Heart Desires: Allowing Yourself to Want More

Are you aware of your deepest desires? The desires held by your heart?

The desires your Soul is calling you to fulfill in this lifetime?

If you do have a sense – at least a hint – of those desires, are you allowing yourself to want them, to speak them, to prioritize them in your life?

Are you allowing yourself to want more? To dream big?

Desire as a Call Towards Expansion

I think there’s often this misconception in the spiritual community that we must deny our physical, human nature and detach from all desires.

This arises both from religion (you must suffer physically now to be rewarded later in Heaven) and from some spiritual philosophies (desires are “bad” and make you suffer).

We need to make this a bit more nuanced, though. It’s not so black-or-white.

Of course, being overly attached to material things, to excess accumulation of those things, and to external achievement, appearance, and “success” can create a lot of suffering and meaninglessness in our lives.

It can keep us on a hamster wheel, constantly looking for the next thing (or person or relationship or promotion) that’s going to fill an inner void and make us feel less unworthy.

You can build an entire false identity around the things, people, and external accomplishments you’ve accumulated. Typically, at some point in your spiritual awakening, this identity will crumble as you begin to discover who you really are without all of those things.

So the main issue here is not that you have desires in the first place, but rather your over-attachment to those desires. And your belief in the illusion that fulfilling external desires – for mindless accumulation of wealth, people, cars, awards, accolades, whatever – will “fix” everything that’s “wrong” with you.

Having desires in and of itself does NOT make you bad, wrong, or un-spiritual. Having desires means you are alive! It means you have red blood pumping through your veins. It means your Soul is calling you forth to expand in some way.

A desire is truly that – an unfulfilled call towards expansion.

Here, we’re talking about your true, authentic, core desires. The desires of your heart and Soul, which are typically more intangible.

These heart desires could include a desire for more freedom, more peace, more joy, more vitality, more aligned friendships, a job where you truly get to shine as yourself, and YES – greater abundance (in all ways, so you can be generous with yourself and others).

So I don’t believe you must become a monk or a nun and renounce all desires to lead a meaningful, purposeful, joyful life. (Unless, of course, it’s your Soul calling to become a monk or a nun.)

It’s Ok to Have Big Desires 

In recent months, I’ve been getting insistent guidance from the Akashic Records that:

• it is ok to have big desires.
• it is ok to claim your big desires now.
• it is ok to allow your deeper desires and longings to emerge.
• it is ok to want more in your life – to want more meaning, more purpose, more abundance (for yourself and to be generous with others).
• it is ok to believe you are worthy of good things, and capable of creating aligned, joyful experiences for yourself.

How do you feel as you read these words now?

If you notice some resistance, disbelief, or skepticism as you read them, that’s ok.

We’re often not taught or encouraged to believe these things about ourselves. To believe that life can be good, expansive, abundant, free.

Women, in particular, have often been taught the opposite – that wanting something, desiring something deeply, yearning for something with all of your body and heart and groin, is “un-ladylike”, greedy, selfish, gross.

Living in a patriarchy, women have often had to suppress, hide, or deny their desires. Even from themselves, which can make it challenging to allow yourself to discover and touch into your deepest desires now.

Skepticism or Self-Doubt = Fear

So if my words above feel foreign to you, or if they bring up a voice that says, sure… but that will never be true for me, you can acknowledge that resistance and see it as an opportunity to question WHY it’s hard to believe this in your own life.

In most cases, resistance – especially in the form of skepticism – is cloaking a deeper and more uncomfortable feeling, like fear.

Maybe the fear of not being worthy.

Fear of your desires being too big.

Fear that you won’t be able to fulfill or manifest those desires.

Fear that you’ll be disappointed, so better stay where you are right now.

Fear that you will abandon others, or that others will be jealous, if your life is really good.

If you sense any of these fears (or others) popping up, take a deep breath with me and allow them to be here. Feeling the fear is a brave step towards change.

And you can explore this further by asking a few pointed questions:

• What is my heart truly longing for, at a deeper level?
• What am I NOT allowing myself to want, because I’ve judged this desire as not spiritual, or selfish, or too “greedy”? (Or too different from what my family/culture/education taught me I should want?)
• What do I fear would happen if I allowed myself to want this?
• What do I fear would happen if I actually manifested this desire?

Reflect on these questions for a few days and see what comes up for you. Do this with great compassion and curiosity, without judging or dismissing what emerges.

And keep reminding yourself you are worthy, you are lovable, you are deserving of good things – even if you can’t fully believe it right now.

You’re animated by a divine energy that wants you to EXPAND and become the full expression of yourself.

Continue building your trust and faith in that divine energy coursing within you. It will never lead you astray.

With love,
Josephine