In our previous post, we defined two types of intention. Each is a projected metaphor of belief about self that appears to satisfy an internal need to reclaim who we think we’ve lost.
- Stated – A conscious plan to satisfy an internal need through external physical means.
- Unstated – A need seeking satisfaction through internal non-physical means.
Unstated intentions can be exposed with “becauses…” Ex: Stated intention, “I intend to get that job!” Unstated intention, “…because I need to be okay.”
How might those intentions appear in an illusory perceptual world? In an energetic environment like our universe, consciousness perceives as a result of resistance. Perception of metaphoric projections of belief, therefore, represent resistance to self. Although perception affects appearance, appearance must mean something other than my perception of it. And so must intentions!
Maybe this accounts for why so few of my stated intentions turn out as I consciously intend them. My stated intentions all too often look more like wishes than plans. For example, “I intend to get that job.” Without a specific plan as to how I might accomplish this intention, I’m basically stating a wish, “I wish I had that job.” In this no-plan case, I’m expecting the entire universe to shuffle itself around to accommodate my wish. LOL – Not likely!
Confusion, Anyone?
Maybe I’ve developed a confusion about intention. Perhaps we can clear the confusion with some examples of each type of intention. There may be more types of intention than the two we’ve introduced in this article.
Stated intentions – as relates to external influence based on an internal perspective of self survival within an environment :
- choice and accountability
- form and function as human
- body and gender
- self awareness and mimicry
- associations and reproduction
- judgments, justifications, and apathy
- benefits, threats, and defenses
- behaviors, habits, and patterns
- pleasure, pain, and other
- preservation, destruction, and change
- limitations, opportunity, and loss/gain
- personality, cooperation, and competition
- experience, memory, and imagination
- education, beliefs, and perspective
- race and cultures, and philosophies
- life, death, and other
Unstated intentions – as relates to internal influence based on external survival – Why I:
- react emotionally and mentally towards my environment
- think and feel the way I do about who I am in relation to my environment
- feel some things are important and other things aren’t
- think and feel some people are important and others aren’t
- feel the way I do in my relationships is everything to my survival
- feel some things are fun, safe, connecting and others are dangerous, and etc.
- believe my true feelings are about right and wrong
- really do or don’t value my life
- look, act, and do what I believe about myself
- have habits, attractions, repulsions, and triggers that affect things and people in my environment
Representations
My perceptions are made up of symbolic representations of me and my environment. What should and shouldn’t represent me and my environment For example, I associate love with hearts, smiles, hugs, forgiveness, patience, kindness, respectful, and etc. Anything other than those symbols representing love, as I need to see it, represent something other.
My body, thoughts, and feelings respond to my judgmental symbols even when I’m consciously unaware of them. These deep-rooted biases can affect me and my environment in so many ways, like denying what’s right in front of me and attacking what I feel challenges my truths.
Intentions for my inner world and my outer world must remain intact regardless the cost. Backed by memories, my biases can defend my truths with extreme prejudice. And by acting out my indignant displays of positive and negative reinforcement, I work to protect those interpretations I impose on my intentions.
These symbols often hide from conscious awareness in a defense of blinding bias. Because of this defense, no stated intention is ever clear about its illusive unstated intention.
The Intention that Gets the Attention Wins
In the competition between stated and unstated intentions, the one that gets the most attention wins. Interestingly, this principle of attention works exactly the same when it comes to needs. That is, the need that gets the attention wins.
Might there be a direct relationship between needs and intentions? And might attention play a critical role in that dynamic?
