May 25, 2025

398: Always Yearn

28 minutes

What happens when we honour both our deep gratitude for what is and our fierce yearning for what might be? How might we distinguish between the wanting that tries to fill an inner emptiness and the discontent that fuels a more life-giving opening to our lives... neither bypassing the tenderness of unfulfilled desires nor abandoning the creative energy they contain? What if our yearning, like trees reaching skyward, represents not something missing but something essential about what it means to be fully alive and engaged with the world?

A conversation about the tension between receiving life fully as it presents itself and allowing ourselves to reach toward something that is still calling us.

This week’s conversation is hosted, as always, by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.

You can join our Episode 400 Live, 8 June 2025, here

Episode Overview

00:00 Introduction and Upcoming Events

02:12 Exploring Yearning and Gratitude

06:50 The Nature of Longing

10:09 The Balance of Gratitude and Yearning

15:16 Cradling Vulnerability in Longing

20:20 The Distinction Between Wanting and Yearning

25:24 Yearning as a Call to Participation

29:54 Conclusion and Invitation to Join

Here’s our source for this week:

Always yearn

Yearning is divine discontent that fuels us to keep expanding. To yearn is to live. Our desire is what gets us up in the morning, ignites our curiosity, gives our lives resonance. Do not be disconsolate when you feel a strong sense of yearning. It is an invitation that says: there is more, there is more, there is more. The Universe is constantly expanding. Why shouldn’t you?

Yearning is not a problem to be solved. It is an energy to be explored.

Three useful questions to start your own conversation about yearning and desire

What do you want?

More, what do you long for?

Most of all, when I do not have what I long for, how can I cradle myself through that rough edge?

Tina Sederholm

www.tinasederholm.com

Photo by Duncan McNab on Unsplash

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Join Us Live in 2025

Episode 400 Live, June 8 2025

On Sunday 8th June 2025 it will be our 400th episode and we are planning a Turning Towards Life live gathering on Zoom. You're all very welcome to join. It will be a wonderful opportunity to meet us and to meet others. You can book a place for Episode 400 Live on June 8 here.

Turning Towards Life Live Season 1, from September 2025

We also have the launch of our Turning Towards Life live programme which is going to run in six month seasons from September. It's going to be in person on Zoom once a month. We're very excited about it. A chance to expand beyond the bounds of a podcast into forming a community of learning and practice. You can register your interest for Season 1 of Turning Towards Life Live here.

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About Turning Towards Life

Turning Towards Life, a week-by-week conversation inviting us deeply into our lives, is a live 30 minute conversation hosted by Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn of Thirdspace. Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website, and you can also watch and listen on Instagram, YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google, Amazon Music and Spotify.

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Keywords: divine discontent, yearning practice, gratitude practice, creative relationship, vulnerability cradle, expansion energy, spiritual yearning, inner emptiness, receiving life, contribution mindset, bounty sharing, rough edge, fullness orientation, divine longing, creative field, human bounty, life engagement, tender vulnerability, authentic wanting, relationship creativity, spiritual expansion, longing distinction, gratitude receiving, yearning exploration, creative partnership

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