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“Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.”  – The Dalai Lama

Haven’t we all experienced this before?  And, yet we’re still so fixated on getting what we want sometimes, huh?

K, super-simple, kinda-cheesy personal example I have of this is from a couple years back when I used to live a few blocks away from my gym.  I had this ritual of stopping by my favorite organic produce shop on my way back from the gym and buying an Asian pear.  Kinda insane how much I’d look forward to this pear every day  (expectations).

So, one day, the shop is closed.  WTF?! (Mega-disappointment!)  I cannot even begin to tell you how frustrated I became over, yes, an Asian pear!  I could think of nothing worse!

I begrudgingly went into the next local market, already knowing they did not carry Asian pears.  Still, I held onto a little hope, and, nope!  No Asian pears! My entire day ruined!  Beyond disappointed.  Beyond! Wah! Uh-huh, I gave life another shot, and, again, life failed me (no seriously, I really thought that!)

As I’m leaving the shop, only the teeny tiniest cutest wittle kitten goes running past me!  It was playing with a string on the floor.  OMG, So. Cute!!! Aaaahhhh!!!  I picked up the string and started playing with the itty bitty cuteness before me.  More aaaaaahhhhh!!! Too cute to handle, even!  We played for a good while- I was giggling, laughing, forgot all about my Asian pear!  What a pleasant surprise!

I woulda never even thought about entering that store, had it not been for my fave market being closed.  By the time I left the store, I was completely grateful my market was closed and I got to play with only the cutest wittle kitty I’ve ever seen!

Expectations and disappointment.

I view expectations as an attachment to the outcome of a situation.   Like as though the outcome of a situation is what validates the situation.  Like, if I get my pear, all is well.  I’m attached to the pear as being the outcome of the situation,  validating the situation, indicating all is well.

If I don’t get my pear/anticipated outcome, then all is not well in the world.  Limiting, right?  Or, like, the work-out was in vein.  Why work-out if I don’t get my reward at the end?  Yup, how about I choose one tiny little possible outcome to validate my entire work-out or morning route back from the gym?  Super limiting, yeah?

Without the expectations, we are open to the infinite possibilities that exist within every situation, every moment in time.  Pretty cool, yeah?  Living in the realm of possibilities.

If the anticipated outcome isn’t defining the moment, then the moment itself must define the moment, yeah?  What, you’ve never heard of life being a journey and not a destination (thanks, Aerosmith circa 1996!)? It prevents disappointment.  It makes it so that all is well every single moment. .  It makes it so that all is well just cuz.  (Don’t even know how I came up with the equation that pear = all is well!) It makes it so that we are not limited in our perception and in our experience of life.

Now let’s say, I was super fixated on that pear and had put even more emphasis and value on it.  I’d have been even more attached to this anticipated outcome.  I may have seen the cute little kitty and been like, “Get outta here kitty!  You’re not a pear!  You’re not what I asked for!” and continued to have a let-down of a day.

At times, we may get so absorbed in the disappointment of life not living up to our expectations that we completely pass up wonderful and fantastical opportunities!  More eloquently put by Alexander Graham Bell,

When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one that has opened for us.

Yo, so many doors!  Why deny ourselves so many of them?  Just say no to expectations and disappointments, and say YES to living in the realm of possibilities, open doors, and pleasant surprises!!

**Stay tuned for next week’s intuitive acupuncture point that will help integrate this message into your body!