Several years ago I was getting ready for a date with a man I had been seeing for several months. I had done my work and made my list of what I wanted in a partner. As I was going through the list in my head, I stopped and looked at myself in the mirror and said to my reflection, “Would you date yourself?”
Wow, I had never thought of it that way before: did I meet my own expectations? The answer was very hard to swallow when I had to admit my answer was No.
One of my expectations was around health and fitness. I wanted someone that worked out and ate well. I didn’t do that. So I had to ask myself, Did I really want that in a man? Would a man that was into health and fitness be attracted to someone who was a healthy wanna be?
I decided I needed to take a hard look at what I really wanted.
What did I really desire?
Finding Your Heart’s Desire
What is our heart’s desire; what does that even mean?
Within you, there is an intelligence far more powerful than the mind. There is a part of you that knows what you want, before you realize you want it. You can call this your heart’s desire, your intuition, or your subconscious desire. If you’ve ever faced a big life decision and instinctively knew the choice to make thanks to an overwhelming “gut feeling,” you know the power of this intelligence. You have had an experience and understand the difference between the heart’s desire and the mind’s logical reasoning.
The trouble is these desires are often buried deep under your fears and anxieties. And, when you listen to them, you quiet your mind to feel what it is you most want…to let the images, emotions and fully-formed answers rise to the surface of your awareness. You will know this by a physical reaction of a feeling of lightness and your lips curling up at the corners. Some call it your internal GPS… I think of it as your ‘joy-meter.’
It’s easy to ignore these deeper impulses through fear of the outcome. But when you are aware of your inner purpose and you are committed to aligning it with your outer world, you will begin to look beyond fear and acknowledge those impulses. Listen to them. They know what you want.
As the new year starts, I ask you to consider where you are in your life. Are there areas that need cleaning up? Would you date yourself?
I encourage you to think about what it is that you most desire and check in with your ‘joy-meter’’ first. For when you know what you want, you can set meaningful goals and live a life filled with your heart’s desires.