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Today's
quotation:
The further you distance yourself from
your expectations, the more exhilarating your life will
become. Though a situation in which you find yourself may
not correspond to your initial wants, needs, or goals, ask
yourself how you can make the most of it and then do your
best to adapt. Your life's journey will likely take many
unpredicted and astonishing twists because you are willing
to release your expectations.
from The Daily Om
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Today's
Meditation:
Working
at the front desk of a hotel has opened my eyes to a
completely new world of expectations. We constantly
face complaints from people not because there are major
problems with the hotel, but because they've had
artificial expectations that the hotel doesn't meet.
The vast majority of the people who stay there realize
something very important: it's a hotel, not a home
and not a resort. Others, though, stress themselves
out and make themselves miserable because their
expectations aren't being met. And had they done a
tiny bit of research about the hotel before making their
reservations, they wouldn't have built up the artificial
expectations in the first place.
Some
people are disappointed that there's no Internet and no
exercise room, but they shrug their shoulders and say
"okay." Then they move on with their
lives.
Our
disappointments in life and much of our frustration comes
from expectations not being met, not necessarily from the
actions or words of others. If I expect my wife to
act a certain way in a certain situation and she doesn't,
then I've set myself up for negative feelings-- my wife has
done nothing to contribute to them. She's simply
being herself, which she has the right to be.
If
we can let life flow as it will and not expect it to flow
in ways that we want it to, we can open up a lot of doors
to new and exciting feelings that we probably wouldn't
have felt otherwise. Expectations are simply subtle
ways of developing traps in which we catch
ourselves. Letting go of expectations takes those
traps away and frees us up to enjoy this life we're living
much, much more.
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