Intro/Outro: 0:13

Aloha and welcome to your Heart Magic, an illuminating space where psychology, spirituality and heart wisdom meet. Here's your host, dr Bethann Kapansky-Wright. Author, psychologist and spiritual educator.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright : 0:32

Aloha everybody. Welcome to your Heart Magic. This is Dr Bethann Kapansky-Wright, and today we are talking about the idea of setting small intentions and taking small, measurable steps and how those add up over time to help support us in creating new habits and patterns and movement in our life. And I chose this topic because it feels really close to my heart this week. I recently celebrated a birthday just this past weekend and something that I will often do when I have any kind of a milestone in my life which might be a birthday it could be a new year.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright : 1:14

Sometimes I might do this around certain anniversaries or dates that have meaning for me is I will take time in my journal to really try and honor what have been the small wins this past season, what have I learned, how have I grown, what progress have I made on the path, and also look at where do I want to be this time next year, where would I like to be a year from now? Where might I like to be six months from now? Where might I like to be three or so months from now? And I have fun Oracle card spreads that I do around this and obviously I have to put stickers in my journal to help illustrate all of these things and I make a little ritual of it and it's one of my ways of not only doing self-care. But for me, my journal is such a treasure trove of ideas and intentions and inspirations and where I feel so much of my self-work happens and so much of the origins of my magic, my heart magic, take place. It's kind of a cauldron of sorts of words and alchemy and oracle cards and synchronicities and all sorts of things, and so I really cherish that time and this past weekend when I sat down and looked at where do I want to be in a year from now. I have some ideas in mind of life changes I'd like to make, but I don't have anything big on my radar right now. I don't have anything huge that I'm trying to manifest. I don't have any big life transitions that are planned. I just laughed, I just realized, saying that that probably means some big things will happen this year that come out of nowhere. But that's life, right, we don't have control over it.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright : 3:06

And in terms of my personal development and personal growth, there's absolutely things I want to work on. I have creative projects that I want to work on, but I don't have some huge thing of manifest a career change or change in geography or anything like that. It's more of pointing my compass and the direction that I want to go, being mindful of how do I want to get myself to that direction and then really thinking about what are the small steps that I need to help take me there. And I often feel this is where people get stuck and it's such a pain point for a lot of people is we know where we want to go, we know where we are now and we cannot figure out what we need to bridge the gap, to get ourselves from one space to another. And oftentimes I think we fall into the trap of I don't have enough or I need more, the lack trap. And it goes something like if I had more time to figure it out, if I had more money, I could do this. If only I didn't have to X, then blank would be possible. And it's like we're looking for something that helps give us this, this bungee cord, this time warp, that if somehow we had whatever it is that goes into the blank in our lives that we feel that we need in order to create whatever change we want, then all of a sudden we are somehow going to more magically arrive at that change or it's going to happen a lot more easily for us and I've often found that just isn't so that we can work with what we have and take small steps that help move us in the direction of where we want to go, and instead of having a time warp or a bungee cord or some shortcut that allows us to get there quicker, it's really about building a ladder based on intention and measurable steps and continuing to put our intention out there into the Akashic field, the energy field, into our thought field, and then aligning with that intention and thinking. What small step can I take towards this today? And I found this principle like the older I get, the more I realize how well this has been serving me and my life.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright : 5:29

So I want to share a piece of writing with you today from Small Pearls, big Wisdom. That speaks to the idea of little deeds, of intention compound. That is the title of it, and this is applicable to anything that we're trying to do in our life, whether it is to create more good in the world or to move ourselves towards some kind of personal change that we're working on in our inner world or our outer circumstances. This is passage 339,. Little Deeds of Intention Compound. Speak good words and do kind things. Offer this as medicine for a world that needs healing balm. We have the gift of choosing our thoughts and words, so why not make them good ones that encourage love and show compassion for ourselves and others? Our small steps of courage and little deeds of intention compound. They offer the medicine of joy, transmutation and grace.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright : 6:30

In a world that can feel heavy and lost, every kind-hearted thought and endeavor contributes to the whole. What might seem paltry to you might mean the world to someone else. Share a smile, pick up a tiny piece of litter and do something good for the earth. Be mindful of an animal. Think a tree for standing tall. Do something warm-hearted for a fellow human. Walk on the earth with reverence, acknowledging all who came before you. Say a simple prayer. Look up at the heart of the sky, breathe in peace and imagine your energy leaving a trail of grace wherever you step. Today, a life of devotion and beauty is created when we take the ordinary and make it sacred through our intentions of goodness and care. Insist on magic and see the world open and possibilities and color Whatever you do. Do what you can Set an intention for light and make it count. Live your life in such a way as to leave no stone unturned for love.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright : 7:42

I really like the idea that when we can identify small achievable steps, things that we can do, it can add up to big change. And I think so many of us can often feel really overwhelmed by the velocity and speed that life moves and the amount of challenges in the world around us. Sometimes we get overwhelmed by the amount of challenges within ourselves and things that we are wanting to address and to change in our own personal life. So, whether it's in, like, the macrocosm of the world and impacting change in a bigger scale, or in our communities, in our family systems, our relationships, or whether it's in that microcosm of bringing it inward and bringing it into our heart and our inner work and our spiritual practices and lifestyle practices and and habits and all of that this idea that small steps add up to big gains feel so tested, tried and true to me, and I think there's something about taking that and identifying areas in our life where we can apply it and making it tangible and real for us. That helps empower us to not only create positive momentum in our life, but to see over time that those things do add up to a bigger picture.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright : 9:14

And I think that sometimes the answer to hopelessness or feeling overwhelmed by a situation or a challenge is just coming back to start where you're at and do what you can, and then we show up in the next moment and we do what we can, and we show up the next day and we do what we can. And it's really served me well over the years. To bring it back to the question of identifying target issues or challenges in my life or things that I'm working towards and really looking at well, what can I do about that right now? And sometimes taking it down into a very small micro step that I can take. I feel like sometimes for people, that's a part that can be hard to do, because I think sometimes people just think it's too small and really fall into this idea that it's not enough and that they should be doing more or that they should be asking more of themselves. And I think there's times that we might have a ton of motivation, but if we are making a effort towards something, then hopefully what we want to create is something sustainable and something that we can continue to do so that we're building good habits into our life and building good mindsets and integrating into our being. This idea of this is the kind of person that I want to be, and so these are things I just organically do, and so if we're thinking about being sustainable, then usually smaller is better.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright : 10:48

Big movements, big changes, big efforts they're not always sustainable for us, and there's times that we feel called to some kind of big impact or big change, but on a day-to-day basis, when we are looking at how do we take ordinary moments in our lives, how do we just take a ordinary week where nothing extraordinary or big is happening, and how do we move our energy and impact change under those circumstances? It's the small things that create sustainability for ourselves, and so I often think that a really good place to start is with picking just one or two areas in our life whether that's our internal world or something external outside of us that we feel called to work towards or change or want to set a goal around, and then picking one or two small things that we can do with that, something that you might almost say, oh, that's too easy, I should challenge myself, but let's say, whatever that easy thing is, you're not already doing it or you're not being consistent with it, and so that's a really good place to start. If it sounds too easy, then I think we're on the right track, because we can always add in more. We can always say I'm going to make an this week, write down three to five things let's say three every night on a little scrap of paper, three things that I'm grateful for, and I'm going to start a gratitude practice and I'm going to do that for the next week or the next 30 days, and we can always add more to it. We can always make it bigger, we can expand it, we can grow from it.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright : 12:40

But I think it's easier, once we've started momentum, to pick up that momentum and keep going than it is to do too much too fast, burn ourselves out and then have to re-find our motivation and our momentum again. This is why so many people, when they make resolutions and the new year, find, after not following through, that it's really hard to get going again. It's that impetus, the origin of finding where is that energy going to come from? And there are some changes in our lives, some gestures that we might make, grand gestures that require a little bit more rocket fuel to get ourselves going and kick us into orbit and then, once we get there, we can go a little bit more into maintenance mode. But I often think that with most changes that we're trying to make, it is really about small, measurable, achievable things, and we build from there.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright : 13:36

So in a world where everything anymore feels like too much, too big, too extreme, everything feels epic or huge or the most amazing thing ever. It's like the world itself feels like this hyperbole of exaggeration and our answer to the too muchness of all of it isn't not enough. The answer to that extremity often is to make it small, make it simple, make it grounded, make it count and know that, just because something might not produce a quantity right away, the quality of an intention is extremely powerful. Quality of an intention is extremely powerful. There's a quote in one of my favorite movies, cloud Atlas, where there is I'm going to paraphrase this a little bit because I didn't write it down so I probably won't get it exactly right but there's a scene at the end where a father challenges his son and says like what do you think you're doing with this? What possible difference do you think you're going to make? You're just a drop in this vast ocean and he says what is an ocean? But a multitude of drops, and I've always loved that right.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright : 14:49

All of us is a drop that composes this bigger whole and even though we might not be able to change the whole ocean, we can change our drop. We can make changes in our immediacy and we can start those inside of ourselves. So there's a lot of power in that and my encouragement is to simply pick one or two things and figure out one or two small things that you can do, like once you found something that you want to work on, pick one or two small things and see how it feels and build from there. Keep it simple, keep it small, keep it manageable. Even something huge like transmuting trauma or something really heavy that somebody might be working on from a psychological standpoint, we can still find small ways each day to show up for ourselves and to show up for our wounds and to show up for healing and to take responsibility for our personhood and for our growth and for trying to create a healthier mindset or move ourselves towards wellness in some capacity.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright : 15:58

We can always work on something in our spiritual walk, in our relationships and spreading kindness in the world. There's always something. So pick what calls to you. Keep it simple, take actionable steps and see what grows from there. Little deeds of intention compound. Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. I will be back next week with an all new episode. Have an amazing week and, as always, be well, be loved, be you and be magic.

Intro/Outro: 16:38

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