#194 – What do you want?

This question is easy to answer, for the most part. We all want things – a better job, more money, more happiness. To write a book, start a business, learn to play pickleball.

But the deeper, more important question is, what do you want these things for?

In his 2014 book, Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender, David R. Hawkins, MD, PhD, offers the "what for" question as a way to realize the futility of most of our wants and access the truth of what really matters to us.

If I say I want a better job, for example, asking myself "what for?" again and again will help me uncover what I truly want, in the deepest, truest core of my being.

Today, I realized that everything and anything I may ever want come down to one thing: inner peace.

The Ego and Ghosts living in my mind made me think that I could achieve that through measurable things such as a six-figure salary, x number of followers/subscribers, a rich social life, a house with an orchard in Portugal, or a published book with my name on the cover.

But that's just a big, fat lie they've come up with to keep me attached to them and their twisted plot. To keep me their slave.

They convinced me that I needed these things, that they would inevitably lead to the coveted inner peace. "Of course you feel restless," they said, "that's because you're broke/dissatisfied with your job/don't have enough followers! If you had a six-figure salary or [fill in the blank], all of your worries would go away!"

But this reasoning is philosophically flawed, as it establishes a false prerequisite – "if X [more money, a job title with more letters, more followers] happens, then Y [inner peace] will happen."

In truth, inner peace is the result of nothing but a personal decision to remain at peace inside – I'm not saying it's easy.

So, how can you choose to remain at peace inside?

You don't store the things (fears, resentments, attack thoughts) that create ripples.

When something bothers you, you acknowledge that you caused your own bother and just drop it.

You listen for your Ghosts' voices inside your head and politely decline to follow their orders.

You'll fail a lot. But with time and practice, you'll become Teflon-like and things will naturally fall from you.

What are you ready to let slide off today?

Love,

Carolina