S2 - Ep.4: Encountering Desire

In this episode the hosts talked about desire, how we encounter desire in our lives, the existential significance of desire, various issues that surround experiencing desire such as the fear of desire, unfulfilled desires, or lack of desire, and how to honour and live our desires authentically and responsibly.

Desire is a fundamental human capacity to be attracted or drawn by something or somebody (the object of desire), or to experience yearnings for something or somebody that sometimes we might have not even known and yet speaks to us and calls our name. For the better or worse, desire is a powerful force in the human existence, a strong motivator, and a source of vitality. While there are dangers associated with desire, from an existential perspective, desire points to how we are reached by and connect with life, and how alive we feel. It reveals what we truly want, our deepest heart yearnings. It discloses our truest longings and attractions even if we are not willing to admit those. This way, desire reveals us with respect to the pathic dimension of our existence.

Desire invites us to leave our self-centeredness and to open up to encountering something outside ourselves that we experience as good or pleasurable. Lack of desire or avoiding our desires may lead to a flattened emotional life, chronic emotional tiredness, boredom, difficulties making decisions, and lack of fulfillment. Paying attention to our desires is essential for a rich, vital existence and deepens our self-knowledge and authentic responsibility whereas negating our desires exposes us to the danger of mindlessly acting out on impulse or to an impoverished, devitalized emotional and relational life.