Book Review: The Desire Map

I’ve been on a personal journey, uncovering my desires and allowing my intuition to guide my life.  I’ve been reading and learning about methods to discover myself and the world around me, and have understood concepts I would love to introduce to you.

Through Instagram, I have stumbled upon/actively sought out many inspirational individuals.  It started with various yogis and has grown to countless spiritual pages. Somewhere along my Instagram meandering, I stumbled upon Danielle LaPorte and her book, The Desire Map. Through my belief system in the Law Of Attraction (which we will continue to discover together), I have adapted quickly to the ideas presented in this book/ workbook.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could be in tune with how we want to FEEL on a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis, and then follow our life’s path with the #1 goal to feel good? Often times, people set concrete goals they believe will create happiness or other associated emotions.  With a certain job, salary, partner, material object, etc., happiness would be generated.  However, these goals can be limiting as they do not allow the universe to materialize our passions and desires in the best way.  They don’t allow for any room for interpretation.  We seek something outside in order to feel something inside.  What if we flip this and, instead, seek something inside of ourselves? In The Desire Map, Danielle LaPorte challenges you to ask yourself: HOW DO YOU WANT TO FEEL? What if the job you THOUGHT would make you happy is not actually the most ideal for you, or something better is out there? You’ve created a block to these other opportunities by being narrow-minded and focusing on your self-generated goal.  You’ve not connected to a WHY or associated a deeper meaning to this goal.  You’ve just decided, for some reason it’s what will make you happy.  What Danielle LaPorte (and I!) challenge you to question is not WHAT you want out of your life in a material sense, but how your soul wants to feel.

This book introduces the idea of why you would create goals with your soul and attach feelings to your motives.  It supports you in connecting with you inner feelings and desires.  It requires you to open the channels of your mind, and get real with what may and may not be working in your life. We then learn a “relaxed determination” to achieve our desires using three steps:

1. Know the meaningful why behind it.  Not for the money; not for the physical product of achievement.  Make it DEEPER and MEANINGFUL to you.  In Danielle’s words, to feel good.
2. Become acutely aware of your hunger.  You cannot live without it.  You must have it! Be patient, though, and trust that it will come in time.
3. Get real about what it will take to pull it off.  Don’t get lazy now! It will come to you because you simply cannot live without it, but you must be active in the pursuit.  A few sacrifices, hard work, and determination work when you understand the end goal and how you will feel after its achievement.

The final segment of the book is a workbook to connect with yourself and continue discovering your core desires.  Personally, I have owned the book for a few months, and I have not yet finished the workbook.  I’ve been taking the process at a pace I most prefer.  I am in my final stage of identifying my core desired feelings and have been uncovering what does/does not work in the following areas:

Once you finish the book, there are also downloadable “Fire Starter Sessions” to continue growing and learning.  I’ve utilized these workbook pages occasionally and also find them useful.  For example, I have recently uncovered fiscal frustrations associated with living independently and far from my usual support system.  I found a worksheet to evaluate my relationships with money in one of the sessions where it asked the following questions:

• What do you love spending money on?
• What do you wildly resent paying for?
• What do you consider luxurious?
• When, where, and how are you cheap?
• When, where, and how are you generous?

I got real with the fact that my interaction with money does not need to be stressful or restricting.  I kept feeling money was STOPPING me from things, and have become more conscious of my spending, yet detaching from the idea that it is actually limiting me.  Being smart about spending while not being obsessively cheap is a balance I will always be working on.  I now know how I want to feel in relation to money, and remain connected to this idea whether I am paying a bill, planning travel, or accepting an influx.

Overall, The Desire Map is a book I HIGHLY recommend to anyone in search of their soul and a deeper inner connectivity.  Though the book seems to have more of a feminine twist, men would also benefit if feeling lost or desiring a deeper understanding of themselves.  Check out Danielle LaPorte’s website for more information and inspiration at: http://www.daniellelaporte.com/

*Also, it helps if you really enjoy words like I do.  Vocabulary has always been fun, and I love discovering new words and the associated emotions.

MY FAVORITE CORE DESIRE WORDS FROM HER LIBRARY:
Wanderlust (duh)
Freedom
Vibrant
Expansive
Passion
Find something you are passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it -Julia ChildSOME OTHER FAVORITE CORE DESIRE WORDS:
Adventurous
Vivacious
Connected
Ebullient