DESIRE – What If What You Want Is Wrong?
Are you frustrated by lack in your life? Are those things you really want just not happening?
It’s easy to get attached to a specific outcome to make us happy. We’re surrounded by affluence in the West and encouraged to pin all our hopes and dreams on the outer world. While we might believe that happiness lies within, inwardly many of us may ‘secretly’ hope for circumstances to change in the way we want, so that we can be happy, but this never works.
Playing At The ‘Present Moment’
I spent many years playing at the ‘present moment’, knowing that happiness was an inside job found only in the now, but inwardly hoping that the money, relationships, the career, the outer world would fulfil my long-lost dreams, that is until life stopped me in my tracks by removing all external distractions.
With no friends, with just enough money to eat and pay the rent, my ego went into meltdown mode as my ‘attachment’ to my dreams coming true fell away. I truly believed I could have everything I wanted, but I refused to question if what I wanted was what I needed and this was an eye-opening revelation to me.
I struggled for a long time, envisioning my dreams and goals, but it was only in the harsh light of day that I realised that my ‘wants’ were coming from a place of yearning and self-importance, not from the natural flow of my life and certainly not from a present moment awareness.
After much struggle I finally surrendered and discovered that any ‘lack’ in my outer world was not a punishment for not being good enough, or that something I was doing was wrong, but that it was a blessing, encouraging me to seek the answers within.
Signals From Within
When the wanting becomes a desperate yearning, life is signalling us to ask what is it we really want? What is beneath those wants? Do we want the object or experience of our desire? Or do we want the feeling beneath that desire? What if it is not the ‘thing’ that we want, but the relief from the agitation that this wanting causes?
These are all still ongoing questions for me. This is a journey after all. Sometimes the present moment comes easily to me and at other times the inner fight continues, but being aware is the beginning of a grand adventure.
So if life is giving you a lack of what you think you want, ask what lies beneath your desires and if it’s going to bring you home to the real happiness that lies within?
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Kelly Martin is the author of ‘When Everyone Shines But You’ , a passionate writer and blogger questioning life’s illusions. After what seemed like a decade of intense anxiety, feelings of failure and grief from the loss of her father she chose to take a mindfulness path and has not looked back since. Kelly encourages people to find the treasures that lie within the pain and suffering and to learn to see themselves as ‘enough’ exactly as they are, right now through her writing and You Tube channel .
