Embrace the Flower Moon: Set Intentions and Achieve SMART Goals with the New Moon Journal

By Dennis Bluthardt at Namaste Studios

Named for the abundant explosion of the flowers, May’s Flower Moon is a symbol of growth and renewal: the time to look around, see what’s blooming (literally and figuratively!)—and recognize your progress and potential. We also wax as the moon waxes (or builds from a thin crescent to a full moon). We are bursting with the same new, vibrant energy and fresh, hopeful perspective. People, just like the flowers blooming below us, choose this time to reach powerfully through the bark of their obstacles and greet the world with a chosen attitude and intention.

The master’s tool for this standardized experience in schools has taken the form of the New Moon Journal by Namaste Studios. Namaste has made this process great with easy templates to follow. They also ensure the journal helps create points where you should be tailoring your education to what you want, though the highly appreciated How to Use page is helpful.

It’s basic. It’s time to brainstorm, chart, and write out SMART GOALS as it stands for (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals and goals for the moon cycle. This provides fun, ritualistic experiences that can be appreciated more maturely. It is using our minds and imaginations to create magic in our routine, sterile public spaces. Students probably don’t do either of these.

Understanding the Flower Moon

The Flower Moon, or May Moon, appears when flowers are abundant in many parts of the world. While this is, historically, when different cultures moved from spring into summer, many other cultures also assigned this moon as the Flower Moon for other practical reasons. For example, many indigenous tribes used the changing of moons as notations for moving from one part of their world to another, promising themselves a renewal of life and the vibrant colors and taste of what life brought back, between moons. As such, the full moon is a good reminder of the changing moods of life and the world along with it.

When this moon comes out, it tends to serve as a kind of personal reminder that life is very much about growth, and the ability to try to see ahead of you is a good way to work out how you plan to get from A to B, and so on. Make two lists: A) on the left-hand side, from top to bottom, write down a number that identifies your age as far as you can go, and then add around sixteen years. Now, B) on the right side of the page, against the list of ‘ages’, write down what you hope to happen in those years up to 60, and then what you expect to happen in those years.

As a short point, the Flower or May Moon is a good reminder that you should reconnect with nature. Planet Earth needs all the life you people can put back into it. On a personal level, seeing the changes in nature will keep you motivated and on a long-sighted path regarding your journey.

Setting Intentions with the New Moon Journal

The Flower Moon is a time of renewal and growth, a perfect time to set intentions for the time you want to have from now.

To help facilitate this growth, flower moon intentions are a beautiful practice to write in your journal. Having a place to write out what you want to manifest in the coming months is a great way to promote focus, help you get clarity about your specific desires and intentions, and give you some quiet time to yourself, some personal “reflection time.” Bonus: It’s a beautiful way to work with “moon magic” and connect to the earth.

During this time, find a quiet place to relax and reflect. Start journaling out some thoughts about what you want to manifest. This can be anything from growth you want to see within yourself, how you want to cultivate joy, the types of relationships you’d like to foster, to what kind of success you dream of in your business. Put some specifics to it for a clear vision. Instead of keeping it vague with “I want to be happy,” mark that up, and specify what you want. “I intend to cultivate joy in the coming spring by making weekly barbecues a thing again to spend more time with the people who make me smile the most.” Something like that. Get yourself a fun vision.

On an entirely new column, put a big mark over the whole side for IMMEDIATE action steps, the step you will apply AS SOON AS that moon magic’s in the sky, and hit the GROUND RUNNING. And then on the following line, note down the steps they’ll lead to. Right. What else.

Creating SMART Goals Aligned with the Flower Moon

You can set your goals by setting the SMART criteria: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. As you develop goals reflecting Flower Moon’s energy, consider what the acronym SMART means.

Be specific: Be very clear about your aims. For example, don’t say, “I’d love to get into better shape.” You might rephrase it: “I will work out for 30 minutes, five days per week.”

Measurable: You must be able to track your progress. For example, instead of saying, “I want to read more books,” you might say, “I aim to read one book each month.”

Achievable: It isn’t entirely realistic to go from 0 to 100. If you don’t exercise at all, for example, but want to get into shape, don’t aim for an exercise routine that is hours per day, seven days a week. You don’t want to set yourself up for failure.

Relevant: Your goal should address your concern. If you are looking for a career change, a goal that will prepare you for an interview would be “I will read one how-to career-change book per month.”

Time-bound: It’s essential to keep it moving, even when you don’t see any progress. If possible, impose a deadline. (For example, I will read the book I mentioned before by a particular date and time.)

Practicing Affirmations and Gratitude

Affirmations work by instilling positive beliefs, which help develop the mental environment that aligns with our vision for the life we want. These should be specific, positive, and present tense. 

Once these basics are down, we can use these tools in multiple ways, such as visualization and scripting exercises. A vision board can help reiterate the affirming beliefs we write on our scripting pages. I use the same affirmation for different tools to play off each other. Having everything revolve around one (or a few) central intentions and goals is the most effective for me.

Crafting a good affirmation involves a few essential points. I make sure all my affirmations are specific, yet able to cover a variety of desirable outcomes. Additionally, I look for them to be positive and present tense. An affirmation that says, “I am successful and inviting more opportunities” is better than “I want to be successful,” simply because it’s more intriguing to the mind, visualizing and feeling like I’m already in the scenario. It’s not too different from what Conor would say!

Gratitude can directly enhance other self-love practices. Aside from the usual exercises for which gratitude is good, the ones that I tie to affirmations, aka the material I have at the forefront of my mind when I visualize or script a separate journal for selfish reasons, include specific affirmations. When done concurrently every day, there are trim, material, “proofs” of magic in me making things happen. I write down five things per event, most of which tie directly to my bigger picture affirmations (of what material success looks like to me).

Releasing What No Longer Serves You

Releasing negative patterns and beliefs you hold about yourself and the world around you is necessary for personal growth and emotional health.

• You may have picked up harmful patterns and beliefs from experiences you’ve had in your past.
• Perhaps they’ve been handed to you by society’s views of “shoulds” and “should nots.”
• Regardless, most of us keep these harmful patterns running in the background of our lives, unaware of how detrimental they are to our overall life force.

The first step in challenging these harmful patterns is recognizing they exist in your life. Denial and avoiding what is real only prolongs our suffering. But choosing to see these patterns for what they are allows us to open up to healing and positive transformation.

Guided meditations have become essential in releasing negative patterns and beliefs. These practices might involve a lot of visualization, you may be asked to visualize your negative beliefs as physical objects to visualize these harmful things exiting your being. Paired with breathwork, combining the two helps create inner peace and tranquility.

Grounding practices are essential. It’s easy to get lost in thoughts about our beliefs and how they’ve manifested into our life experience, for better or worse. Techniques involving the breath can serve as a spiritual grounding ritual, and basics like yoga or walking barefoot on natural surfaces will help you ground your energy.

Releasing negative patterns, you currently have about life and yourself, is a lifelong process of spiritual practice. By integrating these tools and grounding practices into your life, you can hold energy that doesn’t allow negativity to exist. You are creating harmony with yourself and the universe, a state of interconnectedness. You are allowing yourself to be who you are meant to be, raising your potential for the fulfilling life you are meant to live.

Energy Healing and Reflection

The Flower Moon, which usually falls in May, represents renewal and a reset of the previous season’s state of dormancy (winter for most of us), making it an ideal time for energy healing practices.

During the Flower Moon phase, these acts can include meditation, crystal healing, sound bathing, or any other healing modality that aligns with your season of spring—the season of vibrancy and new life, and all its surrounding energies that are to come. The Flower Moon is a super potent time of the year for you to sit with your intentions and build a dedicated, sacred practice (going inwards) for collection and receiving:

• What is it you desire to see (experience) for yourself?

Why?

What is the highest (best) vision you see for yourself?

What spiritual lifestyle choice complements you and enhances your intention (practice) experience?

What is your personal rated level?

• Psychological
• Emotional
• Physical

A spiritual person is a reflector; don’t forget your magic mirror next time you scale that incredible challenge with your upgraded accessories.

Amplify your experiential and emotional levels each evening with your sacred Flower Moon intention journal.

May’s Full Moon, typically observed as the Flower Moon, likely received this name as a nod to the flowers that bloom during this time and the renewal of life. An infectious “newness” is in the air, and the energy is ripe for intention-setting and journaling. Every Full Moon feels like an invitation to level up, as this lunar phase is the most “evolved” version of the New Moon. After focusing your manifestation goals in your New Moon Journal, you can review your manifestations and release what no longer aligns with your intentions.

These personal aspirations will redefine meaning through consistent self-reflection, and you will see that all roads lead to self-discovery. Every intention you set will act as a beacon, illuminating a path for your subconscious mind to give form to new aspirations.

Open your intentions to this new level and learn to cultivate an even deeper connection with yourself. The New Moon Journal is now available on Amazon! Begin your journey of self-discovery today and set those creative intentions in motion. As the Full/Flower Moon phase approaches, let your intentional mind focus on the “what-ifs?”

What if this manifestation comes true?

What if I can awaken my subconscious to become more aware of my manifestations?

What is holding my manifestations back from becoming my reality in my future Self?

To learn more, visit our Moon Journal Blogs at Namaste Studios or buy a New Moon Journal on Amazon or our Namaste Studios Bookstore. 

For a Limited Time:  Get your NEW MOON JOURNAL for a massive discount at Amazon here!

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