One of my favorite forms of magic is combining my mind, my heart, and my will to form a powerful intention. I am very careful with the words I say, think, and write, because I believe in the power of words. I believe the words we choose create our lives. When we say a lot of negative things, they can create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Now, I don’t believing in blaming people for the bad things that happen, as if they attracted it to themselves by using negative words. I don’t think there is anything I did or said that caused me to get breast cancer in 2010. We all have many good and bad experiences in our lives, and there is no way we can ward off all negative experiences with the power of positive thinking. Words won’t protect us from all tragedy, but the words we choose to tell our own stories can be healing, loving, and wise. The words we use to tell the stories of our experiences and the words we use to wish upon our future are very important. In some ways, it is like all words are magical words.

It can be a very potent practice to set an intention every day during morning meditation. Intentions gain power as we repeat them throughout the day. For example, set your intention while you are still lying in bed in the morning, and then repeat it during morning meditation, in your regular journal or bullet journal, and while you are commuting to work.

One of the places from which I get the words for my intentions is my daily tarot practice. I interpret the cards to apply to whatever is going on in my life or in my mind, and then, if I can come up with a good message, I set an intention from those cards. Here is an example of three intentions I was inspired to create from my tarot practice:

“I don’t have to explain or justify living by my values. I am free to be as I am.”

“Trust myself and trust the universe.”

“Move in the direction that inspires me and know I can manifest it in reality.”

I invite you to try this powerful practice this week and set a positive intention for yourself, carefully choosing your words, using your heart, mind, and will and connecting to a part of yourself and the universe that wants the best for you.