Let’s talk about your life.  Do you feel free? Joyful? Connected?  Most importantly, does your life feel the way you want it to feel?

When I read The Desire Map by Danielle LaPorte for the first time, my life was not feeling the way I wanted it to.

I was doing okay as a professional coach, but I couldn’t shake the feeling, that “I” was missing in my work.  My soul was not being honored…it was just business.  I wasn’t allowing myself to show up completely.  It’s not that I wasn’t effective and able to support women to greater lives, but I wasn’t feeling as fulfilled as I knew I could.  Enter the Desire Map…I read and listened to the book several times for nearly a year, but never put pen to paper and did the work.  Not until I attended an in-person workshop.  There I had the space, intention, and support to connect to my soul and get real clear about what I wanted to be and feel in my work.

My Core Desired Feelings didn’t come immediately.  While most were calling theirs out and relishing in their new awareness, the only one I could speak as my truth was “FREE”.  I felt the ever present need to call out a few more that would work fine, but I knew they would be manufactured – not organic and connected to my soul, as was my intention for attending the workshop and waiting nearly a year to do the work.

I went to my hotel room the second evening.  I turned the lights out, I lay in bed, and my eyes were closed, but CDF’s were dancing through my head like sugar plums on Christmas eve.

The second CDF was born sometime during the night…INNOCENCE.  I want to feel the innocence of a child’s curiosity and imagination in my work, when first meeting people, and embarking on new projects.

The next, from out of nowhere it seemed…VERACIOUS.  I have always been a truth teller.  However, I have fell victim to the success trap.  I want to be successful like so and so – so mimic their ways…fake it until you make it.  I’ve always known to just do me and the perfect clients, partners, friends, tribe will manifest.  I may not be perfect.  But I will from here moving forward…do me!

The following was glaringly obvious, but I needed the time to accept it…DEEP LOVE.  I love quickly and deeply most people I meet.  Being an empath I feel deeply and care deeply.  Throw in deep compassion and it’s a love fest.

These three were gifts that came through wakeful dreaming.

There was one more that I had actually called upon over a decade ago…PEACE.  This one is vital for my sobriety – my whole-person health and wellbeing.  I know when I don’t have peace I need to do some work; confront an issue, have a conversation, maybe even let go of something or someone.  PEACE is definitely a CDF.  Who knew?  I was calling on a Core Desired Feeling before I even knew what to call it.  This only enhances the work I’ve been doing and I get to show up fully and love my clients deeply.  Yes, this is the life!

The Desire Map was the catalyst for the change I needed.

This book isn’t just intellectual theory. It actually walks you through the process of practically (+ soulfully) creating a life that you actually want to live, connected to people, experiences and things that you actually want to be connected to.

It seems so obvious, right?

Of course! My life should feel good!

But the thing is, so many of us aren’t living that way. We’re fixated on what others think we should do.  We’re pushing ourselves to meet someone else’s expectations of The Great Mom, The Successful Businesswoman, The Patient Wife or The Forgiving Friend.  And in all that striving to meet other people’s expectations, a lot of us have lost ourselves. For a while, I did.  The Desire Map snapped me out of it and got me back on my own life track, moving towards a future that feels right for me.

Want more details?  Learn more about the Desire Map.

Love, Teresa

– Certified Life Coach & Desire Map Facilitator