This is an experimental exercise designed to help you get in touch with your primal desires; those desires that are truly core to who you are and that will bring you the most fulfillment if you honor them. This exercise is just an outline, so feel free to follow your own momentum and re-word a step or two if you feel like there’s a better way to get to the heart of what you’re desiring. However, once you’ve got the question to the point where you’re excited to answer it, try to follow your first instinct as much as possible.
1. Identify a strong desire.
Try to use the first thing that comes to mind. Something that you know is possible, you just aren’t yet sure how it’s possible for you.
You know how they say your first instinct tends to be the right one? That’s because your first instinct comes from a very primal part of your brain. The part that drives your intuition and connects you to nature. Your first instinct tends to be the right one because your second instinct isn’t an instinct at all. It is a logical override of your natural desire, that governs not through your true nature, but through ideas about how things are supposed to be.
Malcolm Gladwell illustrates this brilliantly in his famous TED Talk on Choice, Happiness and Spaghetti Sauce: “A critically important step in understanding our own desires and tastes is to realize that we cannot always explain what we want, deep down. If I asked all of you in this room, what you want in a coffee, you know what you’d say? Every one of you would say, ‘I want a dark, rich, hearty roast.’ It’s what people always say when you ask them. ‘What do you like?’ ‘Dark, rich, hearty roast!’ What percentage of you actually like a dark, rich, hearty roast? …Somewhere between 25 and 27 percent of you. Most of you like milky, weak coffee. But you will never, ever say to someone who asks you what you want that ‘I want a milky, weak coffee.'”
It’s not that we’re incapable of knowing what we want, it’s that what we want is so often swayed by what we think we’re supposed to want. Our idea of how good coffee is supposed to be, influences what we think we want in coffee.
In this video I answer Schari’s question “What is my purpose? What am I called to do?” and also send out some healing energy at the end. If you have any questions you’d like answer, or any requests for where you’d like me to send healing energy, comment below and I’ll include you in the next video!
Last week our RV sprung a leak and I had less than 72 hours to fix it before renters picked it up to take it to the Indy 500 for a long weekend. Nothing seemed to be flowing and I couldn’t locate the problem, despite posting on an online forum for help. After spending two days looking for the solution where it wasn’t, Susanne called a friend who was a plumber and he pointed out the leak to me. It turned out that it was leaking from the very place that the people on the forum told me to check, but I dismissed their advice because I assumed if it was coming from there it would be obvious. It turns out that a lot of water can leak through a tiny hole, and big problems don’t necessarily look obvious, they can be tiny things continuously occurring.
To me the big breakthrough didn’t come from finding and fixing the problem, it came from seeing how much my own hubris got in the way of me being effortlessly guided to a solution. I thought I knew better than the cooperative components the Universe was sending me, and that arrogance turned a fix that was fairly easy into a Herculean task. I wondered how long that habit of disregarding the help the Universe was sending me had been making my life harder than it needs to be, and decided to open myself to listening to others more.
Here’s how you can gain tremendous clarity on why you thrive in some areas and struggle in others. When you hear someone talking about anything important to them, ask yourself, “Are they in flow, or are they trying to control?” (You can ask the same question when reflecting on your own behavior, but sometimes it’s easier to be objective when it’s someone else in the thick of things.)
If it’s an area they struggle in you’ll notice most of their talk on the subject is about trying to control some aspect of the process or the outcome.
“I know I’ve got to do this, but I just can’t get myself to follow through.”
“I’m not lifting a finger until she takes care of that first.”
“I’ve tried everything humanly possible to please him and he still finds something to complain about.”
Struggle is the result of trying to gain leverage you don’t have rather than applying the leverage you already have. It’s requiring someone or something to change first instead of simply becoming the change you desire.
Episode Synopsis: Whenever something you don’t want happens, it can usually lead you to exactly what you do want in a faster way than it if never happened at all. This podcast outlines the journey from contrast to creation in an inspiring and thought-provoking way.
Episode Synopsis: Discover how easy it is to create from a place of effortlessness by focusing on something that causes you to feel alive, and then allowing that aliveness to inspire you from there.
I just got done doing an amazing conference call with Deborah Lighthart. If you weren’t able to attend, or would like to hear it again, feel free to listen to it below.
Love is the most powerful healing force in the entire Universe. It can mend a broken heart, soothe a troubled spirit and heal a wounded soul. When you learn how to embrace, empower and express the power of love, it can change your relationships, your career + finances, your health + happiness and every other aspect of your life
In this session, we will share spiritual wisdom + insights, messages from Spirit, energy healing, shamanic journeying and so much more. Come, experience what the Power of Love can do for you!
An emotional journey is similar to a physical journey. If you’re going on a long hike, it’s wise to bring enough food and water to enjoy your journey. Or at least eat and hydrate yourself before you leave the house. You wouldn’t be hungry, thirsty and tired and say to yourself, “Yeah, let’s take that hike now.” You’d want to be properly prepared.
The same goes for an emotional journey. Sure you could push yourself to make the journey, the same way you could push yourself to finish a hike even when tired, thirsty and starving; but pushing yourself like that would inevitably require a longer recovery period than if you simply waited until you’re properly prepared. So if there’s something you’ve been meaning to do, but it feels a little emotionally scary, ask yourself, “What would prepare me for this? What can I bring with me on my journey to make sure I’m able to enjoy it and take care of myself along the way?” [continue reading…]
Real talk: I think we all have a gift inside us. Or rather, that we ourselves are the gift. Nobody has lived or experienced life quite the same way we have. That gives us a unique perspective. Sometimes we mistake our uniqueness with imperfection. We compare who we are to something that seems better, and feel less about ourselves in the process. But that’s only because we’re focused on the things we aren’t, rather than the things we are. [continue reading…]
