PYL: A Practice In Intentional Living

Almost three years ago I participated in a group coaching course called ‘The Art Of Manifesting’. This 8 week online program was led by the brilliant Juliana Gambrell and included weekly calls, homework, and peer connection. I was paired up with Jamie, out of NYC and we began an intentional living practice together called pre-paving.

What is pre-paving?

In the simplest words it is “intentional daily living”. Every morning Jamie and I would exchange emails with each other writing out our vision for the day. At the end of the day we would “recap” our day sharing how it matched/or didn’t match what we had written about what we desired for our day. Here’s how this enhanced my life:

• It got me thinking before my day even happened about what I WANTED to happen that day.
• It kept me thinking throughout the day about what I had written and whether I was staying on task for what I WANTED to happen during the day.
• It engaged me in tracking at the end of the day how I had/or hadn’t participated in activities that supported me in living my best life.

Often the practice worked like a self-fulfilling prophecy and what I wanted to happen (or better) manifested. Sometimes I would be far off the mark and yet I would learn a great deal from looking back on what, where, and why things became misaligned from my greater vision. This daily engagement could be really difficult when I was feeling uninspired, in the general dumpity dumps, or had SO much to do that sending a morning email felt overwhelming. However, it immensely changed my life.  

After the 8 week course was over we didn’t stop and in fact we asked the others in our group to join us. Leela came on board with us. It has been almost three years and we are still participating in this intentional living practice together.

After all this time, I have even more examples of how it has enhanced my life.

• I have two dear and fabulous friends that live in in other parts of the country but I share ALL parts of my life with, and they with me.
• I have been able to watch the both of them grow, transform, and blossom on a daily basis.
• They have been there to pull me through difficult times (there have been a lot of them), encourage my growth, and celebrate my accomplishments-regularly pointing out successes that I would have looked over and not recognized myself.

I often daydream about being 80 years old and still sharing these daily emails with my ‘Power Of Three’ sisters. This loving and compassionate practice has been an integral part of me stepping deeper into my passion for helping girls feel and be empowered with the ‘i am initiative’ and these girls in my life are what friendship, love and support amongst girlfriends is meant to feel like.

Check out my beautiful girlfriends.

Jamie Askin- Founder of Good Food.

Leela Somaya- Founder of Succulent, Savvy, Soul-ful business.

I hope you have the opportunity to share such meaningful friendships in your life. If you’d like to get started on your own paving practice follow these steps:

1. Begin your day by writing 2 sentences and up to1 paragraph about how you’d like to feel and what you’d like to experience throughout the day. Use present tense language (I am) rather then future tense (I will). ie, Today is a high energy day for me. I accomplish everything on my to-do list. I practice gratitude through the day and feel abundance surrounding me.
2. Invite someone you trust and love to join you. This person is most likely interested in living their best life and actively seeking ways to be inspired + be held accountable for whole living.
3. At the end of the day “look over” your morning entry and check it against what did happen during your day. Make adjustments and notes on how you can live more closely to your highest intention or celebrate your awesome day of living on purpose. Either way you win out from this practice.

Have a beautiful, and intentional Friday, xoxo LVA-