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healthy living R ecently a dear friend told me "intention is everything" and to act without it is our current form of insanity. For most of us, whatever resolutions we started the year with are now distant memories, but there is no better time than the advent of spring — when days get longer as the light returns, and the earth is singing her green possibility of newness, to clarify our intentions in the most fundamental of ways. Truly understanding why we act in the ways that we do, why we respond or don't, and most deeply what we are trying to create with our time here is everything. The clarity with which we begin any endeavor or persist in any relationship not only serves as our interior compass, but even more mys- teriously aligns us with the powers of our subconscious and divine will to achieve our intentions. Unlike our usual new year resolutions, which are often a reaction to what we don't want, springing forward with fresh intentions is procreative. Here are four ideas to get you started: FEEL MORE, THINK LESS. The body's intelligence is always true. The brain of our gut will never lie, and the radiance of the heart fi eld extends beyond our mind. Our linear thinking model has created amazing technologies that not only threaten to replace our work, but literally have the capacity to engage the brain so fully we become disembodied. You could argue this is al- ready taking shape when you walk through a big airport full of people all privately engaged on their devices and without any connection to those around them. Feeling our life expe- rience through our body is the only way back to being more grounded. Even if only for a few moments, stop thinking and doing and virtually connecting; develop your capacity to lis- ten to your gut, feel when your heart is closing down, when your throat tightens. Give yourself permission to feel and honor your body's wisdom. LISTEN MORE, TALK LESS For me, talking has always been not only a way to commu- nicate, but more addictively a way I have relied on to know myself. Partly this is because I have long confused the need to be witnessed by others with knowing myself. I have been writing about generative listening and have come to learn how much more I know of who I am when I stop talking and listen more. When someone is genuinely interested in what you think, speaking has a powerful grace to shift a situation. There will always be the space for one's voice to emerge at those moments. But oftentimes, it is listening for what is lurking beneath what we think we know that has the most to teach us. BE MORE, DO LESS Coming from an incessant doer, I am learning to believe that there is great wisdom in being still. It is no easy trick with multiple distractions coming at us from every direction endlessly. I recently heard about research in which partic- ipants would rather receive an electric shock than sit still alone. Learning to fi nd peace in our own company is a pow- erful medicine for almost everything that ails us. Being in stillness is where listening, feeling, and giving all merge in- side of us and there is literally an open space of peace and quiet waiting to hold us. LOVE MORE Be more physically loving to everyone you know — includ- ing you. Kiss more, hug more, dare to have longer orgasms. Exercise more. Get stronger in your capacity for physical love. Be more emotionally available, vulnerable, and gen- erous. Take the risk of leaving your heart on your sleeve. Practice opening your heart to the essential truth of being deeply loveable. —Wendy Strgar, writer, teacher, and loveologist, is the found- er and CEO of Good Clean Love, makers of Almost Naked 95%-organic lubricant. Balancing more or less with intentions By Wendy Strgar SPRINGTIME RESOLUTIONS Photo: Carl Studna 14 wholelifetimes.com SEX TALK