It is my intention to: live a stress-free, tranquil life.

Fulfilling this intention to live a stress-free and tranquil life is a way of manifesting your grandest destiny. It seems to me that what our Source had in mind when we were intended here is for us to have happy and joyous experiences of life on Earth.

When you’re in a state of joy and happiness, you’ve returned to the pure, creative, blissful, nonjudgmental joy that intention truly is. Your natural state—the state from which you were created—is that feeling of well-being. How do we return to, and access, this natural state?

You were created from a Source that is peaceful and joyful. When you’re in that state of exuberant joy, you’re at peace with everything. This is what intended you here and what you’re determined to match up with in your thoughts, feelings, and actions. In a state of joy, you feel fulfilled and inspired in all facets of your life. In short, gaining freedom from anxiety and stress is a pathway to rejoicing with the field of intention. The moments of your life, which you spend being happy and joyful and allowing yourself to be fully alive and on purpose, are the times when you’re aligned with the all-creating universal mind of intention.

To fulfill the intention to be joyful, to live a stress-free and tranquil life, you must become aware of the need to activate thought responses that match your intention. These new responses will become habitual, and replace your old habit of responding in stress-producing ways. When you examine stress-producing events, you always have a choice: Do I stay with thoughts that produce stress within me, or do I work to activate thoughts that make stress impossible? Here’s an easy tool that will help you replace the habit of choosing anxiety and stress.

Five magic words: I want to feel good!

Your emotions are a guidance system informing you of whether or not you’re creating resistance to your intentions. Feeling bad lets you know that you’re not connected to the power of intention. Your intention here is to be tranquil and stress free. When you feel good, you’re connected to your intentions, regardless of what goes on around you or what others expect you to feel. If there’s a war going on, you still have the option to feel good. If the economy goes further into the toilet, you have the option to feel good. In the event of any catastrophe, you can still feel good. Feeling good isn’t an indication that you’re callous, indifferent, or cruel—it’s a choice you make. Say it out loud: I want to feel good! Then convert it to: I intend to feel good. Feel the stress, and then send it love and respect. You must be to your feelings as your Source is to you.

Many events will transpire in which your conditioned response is to feel bad. Be aware of these outer incidents, and say the five magic words: I want to feel good. In that precise moment, ask yourself if feeling bad is going to make the situation any better. You’ll discover that the only thing that feeling bad accomplishes in response to outer situations is to plummet you into anxiety, despair, depression, and of course, stress. Instead, ask yourself in that moment what thought you can have that will make you feel good.

When you discover that it’s responding with kindness and love to the bad feeling (which is quite different from wallowing in it), you’ll begin experiencing a shift in your emotional state. Now you’re in vibrational harmony with your Source, since the power of intention knows only peace, kindness, and love.

This newly activated thought, which allows you to feel good, may only last a few moments, and you might go back to your previous way of processing unpleasant events. Also treat that old way of processing with respect, love, and understanding, but remember that it’s your ego-self trying to protect you from its perception of danger. Any stress signal is a way of alerting you to say the five magic words I want to feel good. Stress wants your attention! By saying the five magic words and extending love to your bad feelings, you’ll have begun the process of fulfilling your stated intention of being tranquil and stress free. Now you can practice activating these thoughts in the toughest of moments, and before long, you’ll be living the message offered to all of us in the book of Job: “You will decide on a matter and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways”[Job 22:28]. The word light in this biblical reference means that you’ll have the assistance of the divine mind of intention once you decide on a matter that is consistent with that light.

I assure you that your decision to feel good is a way of connecting to Spirit. It isn’t an indifferent response to events. By feeling good, you become an instrument of peace, and it’s through this channel that you eradicate problems.