael. What happens if HE fails? What does that say about me? Will we be okay?
Every time I look in the mirror, I cringe. What a horrid creature. No wonder I’m good for nothing.
That first cup of coffee is giving me the STRESS, and then I act on mode super productive super avoidant for a few hours. Not a great space for me to be creative.
I haven’t done anything just for myself in ages. I don’t think I believe I’m worth it anymore.
When Lisa takes time to be present to her body, she can notice that there is a lot of fear and a lot of stress. She is craving safety and calm.
So she decides to make new intentions this year: How can I give my body what it’s asking me, right now?
She decides she wants to read fun things, to feel calm and choose herself without expectations. She also wants to focus on starting the day feeling rested. These are her new intentions.
They look like regular intentions, but the pathway to there was different that her previous intentions.
She’ll start to notice that, as her body softens into safety and calm, she automatically reaches for her notebooks and writes. In 3 months, we’ll probably have written more than she’s written so far - without focusing on writing, but instead on giving her body what it needs to feel good.
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Now it’s our turn. Get pen to paper and journal these prompts:
What data is my body giving me lately? How does my body feel?
To help with this, evaluate how nourished you feel in relationship to: food, sleep, stress, relationships, home, money, etc. What is your body responding like, when you bring up these subjects? Are there any ways your body is asking for something specific?
What do I need in this moment? What would speak to where I am in life, right in this moment?
What intentions can I have that speak to my body as the moment, that will give me what I need and crave to build the life of my dreams?
Here’s a few examples from my own journal entry:
I need to feel like my body is included in my daily life, in the small and the big things, so I can be embodied instead of disconnected. So I can process instead of avoid. That can look a lot like using pen and paper to write instead of my computer, going on walks, journaling at one point during the day, etc.
I need to do one thing at a time, one focus at a time, one project at a time, so I can avoid the overwhelm and go at the pace I need to go to, to build the things I want to build. I need to honor and respect my pace by choosing to commit to one thing at a time.
What are yours?
Curated intentions mean having intentions that match your current lifestyle, situation, and needs. It means being PRESENT to ourselves, and choosing EMBODIMENT rather than being judgmental to ourselves, and choosing overwhelm.
You can get an in-depth journaling page to go along with this exercise.
Here is a link to my Etsy Shop, to grab your own printable journaling page, and start setting your embodied intentions: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/4441544282/new-year-embodied-intentions-exercise
Love to hear your thoughts on this!
Stay radiant,
Audrey
