I laughed so hard I peed my pants

Side splitting, snorting, pee in your pants kind of laughing.

That’s what I had with a group of girlfriends on a yoga retreat in Woodstock, Vt. this past weekend.

That may not be your perception of a typical yoga retreat. A group of women chanting om and holding downward facing dog is probably what comes to mind.

But the laughter did come from the power of yoga. At the beginning of the retreat the instructor asked us to do something.

Set an intention for the weekend.

There’s power in an intention. Power to make things happen seamlessly. Power to delight and surprise. Power to bring people together and make them laugh.

So I set my intention: To laugh and connect.

Two very simple things that were brought to fruition in a way that still makes me smile three days later.

An intention is different from a goal.

A goal is something you strive to achieve. There’s action behind it and sometimes a lot of struggle.

An intention is a way of being.

It’s softer, almost like a whisper, that you send out to the universe as a wish. But unlike a wish there is a commitment behind it. You set your intention and then let it go. The magic is seeing how it comes to fruition.

I was not let down. I laughed until it hurt. I connected with friends but also strangers.

I was struck by how much people needed and craved the intention that I had set for myself. I saw that my intention was much bigger than myself.

Come to think of it, an intention has the power to change the world