The difference between a wish and an intention, and why your body has to believe it before anything can manifest
Every Lion’s Gate post on the internet, mine included, ends with some version of the same six-item checklist.
Set intentions. Meditate. Do a ritual. Practice gratitude. Get outside. Journal.
And every year, most of us stop reading right around item one, scribble something like “I am abundant” on a sticky note, and then feel vaguely disappointed eleven months later when nothing’s actually different.
So, let’s slow down on that first line item.
Because “set clear intentions” is carrying a lot of weight for four words, and nobody ever tells you what’s actually supposed to happen between the writing and the manifesting.
A Wish Is Something You Make. An Intention Is Something You Become.
A wish points outward.
It’s a request, made to some version of the universe you’re hoping is listening.
It goes something like: I wish I had more money. I wish he’d notice me. I wish this year would be different.
Wishes are mostly passive by design. You make one, toss it out, and then wait to see if the universe does something about it.
By contrast, an intention points inward first.
It’s not a request. It’s a direction you’re already moving in, stated out loud so your own nervous system can catch up to it. And it’s written in such a way to indicate that the thing is already REAL. (More on that in a minute.)
Intentions look more like: I am building financial stability. I am someone people notice because I’ve stopped shrinking. This year is different because I’m doing the specific things differently.
Same desires. Completely different relationship to them. See what I mean?
(Side note, because I know somebody’s thinking it: This isn’t about toxic positivity or forcing your way into an “I am” statement you don’t believe yet. It’s the opposite, actually. Keep reading.)
The checklist tells you to “set clear intentions.”
It doesn’t tell you that most of what you’ll write in your journal this week is going to be wishes wearing an intention’s clothes.
That’s fine. That’s step one.
You have to write the wish down before you can find the intention hiding underneath it.
Why Most Manifestation Practices Fail (And It’s Not What You Think)
If you’ve been anywhere near my nervous system series, you already know where I’m about to go with this.
Manifestation culture will tell you intentions fail because you didn’t believe hard enough, or a stray doubt slipped in, or your vibration wasn’t quite dialed in.
I call bullshit.
Here’s what I think is actually happening. Your mind wrote a sentence your body never agreed to.
Your nervous system runs on neuroception. That’s a big word that means the constant, subconscious scanning for what’s safe and what’s not, happening well beneath anything you’d call a thought.
And neuroception doesn’t care how good your intention sounds on paper.
It cares whether the state you’re asking for is familiar. Safe, to a nervous system, usually just means known.
Which creates a genuinely inconvenient problem, because the things we tend to write in our Lion’s Gate Portal journals (visibility, abundance, being fully seen, taking up space) are very often exactly the states our bodies have learned to brace against.
So you write “I am worthy of being seen” in your nicest handwriting, light a candle, mean it completely in the moment…and your body still tightens the next time an actual opportunity to be seen shows up.
That’s not failure. That’s an unregulated nervous system doing exactly what it’s built to do. Defaulting to the familiar over the desired, every single time, until you give it a reason not to.
Setting an intention and regulating your nervous system aren’t two separate practices.
They’re the same practice, and I’d argue the second one has to come first. More on exactly how, below.
What Makes Lion’s Gate Intentions Different From New Moon Intentions
If you’ve done lunar work with me, you probably already have a whole practice around intention-setting.
So what’s actually different here? Why not just treat 8/8 like an extra-strength New Moon and call it a day?
New Moon intentions are seeds. I’ve written about this at length elsewhere. The new moon is a womb space, not a command center.
You plant something small and private, and trust the dark to do its work without digging it up to check every few days.
It’s cyclical. You get another shot in twenty-eight days if this one doesn’t take.
That built-in do-over is a feature, not a flaw. It’s what makes New Moon work feel soft and low-stakes, in the best way.
The Lion’s Gate Portal doesn’t work that way, and it’s not supposed to.
For one thing, Leo’s running the show, not the Moon.
Fixed fire, specifically, which doesn’t flicker and doesn’t ask permission. Where the Moon governs your private, emotional tides, Leo governs the parts of you meant to be witnessed.
That means your creative voice, your leadership, the version of you that takes up space in a room instead of apologizing for the room.
Sirius adds its own layer on top of that. The short version is that this alignment has been read for thousands of years as a moment of heightened visibility. Not gestation. Ignition.
Practically, that changes what belongs in your Lion’s Gate Portal intention.
New Moon language tends to sound like I’m opening to or I’m planting the seed of…
It’s soft and receptive, because you’re working with soil that needs time.
Lion’s Gate language wants declarative.
I am. I claim. I’m no longer available for.
You’re not asking the dark to hold something quietly for a month.
You’re standing in the brightest astrological window of the year and saying something out loud you’re prepared to be seen living out.
And because it only comes once a year instead of every twenty-eight days, there’s real weight to that. Less room to shrug and try again next cycle.
Which is exactly why the nervous system piece matters so much here, in a way it doesn’t as much at the New Moon.
You don’t get a casual do-over in three weeks.
When you’re working with Lion’s Gate energy, you’ve got roughly one shot at making this year’s intention something your body can actually hold, not just something you liked the sound of on 8/8.
A Ritual Structure for Setting Intentions That Actually Lands
Here’s how I actually build mine. Adapt it. Don’t recite it. Take what makes sense for you and leave the rest.
Regulate before you write anything
Not after. Before.
This is the step almost every manifestation guide skips, and it’s the one that largely decides whether anything else here works.
Five minutes of slow, extended-exhale breathing. A short walk. Sitting on the floor with an animal, if you’ve got one.
A settled nervous system nearby is genuinely one of the fastest co-regulation tools you have.
The goal is to get your body out of scanning mode before you ask it to hold something new.
Writing intentions with a dysregulated nervous system is like planting a garden mid-earthquake.
Write the wish. Then keep asking what’s underneath it.
Start wherever you land, even if it’s “I wish I had more money.”
Ask what that would actually give you.
And keep asking until circumstances fall away and you hit something about who you’re being.
Money is often standing in for safety, or freedom, or being taken seriously.
THAT’S the intention. The money’s just the vehicle.
Say it out loud before you write it down, and notice what your body does.
This is your felt-sense check, and in my book, it’s non-negotiable.
If a statement tightens your chest or shallows your breath, that’s information, not a sign you’re doing it wrong.
It usually means you’ve found something true your body hasn’t caught up to yet.
And that’s exactly where the real work lives this year.
Anchor it physically
Candle, sacred cacao, a stone held in your palm…whatever marks this moment as different from the fifty other times you’ve thought about your goals this week.
Ritual isn’t decoration here.
It’s how you tell your nervous system this one counts.
Give your body evidence within 24 hours
That means one small, physical action that’s actually true to the intention, not just symbolic of it.
If your intention is about visibility, that might mean posting the thing, sending the email, showing up to the room you’d normally skip.
Your nervous system doesn’t update on words. It updates on lived experience.
Set a return point
Write down when you’ll revisit this. Set a calendar reminder if it helps.
The next Lion’s Gate Portal is the obvious one, but I’d also pick something sooner. Maybe thirty or sixty days out.
Check in honestly: Is my body still bracing against this, or has it started to soften?
That’s the whole structure. It’s not longer than the checklist version. It’s just honest about what “setting an intention” is actually asking of you.
Want a hand with this work?
You don’t have to do this alone if it would feel better to walk with someone on it all.
If you’d like support doing this in real time (regulating first, then setting something your whole system can actually hold) that’s a lot of what happens in a Reiki or Spirit Walking session with me.
And if you want to go deeper on this territory beyond one portal a year, keep an eye on my classes. There’s more coming that’s built around exactly this.
Disclaimer
The information shared in this post is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. What I share here reflects my own personal experience, research, and practice — it is not a substitute for the guidance of a qualified healthcare provider. If you have a medical condition, are managing a health concern, or are considering changes to your care, please consult your physician or licensed healthcare professional before making any decisions.
