What you seek is seeking you!

Oh, how I used to love the romanticized definition of this quote from Rumi. The idea that what I desire most in life, desires me. What I want is somehow my right, since it wants me too… But I read it completely differently now.

It’s nice to think that what you love actually loves you, what you desire desires you, and what you want wants you. But is this what the famous quote said by Rumi really is about?

We are often faced with different situations. Sometimes, we feel like everything is against us, sometimes we feel very happy, and we are not sure if we deserve that. At times, we feel sad, unmotivated, useless, or annoyed. Thinking about our situation makes us think that that is something we deserve, something we were seeking for.

Have you ever found yourself in the situation, that made you wonder why things were in that way?

Having a typical day but not feeling as you generally do, or being positive somehow even though there is no reason for you to be so. You are just at home alone while having a positive attitude and suddenly you receive an email that says you have been accepted to an opportunity you have applied to a long time ago.

How surprising it is, you might be thinking, since you really wanted to be part of that opportunity but you were not actually expecting it to happen. Your positive attitude is what made it possible: and now you really have a specific reason to be happy because you achieved something you wanted.

But just like having positive feelings, we often feel sad as well thinking about the worst possible thing that could happen. Even though we try to focus on elements of our lives that make us feel great and worthy, sometimes, our wishes just don’t happen the way we dream it. We feel blue and we convince ourselves that we do have a reason to feel like that.

There are many hard and painful events that could trigger this feeling such as a breakup, an illness, or worries over money. But when we find ourselves in these situations, it might turn out that what we were looking for was looking for us too. Of course, people don’t consciously search for these situations. But when we allow ourselves to feel depressed and focus on this emotion, we experience our mood getting worse. After all, what we focus on grows and with feelings, this is often the case.

Another example of getting what you actually want can be explained by the persistent desire to make an effort while not caring about the outcome. Working towards something and enjoying the journey while being detached from the results that we create. Because we often set goals, but not necessarily the goals that are true to our desires. So often we look for one thing and work towards another that’s completely different.

If you are tired of doing the same work every day, if you feel you deserve more, if you feel your life bores you — what does it actually mean? There is a quote by Abraham Lincoln that says “I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have”. Maybe what you really want is to feel that you are doing the best you can, not necessarily to succeed, just to feel worthy. And ironically, when you do that, you are actually more likely to succeed.

Society tells us that we become what we were meant to be. For some people, it is hard to choose a career path, a profession, or an area of study, while others know what they want and see themselves in a certain profession or life path since their childhood. When you are attracted to your true profession, it is probably because you have some qualities or skills for that profession. This is not just because you want to leverage your abilities but because you enjoy doing things that are related to your future job position. And the more you do of it, the more you improve.

For example, if you usually like being around children, it fills you up with energy, and you have a special connection with them, then there are chances that you will have a profession related to kids: such as a teacher, paediatrician, or a child social worker.

So sometimes we seek what we want and sometimes it finds us instead. Sometimes, even though we are not expecting to have a great time, something changes and we do have a wonderful time. That joy was created by our intention to let it into our lives and our decision to be happy no matter how our circumstances are. The golden opportunity or a series of lucky happenings were seeking us already, we just gave permission to ourselves to accept them.

The quote by Rumi “what you seek is seeking you” is a complex idea and it can be understood in many ways depending on your perspective. But one thing that is common in all is a reminder that the things we desire are not that difficult to be achieved if only we are willing to change ourselves. The things we desire are seeking us in the same way we are seeking them, maybe even more. Otherwise, we could not have them in our imagination. We can only see what is present in our thinking, what is a part of us.

Trying to understand Rumi’s beautiful words it is not always easy, let alone to agree on their meaning. But that’s the beauty of it: it means something different for all of us but the core message is the same, which is what connects us. And this connection is really magical, a bond over an epiphany or revelation. It is what reminds us that we often go through the same joys and struggles and we always have someone to share it with, who understands.