I was in the musical “Oliver,” when I was 12. There is an early scene where young Oliver, still in the London orphanage, asks for more gruel.
“Please sir, can I have some more?”
“What?!?!? More?!?!?”
All hell breaks loose, culminating in Oliver being sold in the streets for his “greed.”
When I think of how we are schooled in regards to our wanting more, that scene comes vividly to mind. It’s instilled early, and most of us carry it to our graves. I’ve heard other grown women scold themselves aloud for wanting something. Why? Because she perceives her object of desire as out of her reach, therefore she “should not want it.”
I don’t wish to argue where the schooling comes from, or to find a source to blame. What I do wish to do, is to reframe desire. Desire is a necessary predecessor to anything new in our lives: an experience, a possession, a relationship, etc. If something new is to come our way, we must desire it first.
If we remove the layers of cultural shame around wanting more, what is left is a powerful and necessary first step in the process of bringing about change – the process of manifestation.
In one of my workshops I asked the participants to write a list of their desires. They sat tapping their pens, staring off into space, fidgeting. It took a good bit of time before lists were written. When I asked that the lists be shared aloud, the embarrassment was palpable. Almost as if I had asked them to trot out a list of the most embarrassing things they had done in their lives. (And yes, the participants were all women. I expect some men are schooled differently – but not all of them!)
What if, instead of tamping down those desires, we celebrate them? What if we write them down, smile to ourselves, and cheer that we have begun bringing it about? What if we allow our desires free rein, allow them to build magnificent visions beyond our wildest dreams? What if we let desire redesign our lives? Or just give our lives a fluff-up, a lift, a needed boost?
The only thing limiting our life design is ourselves. I don’t mean as in we aren’t talented enough, popular enough, clever enough, etc., etc. I mean we limit our lives by cutting off our desires. Judgment is the tool we use to cut ourselves (and others) “down to size.” There is nothing sensible about judgment. If we stop judging, we take the assumptions away, we take the limitations away, we open up the options and allow imagination, intuition, perception, and the rest of our mind’s intellectual tools to create their magic. We allow desire to lead us into a new adventure.
Coach’s Challenge: You guessed it! Write your desire list, with no fewer than 10 items on it – preferably 20. Done? Now put it up on your refrigerator where you and those who live with you, can see it everyday. (I can hear you now “What? Let others know what I want?”) YES! This way, you not only use power of your own mind to draw the list into fruition, but the power of everyone else’s as well. And you give others the possibility of helping to fulfill your desires. That’s a real gift. It makes everyone happy! Go ahead, I dare you! Go for it! Leave a comment and let us know how it goes…
Lindy MacLaine, of www.wecansoar.com, helps people in the second bloom of life pinpoint their Life Purpose and create the best possible lives they can imagine. She is using her creativity to attract a community who responds to today’s challenges by stepping up to the plate and into their gifts, while believing in each other and themselves.
