Desires & Cravings
There’s a difference between desire and craving. The former is a healthy attraction to something not yet present, that through intention and practice can be created. The latter is an unsatisfiable – and unhealthy – impulse that, even when sated, reappears quickly, again and again.
This distinction came up for me while watching a video featuring Susan Piver from Jonathan Fields’ Good Life Project.
This idea, or at least the words I am using to describe it, is new for me and perhaps not well-formed, but I want to invite to consider the difference for yourself.
Are you being pulled/drawn from where (and who… ) you are to some place in the future by a calling that allows you to experience yourself, the world, and grow and develop facility with the World (and yourself)? That seems like a good thing. Desire, understood as such, is positive.
But if you are being drawn to things, activities – or people – that drain you, or diminish you in some way, or don’t serve your health and development then perhaps you are subject to cravings. Sometimes things feel good when we have/get them, but don’t feel good after – these are cravings.
Welcome your desires and notice your cravings, consider them lessons; feedback that appears to teach where your work lies.