Anyone who has watched the tv show Lucifer has definitely seen this. Lucifer (played by Tom Ellis with his lovely Brit accent) looks into people’s eyes and asks them “tell me, what is it that you truly desire?” In a mesmerized state people tell the devil weird stuff that they never even consciously thought they desired.
Have you ever looked into the mirror to ask yourself what it is that you truly desire? In the mindless world that we live in where everyday brings in new challenges, most of us just live reactively and we even call it going with the flow. Are you truly mindfully going with the flow? If yes, then Buddha will be proud of you and good for you.
Over the years, one thing I have come to realize is people are not as good at knowing what they really want as they give themselves credit for. There are of course all sorts of cognitive biases at play here and situation plays a role too. And we also take it a step further where we conveniently overestimate how much happiness what we desire will bring us once we have it (Affective Forecasting).
From a therapeutic perspective, I think this exercise helps you connect with yourself on a deeper personal level. If you are truly being honest with yourself you could use this to identify all the stories you are telling yourselves, all the excuses you are giving yourself which are preventing you from living your best lives. Before I leave you with an invitation to try this for yourself, I do want to say that this is perhaps not a one time exercise. This should be done time and again especially when life simply sucks. One little note of caution here: there are very fine lines in my opinion between our hedonic desires, dreams and delusions and not every desire is going to truly help you, so I would make sure to remember that when doing this exercise. For example if you desire to eat 12 donuts in one shot, I don’t think I have to explain how not great the desire is for you, but oh well. So go ahead and stop now and ask yourself honestly what is it that you truly desire and see what is stopping you from reaching for what you desire.
