March 11, 2025 • 11 mins
In this episode of Infinitely Precious, James Henry explores the practice of setting daily intentions, particularly during the Lenten season—a time of reflection and preparation. He shares his own recent experience of intentionally reducing screen time, emphasizing how small, mindful choices can bring clarity and presence to daily life. James reassures listeners that intentions are not about self-judgment or measuring success but rather about opening awareness to what truly matters in a given day. He encourages trying this practice, adjusting as needed, and remembering that it is never too late to begin. Above all, he reminds each listener of their inherent worth: You are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro (00:00):
Welcome to the Infinitely Precious podcast produced by
Infinitely Precious LLC. Yourhost is James Henry. Remember,
you are infinitely precious andunconditionally loved for the
gift you already are.
James (00:12):
Hello, beloved. It's me, James, and I have some thoughts
to share with you today. We haveentered a season in western in
the western church, in thewestern Christian tradition, a
season of Lent. It's forty daysof preparation for, for Easter.
(00:34):
And those days are often in,characterized by self
reflection, self awareness,sometimes self denial.
I talked about this last week onthe podcast. And this week, I
thought I might, talk about aspecific practice that I've
taken up and, how it has sort ofbrought clarity and help to me
(01:01):
in this season of Lent when I'mtrying to strengthen my heart
and focus in a bit more. Thepractice that I have used on and
off for a number of years, butthat I have been more
intentional about in the lastweek is setting an intention
(01:24):
each day. Trying to begin asclose to the beginning of my day
by setting an intention. Youmight ask yourself, what does
that mean?
And I don't even know ifintentions are a good thing to
set. After all, if you'reanything like me, you grew up
with a phrase that said, theroad to hell is paved with good
(01:46):
intentions. And, you know, Idon't need to argue whether
that's true or not. Ifintentions are not your thing,
don't do them. But for me,setting an intention opens me
and my awareness to what'scoming today and tries to bring
focus to what I'm gonna try todo today.
(02:07):
Just one thing. I started tosay, and it came to my mind just
because of cultural realitiesthat it was a way of measuring
my day. I want to discourage youif you're going to set an
intention of using it to measureyour day. We don't need any
other measures placed on usbased on how our days are going.
(02:30):
And sometimes we arrive at theend of the day with the feeling
that we have failed anyway.
So we don't need one more thingthat we can potentially fail at.
However, we do need to set up,perhaps, some ways to kind of
bring focus to a day. So forinstance, on Saturday, I had
(02:51):
noticed, that I, have spent alittle bit too much time at
various points on my day off onFriday and some other days,
getting a little bit too focusedon watching, on on my phone.
Whether it was reading posts onsomebody's, social media or news
or other things, I I really gotlost in it all. And oftentimes,
(03:16):
I found myself walking awayfrustrated and struggling,
irritated sometimes as well,maybe even anxious.
So on Saturday, I set anintention to look at my phone
less. That was it. It wasn't notto look at my phone at all. It
(03:38):
was to look at my phone less.And so on Saturday, as it turns
out, by the end of the day, Ihad not even realized I had
looked at my phone so little.
I had not even realized thatSaturday here, particularly in
The United States, is, you know,was the beginning of, the time
change when we set our clocksforward here in many parts of
(04:02):
The United States. Andfortunately for me, I didn't
oversleep on, on Sunday morningbecause my watch, automatically
adjusted for it. It's smartenough to do that. But I didn't
even know because I looked at myphone less on Saturday. Now am I
(04:23):
gonna walk around and celebratehow great I was because I didn't
look at my phone on Saturday?
And maybe other people did? No.No. But for me, I found that how
much I got caught up picking upthe phone almost as a reaction
to being alive. If I got boredfor a minute, reach for the
phone.
If I, found a free moment, reachfor the phone. If, you know, if
(04:50):
I was taking a walk and itwasn't enough to be enjoying
nature and the cold wind in myface, was it was chilly on
Friday, I was picking up thephone. What would it have looked
like? So on Saturday, I set anintention to leave the phone and
to to to not pick it up asoften. And by the end of the
(05:12):
day, I found that I hadn't.
And, you know what? I was okaywith not having done that.
Setting an intention allowed meto be freed from something that
I saw as, constricting my life.Now looking at your phone may
not be something that constrictsyour life. It may be watching
(05:33):
the news.
It may be, it may it may be,something else altogether that
I'm not aware of. Because forevery one of us, there are
different things that seem toblock our path. So my suggestion
to you would be to find thatthing that today seems like, has
(05:59):
been in your recent memorysomething that has blocked your
full enjoyment of the day, yourdistraction from being alive in
the moment. And setting anintention for that day allows
you to kind of just remember atthe beginning of the day as near
to the beginning as possible.Now if you're watching this,
(06:22):
you're if you're watching this,on on the stream, this is, noon
eastern time on a Tuesday.
If you're listening to this onthe podcast, because Tuesday's
daytime stream is a Tuesdayafternoon's 03:00 podcast. If
you're doing it at 03:00 in theafternoon, you might think, oh
(06:42):
my gosh. The day has alreadypassed me by. That, it's never
too late in the day to set anintention, and to try to get a
sense of what, what you'd like,to see happen in this given day.
So setting an intention can be away of just kind of setting
(07:06):
yourself up to see your daythrough a new set of eyes.
And for me, on on Saturday, itwas not so much, getting,
involved in my phone. Last weekon Thursday, it was not taking
myself so seriously. I havethat, propensity. And so I I
(07:28):
probably am gonna come back toboth of those intentions again
because I found them rewarding.Sometimes I take myself way too
seriously.
Sometimes I spend too much timeon my phone as a distraction as
a way of keeping me out ofanything that feels out of my
control in the moment. It's away of avoiding the moment
(07:49):
sometimes, and I found both ofthose helpful for me. It's
probably something elsecompletely different for you,
but it's worth giving it a try.During this season of forty days
of preparation for, Easter, theLenten season, if you will, it's
a perfect time to try somethingout. Forty days is plenty of
(08:10):
time to kind of prepare yourheart and set yourself up.
But wait, James. We're already,we're already seven days into
the Lenten season. Isn't it toolate? Is it too late? Is it ever
too late?
If there's something worthpracticing and you've missed a
week of practicing it, thatdoesn't make it any less, good
(08:34):
of a practice to start now, tostart now. And you can kind of
change your perspective. Anotherside effect of intention, just
to throw it out there for me,for you too, is when is when I
set an intention during the day,what's interesting is the way
(08:54):
that my mind works. Because I'veset that intention when I do
reach for, that which myintention has, made me mindful
of. When I reach for that phoneor when I start to take myself
too seriously or whatever it maybe, a little little not so much
(09:16):
an alarm, but an awarenessarises in my mind and says, I
was gonna do that phone thingless.
I was going to do that takingmyself too seriously thing less.
Does it mean that sometimes Imindlessly pick something up and
still do that which is theopposite of my intention?
(09:38):
Absolutely. The important thingis once you've set the
intention, and even if you failin your intention, once, twice,
three times, all day long, itdoesn't become another moment to
judge yourself. You come to theend of the day, you take a look
at it.
If the intention helped you,that's great. If you think that
(10:00):
the intention, you're more awareof it because of the times that
you tripped, tripped up duringthe day and caught yourself,
then tomorrow, you could set thesame intention again. There's
nothing to stop you. Nothing tostop you. But an intention just
brings to mind that which youwant to work on today, that
which you're hoping to try.
(10:21):
It can be something that youleave aside. It can be something
that you take up. I'm going tobe intentionally kind to
everyone I meet today, whateverthat means to you, whatever it
means to be kind. No matter whatthe other person says to me,
kindness. Am I gonna fail?
Possibly. Is it still worthdoing? Absolutely. So set an
(10:45):
intention for your days. It'sworth giving it a try.
Maybe it'll be helpful to you.If after you've tried it for a
little while, it doesn't workfor you and you find that
instead it's just anotheropportunity to beat yourself up,
let it go. Set an intention notto set an intention anymore
because the intention is justanother opportunity for you to
(11:07):
think less of yourself. Andthat's not what a practice is
about. It's about drawing youcloser to yourself, to the
divine in your everyday moments.
That's what setting an intentionhas done for me. I hope that it
might do the same for you, butit's a thought. It's worth
doing. It's worth trying, seeingwhere it goes. So until the next
(11:28):
time you hear me or see me in,one of these various locations
that I am, I want you toremember, remember, keep it in
your heart and your mind,whatever else you're doing, that
you are infinitely precious andunconditionally loved for the
gift you already are.
Thanks so much for joining metoday, and I'll see you the next
(11:52):
time.
Welcome to the Infinitely Precious podcast produced by
Infinitely Precious LLC. Yourhost is James Henry. Remember,
you are infinitely precious andunconditionally loved for the
gift you already are.
James (00:12):
Hello, beloved. It's me, James, and I have some thoughts
to share with you today. We haveentered a season in western in
the western church, in thewestern Christian tradition, a
season of Lent. It's forty daysof preparation for, for Easter.
(00:34):
And those days are often in,characterized by self
reflection, self awareness,sometimes self denial.
I talked about this last week onthe podcast. And this week, I
thought I might, talk about aspecific practice that I've
taken up and, how it has sort ofbrought clarity and help to me
(01:01):
in this season of Lent when I'mtrying to strengthen my heart
and focus in a bit more. Thepractice that I have used on and
off for a number of years, butthat I have been more
intentional about in the lastweek is setting an intention
(01:24):
each day. Trying to begin asclose to the beginning of my day
by setting an intention. Youmight ask yourself, what does
that mean?
And I don't even know ifintentions are a good thing to
set. After all, if you'reanything like me, you grew up
with a phrase that said, theroad to hell is paved with good
(01:46):
intentions. And, you know, Idon't need to argue whether
that's true or not. Ifintentions are not your thing,
don't do them. But for me,setting an intention opens me
and my awareness to what'scoming today and tries to bring
focus to what I'm gonna try todo today.
(02:07):
Just one thing. I started tosay, and it came to my mind just
because of cultural realitiesthat it was a way of measuring
my day. I want to discourage youif you're going to set an
intention of using it to measureyour day. We don't need any
other measures placed on usbased on how our days are going.
(02:30):
And sometimes we arrive at theend of the day with the feeling
that we have failed anyway.
So we don't need one more thingthat we can potentially fail at.
However, we do need to set up,perhaps, some ways to kind of
bring focus to a day. So forinstance, on Saturday, I had
(02:51):
noticed, that I, have spent alittle bit too much time at
various points on my day off onFriday and some other days,
getting a little bit too focusedon watching, on on my phone.
Whether it was reading posts onsomebody's, social media or news
or other things, I I really gotlost in it all. And oftentimes,
(03:16):
I found myself walking awayfrustrated and struggling,
irritated sometimes as well,maybe even anxious.
So on Saturday, I set anintention to look at my phone
less. That was it. It wasn't notto look at my phone at all. It
(03:38):
was to look at my phone less.And so on Saturday, as it turns
out, by the end of the day, Ihad not even realized I had
looked at my phone so little.
I had not even realized thatSaturday here, particularly in
The United States, is, you know,was the beginning of, the time
change when we set our clocksforward here in many parts of
(04:02):
The United States. Andfortunately for me, I didn't
oversleep on, on Sunday morningbecause my watch, automatically
adjusted for it. It's smartenough to do that. But I didn't
even know because I looked at myphone less on Saturday. Now am I
(04:23):
gonna walk around and celebratehow great I was because I didn't
look at my phone on Saturday?
And maybe other people did? No.No. But for me, I found that how
much I got caught up picking upthe phone almost as a reaction
to being alive. If I got boredfor a minute, reach for the
phone.
If I, found a free moment, reachfor the phone. If, you know, if
(04:50):
I was taking a walk and itwasn't enough to be enjoying
nature and the cold wind in myface, was it was chilly on
Friday, I was picking up thephone. What would it have looked
like? So on Saturday, I set anintention to leave the phone and
to to to not pick it up asoften. And by the end of the
(05:12):
day, I found that I hadn't.
And, you know what? I was okaywith not having done that.
Setting an intention allowed meto be freed from something that
I saw as, constricting my life.Now looking at your phone may
not be something that constrictsyour life. It may be watching
(05:33):
the news.
It may be, it may it may be,something else altogether that
I'm not aware of. Because forevery one of us, there are
different things that seem toblock our path. So my suggestion
to you would be to find thatthing that today seems like, has
(05:59):
been in your recent memorysomething that has blocked your
full enjoyment of the day, yourdistraction from being alive in
the moment. And setting anintention for that day allows
you to kind of just remember atthe beginning of the day as near
to the beginning as possible.Now if you're watching this,
(06:22):
you're if you're watching this,on on the stream, this is, noon
eastern time on a Tuesday.
If you're listening to this onthe podcast, because Tuesday's
daytime stream is a Tuesdayafternoon's 03:00 podcast. If
you're doing it at 03:00 in theafternoon, you might think, oh
(06:42):
my gosh. The day has alreadypassed me by. That, it's never
too late in the day to set anintention, and to try to get a
sense of what, what you'd like,to see happen in this given day.
So setting an intention can be away of just kind of setting
(07:06):
yourself up to see your daythrough a new set of eyes.
And for me, on on Saturday, itwas not so much, getting,
involved in my phone. Last weekon Thursday, it was not taking
myself so seriously. I havethat, propensity. And so I I
(07:28):
probably am gonna come back toboth of those intentions again
because I found them rewarding.Sometimes I take myself way too
seriously.
Sometimes I spend too much timeon my phone as a distraction as
a way of keeping me out ofanything that feels out of my
control in the moment. It's away of avoiding the moment
(07:49):
sometimes, and I found both ofthose helpful for me. It's
probably something elsecompletely different for you,
but it's worth giving it a try.During this season of forty days
of preparation for, Easter, theLenten season, if you will, it's
a perfect time to try somethingout. Forty days is plenty of
(08:10):
time to kind of prepare yourheart and set yourself up.
But wait, James. We're already,we're already seven days into
the Lenten season. Isn't it toolate? Is it too late? Is it ever
too late?
If there's something worthpracticing and you've missed a
week of practicing it, thatdoesn't make it any less, good
(08:34):
of a practice to start now, tostart now. And you can kind of
change your perspective. Anotherside effect of intention, just
to throw it out there for me,for you too, is when is when I
set an intention during the day,what's interesting is the way
(08:54):
that my mind works. Because I'veset that intention when I do
reach for, that which myintention has, made me mindful
of. When I reach for that phoneor when I start to take myself
too seriously or whatever it maybe, a little little not so much
(09:16):
an alarm, but an awarenessarises in my mind and says, I
was gonna do that phone thingless.
I was going to do that takingmyself too seriously thing less.
Does it mean that sometimes Imindlessly pick something up and
still do that which is theopposite of my intention?
(09:38):
Absolutely. The important thingis once you've set the
intention, and even if you failin your intention, once, twice,
three times, all day long, itdoesn't become another moment to
judge yourself. You come to theend of the day, you take a look
at it.
If the intention helped you,that's great. If you think that
(10:00):
the intention, you're more awareof it because of the times that
you tripped, tripped up duringthe day and caught yourself,
then tomorrow, you could set thesame intention again. There's
nothing to stop you. Nothing tostop you. But an intention just
brings to mind that which youwant to work on today, that
which you're hoping to try.
(10:21):
It can be something that youleave aside. It can be something
that you take up. I'm going tobe intentionally kind to
everyone I meet today, whateverthat means to you, whatever it
means to be kind. No matter whatthe other person says to me,
kindness. Am I gonna fail?
Possibly. Is it still worthdoing? Absolutely. So set an
(10:45):
intention for your days. It'sworth giving it a try.
Maybe it'll be helpful to you.If after you've tried it for a
little while, it doesn't workfor you and you find that
instead it's just anotheropportunity to beat yourself up,
let it go. Set an intention notto set an intention anymore
because the intention is justanother opportunity for you to
(11:07):
think less of yourself. Andthat's not what a practice is
about. It's about drawing youcloser to yourself, to the
divine in your everyday moments.
That's what setting an intentionhas done for me. I hope that it
might do the same for you, butit's a thought. It's worth
doing. It's worth trying, seeingwhere it goes. So until the next
(11:28):
time you hear me or see me in,one of these various locations
that I am, I want you toremember, remember, keep it in
your heart and your mind,whatever else you're doing, that
you are infinitely precious andunconditionally loved for the
gift you already are.
Thanks so much for joining metoday, and I'll see you the next
(11:52):
time.
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