Intention | @caroline-cavanagh | The Anxiety Alchemist

17 Jul 2026 · 1 min

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1:20

Caroline Cavanagh breaks down intention as inside tension, a force you control. You can choose kind actions, but you can't control how others judge them. That gap between what you intend and what they think is where anxiety lives, and it shrinks when you stop owning their judgment.

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I love this word intention because if you think of the word, it's inside tension. It's a force inside of you that you can control. And so if I had the intention to be really kind to someone, to do something that is generous and loving, I'm in control of that. And as soon as I give that gesture, I lose control because I can't control how it's received. Hopefully it's going to be received with the intention it's given, but that's not my responsibility. And if someone decides that actually I'm a horrible person and what they're going to do is go, nah, don't like that, then that's a reflection on them and not me. And this is where one of the biggest Causes of anxiety comes in, the fear of judgment. You can't control the judgment, the behaviour of others, only your own. So be accountable for your own intentions because that you can control, and when you're in control, anxiety is much smaller. Whatever anyone else does is their responsibility.