Here we are. Since March is all about being brave, it made sense to me that the first intention I wanted to set was to dare. This sounds like doing stuff, but it’s actually not. What I had in mind was to dare to listen to my inner whispers. Dare to listen to the universe’s voice. Dare to listen to the smaller, quieter sounds that might be coming from the crushed parts of my soul or even from the deepest desires.

The lettering I used here comes from Calligraphy Alphabets Made Easy.

I chose to do a bird sitting and then birds flying because I feel like the first step is to sit and listen to the sounds. Dare to allow myself to hear them. Dare to listen to them. Which I believe will give me the strength and push to then soar.

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

Here we are. Another month, another intent to Listen. I decided that March was the month to start being brave. Paying attention to the quiet voices. Trying new things. Taking leaps big and small. Listening without fear or worry.

I think that sometimes when you’re living life, it gets easy to just do the next thing. Sometimes I don’t even think too hard about what I want and/or whether it’s the Right thing. I’m not saying I make bad choices, but more that I am not engaged when I take action. I do the next thing there is to do. I do what must be done (what I think must be done.)

For me, being brave, is about listening to the voices that are not the loudest. Listening to other ways of doing something. Listening to the quieter voices. Listening to what my soul whispers. Listening to what my body craves. The voices I don’t make time for. The voices I am purposefully avoiding.

Being brave is hard. Being brave requires intent. My plan is to dedicate march to practicing courage with my listening.

Here’s the lettering I used and for my sketches I decided on some arrows. Now sure why. Maybe I was thinking about the Hunger Games when I drew this…

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

Continuing with the theme of Listening Deliberately, I thought a lot about what I would like to focus on this week. Slow down is what came up. Maybe I should have switched last week’s intent with this one since it feels like slowing down should come before making a choice does, but alas this is how it showed up and I’m sticking with it.

Maybe it’s the universe’s way of telling me that I will have to slow down this week if I want to be deliberate. I am not the kind of person who slows down very often. I don’t mean the lack-of-focus: I can sit still and read a book for four hours straight. But when I am doing a task, I tend to rush through it. I tend to want to “get it done.” It’s not even getting it over with as much as it is being able to check it off my list.

Considering the size of my list, if I want to check things off, I am not slowing down very often.

And yes, when you don’t slow down, you miss things. You miss important things. You are not being deliberate. You’re not even present, how could you be deliberate? So the intent for this week is to slow down. Way, way, way down.

Let’s see how I do.

This week’s lettering is here and I chose the meditating girl for my sketch because meditating is an excellent way to slow down.

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

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.