Surrender, Intention, and Truth

Over the New Year period a friend of mine shared a practice she has seen on social media. The practice involved writing 13 intentions on paper, folding them and placing them into a container and randomly pulling one each day to burn. On January 2nd, one intention would remain and that would be your intention for the year. I want to share how that process unfolded for me.

I didn’t do it perfectly. Some days I burned none. Other days I burned two or three. Eventually, I burned all but one. The process itself became a lived lesson in surrender, trust, and letting go of control—qualities I’ve been exploring deeply this season.

My word for the year is Truth. It came through very clearly and has been present since a retreat in Bali last October, where I was initiated into a personal mantra by my teacher, Bhairav, from the Shivoham lineage.

For a time, I practised this mantra formally by sitting for an hour each day. Recently, that has softened into a quieter practice—repeating the mantra during the day when I remember, and before sleep. As I write this post in mid January I have returned to my formal sitting practice of one hour a day.

When Truth Drops In

While on retreat, we were asked to set an intention. In the past, I often struggled with this—my mind would race, I’d feel pressure, like I was doing it wrong. For the last few years, my intention has been simple: Love. It’s a ‘felt’ intention instead of a mind intention and it has felt easy.

This time, once the noise of my mind settled, something clear dropped in: to know the truth.

When Bhairav asked what kind of mantra I wanted, I said, “Financial security and knowing the truth.” When told I could only choose one, there was no hesitation.

“Truth,” I said. And it felt right.

The Intention That Remained

The final intention—the one I did not burn—that was meant to guide the year remained. I noticed the urge to photograph all the intentions so I would know what I was leaving behind 😂 … and I didn’t.

I trusted the process.

The remaining intention read:

“Continue to know, love, and honour the truth.”

And there it was again. Quiet. Clear. Steady.