There are two kinds of desires. One kind is those desires which have been artificially created by society, while the other kind is those that come out of our hearts and are in harmony with our purpose in life.

By applying adequate methods and exercising much perseverance you can achieve most of the desires that society has artificially created and imposed upon you, but achieving such desires can never allow you to experience what you were expecting to experience before you set out to achieve them.

From our earliest days, the teachers in schools, politicians, and many other different authorities have been trying to create an image of what they think is best for us and impose upon us the vision of life which we should strive for. Religious teachers are trying to persuade us that only the religion they speak for is the right one, while all the others are wrong, of course!

In other words, from our earliest days society is treating us like a huge flock in which we all should live in the same way, have the same ambitions, believe the same vision of God and strive for the same ideals.

Many fall into such traps and live their entire lives in them. Once they realize that their life is not anywhere near what they thought it would be, they comfort themselves by thinking that God has meaningful reasons for why things are so, or they think that by living like that they are clearing out their past-life karma.

Though all of us have been through such phases in our lives to an extent, that does not mean that at this very moment we cannot take a different route and begin living the way we really wish to live. Every individual has the possibility and the freedom of choice to take a look into their heart and seek the answer to this question, "Why have I come here?", or, "What is it that I have come to experience?"

In order to become aware of the desires of our hearts, we first need to become aware that we have such desires in the first place. Our awareness of the existence of these desires is a great step toward our consciousness of them.

The second important factor in becoming aware of such desires is our intention to become conscious. If you are persistent enough in your intention to become conscious, it is just a matter of time when such desires will begin to flicker in you, making it perfectly clear to you that those are the desires of your heart.

In becoming conscious of your heart desires and purpose in life in general, prayer can be of great help. Regardless of your religious background, praying just means talking to God/Higher Self/Source/Universe (or whatever you wish to name it) - and nothing else! Praying does not mean that you need to be humble and kneel on your knees. Prayer is not doing what the prayer book in a certain religious group says, nor is it using standard forms or texts which are used for prayer. You can pray at any time and in any way that seems appropriate to you. I would even recommend that instead of the word "prayer" you use the phrase "talking to God." Such phrasing is energetically much closer to what prayer should be.

You do not need to belong to any religion or spiritual organization in order to have "the right" to talk to God. In the same way that you speak with any person that you are free to talk completely openly, you can also talk to God in the same manner.

What we have said so far is literally all you need to know in order to begin praying. You can go and discover further steps based on your own experience. The more you practice prayer, the clearer and more comprehensive your communication with God will become.

Another extremely efficient way of becoming conscious of the desires of your heart, is meditation. When we talk about meditation, it is important to be aware of the differences between meditation techniques and the state of meditation. Techniques of meditation are active steps toward achieving the state of meditation, while meditation in itself is a state. Meditation is a state in which we feel completely connected to our spiritual Self. It is in the state of meditation that we can experience most clearly the essence of what we hope to experience after we have achieved individual goals and desires, which is precisely why I personally consider meditation to be the most important tool in bringing consciousness of the energy that we are so eager to experience on Earth.