An intentional lifestyle is a holistic way of life that brings more awareness to your values, beliefs and things that are important to you. There was a time in my life where I felt like I was running on autopilot. I felt like my days were very rushed and there was always something I needed to get done. It felt like there wasn’t enough time in the day. Can you relate? I knew I needed to make several changes so I could live a more intentional life. Once I started incorporating these habits, I felt a shift. I was much more happy and I was moving into the direction of where I wanted my life to be. Simply put, more intentional in all areas of my life.
Oftentimes, people think intentional living means everything needs to be perfect. That’s not true. Here’s an example: I intentionally have a planner to help guide my day. That does not mean my day is going to be perfect. It simply means I have a direction for where I want my day to go. Unexpected things might happen and that’s okay. But I feel more prepared by setting my intentions and planning out my day. So now that you have an understanding of what it means to be more intentional, let’s get into the specifics of 6 habits of an intentional lifestyle.
1). Planning the day
I have always been a big planner because it helps my days flow better. A practice that I started years ago was waking up several hours before my kids, to plan out my day. I saw a major shift when I started intentionally planning out my day. Check out the blog post 10 Morning Routine Habits.
Pro Tip: Utilize Sundays to plan out your week ahead. Write your goals and prioritize what’s most important for the week ahead. Also, every day focus on waking up at least an extra hour before your kids or before you go to work. Waking up early and being productive sets the tone for a good day.
2). Slowing Down
We live in a very fast paced world. There was a time in my life where I felt like I was always rushing to do everything. I would wake up and my day started off rushing to get dressed for work. Being intentional requires you to slow down in a lot of areas of your life. This does not necessarily mean you slow down and become lazy. It simply means that you plan out your day and you become more focused on the present moment.
3). Define your Values
I believe the core of living an intentional lifestyle is defining your values. We live in such a fast paced world filled with so much social media that we can forget about our true values. We start to live like other people because that’s all we see on tv, movies, and social media. I encourage you to dig deep and get back to doing the things you love the most. Define your values and what’s most important to you.
Pro Tip: Create a list of 5 values you want to live by and practice those daily.
4). Declutter your Home
This is one of my favorite intentional habits. I practice decluttering my home monthly. For several years, I have focused on living a more minimalist lifestyle. It definitely takes time to transition to a minimalistic home, but it’s worth it. Every month I will go through my home and pick out things that I no longer use or things that have no purpose to donate. Check out the Netflix documentary The Minimalists: Less is Now. I’m sure it will help you understand the importance of decluttering your home.
Pro Tip: Schedule out 1 week every month to declutter your home. Each day you will focus on decluttering one room. Example, Monday, focus on the kitchen and Tuesday you can focus on your living room. Get a plastic bag and put everything you don’t need in it to donate to Goodwill or a local charity. Also, for things in your home that might be of a higher value that you don’t need anymore, you can sell to places like Facebook Marketplace, Plato’s Closet, Once Upon a Child, etc.
5). Self Care Days
You cannot pour from an empty cup and you cannot live an intentional life if you don’t practice self care. Self care is different for everyone. Self care for some people is going out to get their nails and hair done, for others it might look like taking a hot bubble bath and listening to music. The thing that’s most important is that you feel rejuvenated and refreshed after your self care time.
Pro Tip: Schedule in self care at least 1x a week. Communicate with your family to let them know this is your time for self care.
6). Set Boundaries
It’s okay to say no. Living an intentional life means being very aware of your values, beliefs, and things that are important to you. There was a time in my life where I always said yes to everyone. This became so draining. So I made a goal to set boundaries and start saying no to things that do not serve me.
Pro Tip: If setting boundaries is something that you struggle with, every week you can evaluate how you did with setting boundaries and saying no to things that do not serve you. Then the following week you can work harder on being intentional with those boundaries.
In conclusion, which intentional habit stood out to you the most. What habits do you plan on implementing this year? My hope is that you have been inspired by this blog post to live a more intentional lifestyle.
XO,
Ashley
