But what are you doing to BE a good friend? This is the questions my PE mentor Dian C. would ask students who complained about not having a partner or friend in class. I have started to ask this as well. What are you doing to BE a good partner?

We could ask a variation to teachers: What are you doing to create the energy you wish for from students?

Yesterday I presented at the Oregon SHAPE (Society for Health and Physical Educators) state conference. My session was on the neuroscience of stress, mindfulness, and yoga. After reviewing basic brain structure, the stress response and its health outcomes (hint: most non-communicable diseases are related to stess), and how minfulness practices help offset stress, I touched on mirror neurons, and how humans are wired to pick up on and amplify the emotions of others. Whatever we bring into the room as teachers, it will often be reflected back to us. So we must ask ourselves, what are we doing to create the mindfulness we hope to instill in students?

All of this relates to Sankalpa, the yoga concept often translated as intention. I taugtht this concept to third, fourth, and fifth grade students this week. We are setting our course for yoga in this new school year, and I like to begin by having them set intentions. We spend a class period understanding what intentions are, and posting our intentions all over the yoga studio.

What do you want more of in your life? I ask them. Peace? Happiness, Patience? What do you want to create in this space? What energy to you want to share in yoga? And what would you like to attract?

Once we set our intention — whether it’s for the year, for a week, month or day, or for a single yoga class or interactions — the universe aligns to that theme, like a compass needle pointing north. I know this sounds a little woowoo, like something straight out of the pages of The Secret, but it works. I have been setting intentions for decades and I am always amazed at how, once I commit to the idea without grasping, that which I seek seems to appear before me without my having to try too hard.

It reminds me of particle physics, in which scientists’ observation changes whether a certain particle appears. Our thoughts are powerful. Our thoughts become our words, which become our actions. Therefore, as the Bhagavad Gita highlights, what we think is of supreme importance.

I’ve been playing around with a metaphor: That of a projector. When we set an intention, it is as if we’re flipping on the projector switch. Somehow, that beam of light (the light of our own trueheart intelligence) seems to draw in the images we have envisoned. It appears that the projector is simply relaying, but we are actually creating the image of the future with the act of projecting what we want.

Note: I’m not talking about cravings or Bachnalian pleasure kind of want. I mean the kind of heart calling that we yearn for on a much deeper level. Breaking down the word Sankalpa reveals what I mean. San means heart intention, and kalpa means the law I will follow above all other laws. So when we set an intention, a true target our heart is asking us to aim for, we choose how we will show up, what we wish to focus on. The universe hears us and naturally brings corresponding vibes to us. Again, I know this sounds woowoo but I encourage you to try it before you scoff too forcefully.

How many of us take that breath, pause, or day at the spa to listen to our hearts and decide on what futures we want?

The conference I was at ended with a fun intention-setting exercise for PE teachers. The session leader threw out dozens of rubber duckies and invited us to take one with us. (The whole session was based on the jeep ducking phenomenon. We multiple dozens of rubber duckie-based activities.) On our duck, we wrote one word for the year, to steer our work. I know that little duckie will keep me going on some of the hardest days this year. And having worked with intentions and manifestation in the past, I know the word I wrote (devotion) will weave its way deeply into my work. I look forward to sharing how that comes about as the year progresses.