88. The Joy of Wanting: 8 Ways to Rethink Desire
Spiritually Hungry
Monica Berg and Michael Berg
4.8 • 617 Ratings
🗓️ 19 April 2022
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kabbalah teaches that the essence of our soul is desire. For, if we wanted for nothing, we would never fulfill our life’s purpose. Yet, society teaches us that there is shame in wanting and that we should apologize for our desires. Human desire is how we know we’re alive! Listen as Monica and Michael unpack the lesson that our desires are a gift that motivates us and allows us to connect to the Light of the Creator.
“The amount of pleasure we derive from anything is exactly equal to the amount of desire that we have for it.” – Michael Berg
The Happiness Hypothesis, by Jonathan Haidt
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Stop focusing on lack. I think that we do this more than we care to admit or more than we even acknowledge. |
| 0:14.7 | Because we tend to see things, oh, I want that and I don't have that, but pause for a second. |
| 0:18.8 | Why do you want that? What will you do once you have that? How is that connected to your your goodness and to changing your desire |
| 0:26.1 | to see for the self alone to desiring it for the sake of sharing? There has to be that aspect. |
| 0:32.4 | It's not about being a good person, but just somebody who's invested in this world and the |
| 0:36.9 | goodness and the creation of this world and the goodness in the |
| 0:37.6 | creation of this world. |
| 0:40.9 | Welcome to spiritually hungry podcast, episode 88. |
| 0:44.9 | You know I love a good story, Michael, so I'm going to tell you one. |
| 0:47.7 | I am desiring a great story right now. |
| 0:49.8 | Sadly, you've heard before, but many of our listeners have not. |
| 0:53.6 | It's a story about our then-eight-year-old daughter, Miriam, several years ago. |
| 1:00.0 | And I was pulling out of our driveway when she was turning onto our block after school and coming home. |
| 1:09.4 | So she saw me driving away, and I didn't see her coming from the other |
| 1:12.8 | end of the block. She sure saw me. And I was on a phone call driving to the Valley. We lived in |
| 1:18.7 | California at the time and I didn't hear her call. It went to voicemail. I went straight into an |
| 1:24.4 | appointment that took two hours and then I got back in the car driving home. And at that point, I heard her voicemail, but I saw two voicemails from her. So the first one was hysterical. Mommy, did you see me? I saw you. I was so excited to see you when I got home. Where are you? I want you. She was hysterical. She was crying. |
| 1:49.2 | And then she had calmed down and she had left another voicemail, I guess an hour later. And she's like, hi, mommy. I love you. I can't wait to see you. I'm so excited for you to come home soon. |
| 1:53.9 | And she had gotten past it. And it struck me so completely that moment that she had no shame in wanting. And the fact that she could express |
| 2:02.8 | herself so freely what she desired, what she wanted, it allowed her to move past that |
| 2:09.1 | negative feeling and that motion very quickly. And that is the theme of our topic today, which is |
| 2:15.4 | what is desire and its importance in our life. It really is so vital |
... |
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