Hello, and welcome back to practicing human, the podcast where every day we're getting a little better at life.

I'm your host, Corey Muscara, and in today's episode, we're going to talk about what you really want.

More to come on that in a moment. First, let's settle in together with the sound of the bells.

Okay, so let's talk about what you really want.

This is one of those inquiries that if we can get clear on earlier in life, or let's just say as early as possible from where we are right now,

it can really make things a lot more simple in our life and direct us down a path that is actually fulfilling rather than one that we perceive to be fulfilling.

Because here's the thing, almost all of what we want, and I would be bold enough to say that 100% of what we want reduces to some sort of feeling,

some sort of sense of safety, ease, calm, and purpose.

And I would really argue for wholeness that most of us, whether we realize it or not, are doing things that help us to feel more whole, complete, okay as we are.

We wouldn't necessarily admit to that because we feel like, no, I'm doing things, I'm growing, I want to manipulate certain things and improve and change.

And so the idea of feeling like, okay, as we are feels antithetical to that.

But it's in service of some future moment where something in us can rest, where we've moved toward an integration, a sense of wholeness, a sense of completeness.

And so everything that we're doing is essentially in service of some feeling.

And we won't go too deep into what specifically that is, but let's just agree upon for now, at least partially or hopefully as much as possible, that much of what you're doing is in service of some feeling.

Whether it's like, I want to make money so I could go on vacations and then there'll be a sense of freedom of ease of relaxation.

I want to be in this relationship and then there'll be less loneliness and a sense of connection and that will make me feel complete.

I want to have kids because there'll be a sense of meaning in my life and that meaning will make me feel a certain way.

So even things like purpose, like meaning, like freedom can reduce to something below that some felt sense.

And so we all have this, but where we get tripped up is that our path to those things can be wildly distorted based on all of the data that we're taking in from a very early age, from our family.

Our friends, the community that we're in, and yes, especially from the media.

And it attaches some sort of path with the feeling that we want.

And I mean, advertising, this is just what they do. It's what they're masterful at.

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