By Leo Babauta

There’s a part of the Buddhist path that I’ve been studying in my life, called “right intention,” that I’ve been finding to be really powerful.

To put it simply, right intention is about having your actions and words come from a place of kindness and compassion, rather than having the intention to harm, be unkind, or abuse. Sounds good, right? Most of us want to live this way.

But to work with this deeply, you have to really examine your intentions behind your actions. And as you do so, it might bring to light the actions and words that aren’t aligned with kind intention.

For example:

  • You get into an argument with a loved one because you want to prove that you’re right.

  • You start honking your horn at a rude driver, because their driving made you angry.

  • You start flaming people online who are part of a political movement that infuriates you.

  • You smoke or put harmful foods in your body, because it feels good.

None of the above makes you a bad person — and in fact, maybe you don’t have the intention to harm someone when you take these actions. We might notice that they’re simply a way to deal with our stressful emotions. But it’s possible that none of them come from an intention to be kind.

As we examine these actions, we might ask ourselves, “What would I do here, from the intention to be kind?” And the action might be very different. With this clarity, we might then change our actions, and feel the kind intention in our hearts. We’re transformed, and so are our actions.

Working with kind intention means bringing a lot of awareness to our lives, throughout the day. I set reminders 4 times a day, and when they go off, I try to reflect on my recent actions and their intentions.

The idea isn’t to beat yourself up when you notice an action that’s not kind. That’s just adding more unkindness to the fire. Instead, we might be kind to ourselves … but also try feeling kindness towards the other person. And then start to act from that intention.

If you work with kind intention, it is transformative. Not easy. And it doesn’t come with any rewards, other than the reward of feeling kindness in your heart.