Life is full of lessons and learnings, but only if we are open to seeing and receiving them.
As I am writing this blog, I am currently in Bali (2018) doing a yoga teacher training for the next month or so, and I have already witnessed a couple of lessons.
Lesson 1 – Letting go of expectations
It is so interesting how the human mind works!
We make picture and stories up in our minds about people, places, situations and events and how they are going look or play out, but when they don’t go to plan or meet our expectations, we often instantly get flooded with negative thoughts that turn into emotions such as guilt, sadness, shame, doubt, anger or resentment for example. Which can often hang around for hours or days if we don’t know how to shake them off.
When I was planning my Bali trip I booked, what seemed to be a beautiful home stay close to where my yoga teacher training was, but when I arrived I was given a different room due to renovations.
BOOM! You can imagine my mind chatter when the room wasn’t what I have expected or imagined.
As soon as I saw the room my mind was racing – “this is not what I had in mind”, “why didn’t they tell me about the renovations” and “I can’t stay here”.
Having arrived at my accomodation at 11.45pm and 2.45am Melbourne time, I was clearly not thinking rationally.
The next morning instead of holding on to the grudge and emotions that had caused the expectation hangover in the first place (great book by the way), I took a moment to reflect on the room, come back to my breath and asked myself “What is the lesson here?”.
I have had a similar situation occur when I travelled overseas and instead of going into “fix it mode”, I looked at being in Bali as a gift.
The home stay is so peaceful, tranquil and 200m from my training that I flipped from having an “expectation crisis” to being grateful, at peace and thankful with my new home.
I had let go of my expectations and found a greater perspective and learning from the situation.
So if you find yourself holding on to expectations in your life, try and find the lesson or learning that this event or situation is giving you.
Life is full of lessons, guidance and wisdom, so be willing to stop, breath, reflect and take time to appreciate what they are offering to you.
Allow yourself to release all the expectation you have of yourself, of others and of life!
“Peace begins when expectation ends” – Sri Chinmoy