Beyond Resolutions,
Setting Spiritual Intentions
By Nhien Vuong
- Nhien Vuong
Beyond Resolutions,
Setting Spiritual Intentions
by Nhien Vuong
Resolutions tend to hold us hostage.
Spiritual intentions can set us free.
January is a month when many of us choose to set our intentions and priorities for the upcoming calendar year. If we’ve been on a conscious journey for a while now, however, we’ve come to learn that setting New Year’s resolutions doesn’t typically serve us. More often than not, resolutions often leave us feeling heavy and inadequate, painfully aware of how we regularly miss the mark as that which we resolved at the outset of the year becomes another superego-prison by the end, keeping us chained to worldly notions of not-enoughness.
Over the past two decades of spiritually mentoring individuals and groups and, of course, navigating this journey (however imperfectly) myself, I’ve found a few helpful tips and insights for those who seek a “new year” process that lends itself to greater spiritual connection and freedom from the prison of our own Enneagram Type-driven egoic agendas.
I sum it up in 3 steps. When it comes to intention setting, remember to (1) dream, (2) discern, and (3) devote.
1. Dream: Dream the highest dream. Set the loftiest spiritual intention you can fathom.
I believe that most of us vision too myopically when we set our intentions. Perhaps we scarcely dare hope to sleep better at night, perhaps we pray to have just a bit more peace each day from our own reactivity, or perhaps we’d be content with just a more harmonious or loving relationship with one of our family members.
Don’t get me wrong. These are all wonderful desires! However, to me, these are still short of what in Unity we call the “Kingdom of God” aka a consciousness of oneness. In fact, when we want or pray for–or RESOLVE–one thing more than another, we can actually limit the maximal expression of Spirit in our hearts and lives. We make idols of that thing or situation that we’re wanting and thus can actually obscure the light of Spirit.
Right now, why not set a heartfelt intention to prioritize your conscious awakening and the dynamic, living realization of wholeness and oneness?
What happens when instead of saying: “I’ll practice the Presence after [fill in the many many blanks] to make sure I have X,Y, and Z,” you set your intention to be devoted to spiritual awakening above all else?
From a Unity perspective, this is what is meant by the Biblical teaching, which says, in essence, “Seek first the Kingdom. All else will be added.” (Mt 6:33, paraphrased)
Too often, we attend to the “all else” that our Ennea-Type structures demand we prioritize, hoping we’ll somehow run into the Kingdom at a temporary meditative “rest stop” along our otherwise ego-directed way.
It might help to begin by noticing what that “all else” is. The ego’s voice might sound like this:
- “When I figure ABC out…”
- “After I help XYZ . . .”
- “If I try this new course, method, teacher, or approach, then . . . .”
Recognize that those things we seek in the world of form offer clues to, even while obscuring, the essence of that which we are truly seeking–the experience we think the situation, object, person, or condition will give us.
Consider setting a spiritual intention that feels aligned with your essential, divine nature.
2. Discern: Discern the important differences between setting a spiritual intention, on the one hand, and establishing goals or resolutions, on the other.
As you begin to let yourself vision a larger, higher spiritual intention, it’s important to clarify the differences between a spiritual intention and a goal or resolution (even a spiritually-minded goal or resolution).
An intention is a guiding principle, rather than a particular worldly outcome or goal. An intention has an outer impact but is cultivated in the inner world–in the realm of consciousness. An intention is not at core about what you do but involves the heart and soul by which you do it.
Unlike goals or resolutions, intentions can be fully manifest in every moment along the journey. Intentions are always most impactful not when we’re focused on the past or the future but when we’re present in the here and now.
An intention is like a compass needle that guides our progress and helps us instantly to know when along life’s journey we have gotten off track. Reaffirming our intention and making present-moment decisions from knowing your intention as your “true north,” can help you to live in greater alignment with your inner, spiritual truth.
Perhaps your intention this new year is that simple and powerful and you might affirm for yourself:
My heart’s intention is to live from my inner truth.
What if all other questions about your life, such as your career, home, or relationship questions, be answered by contemplating and living out the answer to the most important question. I’ll ask it again:
What is your truest and highest intention?
3. Devote: After affirming your heart and soul's highest intention, devote yourself to it.
Personally, my highest intention is to know my oneness with Spirit–to embody Love.
Do I find myself lost in the weeds of my life sometimes or bogged down by fear? You bet!
But even and perhaps especially in those moments, I can bring my intention for Love back up, and Love itself can comfort, nurture, and guide my way.
In our spiritual journey, we’ll certainly lose our way. This apparent faltering is not fatal. It’s actually a vital part of our spiritual practice. How we respond when we realize we’ve gone astray can often be the catalyst for our greatest healing, transformation, and realizations.
Notice how you’ve gotten busy or distracted or preoccupied with what you believed were your values and priorities in the past.
Use Enneagram wisdom to help you identify how you began to fall into Enneagram Type patterns around
- seeing life as a perpetual challenge or battle (e8),
- self-forgetting (e9),
- self-criticism (e1),
- repressing your legitimate needs (e2)
- compartmentalizing your authentic feelings (e3),
- melancholy or self-pitying (e4),
- going down intellectual rabbit holes (e5),
- anxiously walking in circles of fear or cynicism (e6), or
- chasing short-term pleasure over long-term fulfillment (e7).
We can do any of these, no matter what our Types! But Type can certainly increase the chances of a certain egoic patterning.
We can be more fully spiritually devoted when we’re willing to admit the ways we let ourselves stray–the ways we get routinely distracted. As a gesture of devotion, we can creatively craft an infrastructure to support less avoidance and more wholehearted devotion.
For instance, I know that as a Type 3, if I make something part of my work, I’m more likely to do it. So to live a life connected more fully to Spirit, I’ve chosen to leave a lucrative law career to devote my time and energy to a vocation that actually fosters my inner life and nurtures my connection to Divine Love.
When I left the practice of law in 2012, I remember thinking: I want to make my life a living prayer. Amazingly, this feels like what my life IS today–and increasingly so each day. That systemic life choice helped to foster a beautiful feedback loop. More and more, I work centered in Love, and my work offers me an increasingly depthful, beautiful experience of Sacred Love.
As I continue to grow in Love, I also find I’m choosing different friendships–friendships that are now more and more intimate and honest, where I feel the blessing of being increasingly authentic and making spaces for others to be more fully themselves as well. Again, this is an intention, not a goal, so Love is not the end. It is increasingly every part of the journey. It’s about being in our Evolving Enneagram Contemplative Practices & the Enneagram community not merely as a facilitator but as a participant, letting myself be known deeply and steadily over time and letting myself be loved even when I have failed myself and find myself wanting, as I’m humanly inclined to do.
I let Love support me in living my intention more fully each day–and perhaps this is the crux of the difference between an intention and a goal or resolution:
I don’t just set an intention. As an act of spiritual devotion, I surrender myself to it.
About the Author
Nhien is an international presenter, writer, and retreat leader who specializes in mentoring individuals and groups from diverse wisdom traditions around the world. A Unity minister and certified Enneagram professional, Nhien is the founder of Evolving Enneagram, a community-based interspiritual hub “where contemplation meets the Enneagram.” Nhien is the author of The Enneagram of the Soul: A 40-day Spiritual Companion for the 9 Types (Hampton Roads, April 7, 2025).
