 Winter came knocking on my door last week, before June had even begun, to present me with a dose of the flu (damn!) which kept me in bed for a few days. Not being up to doing my usual activities, it turned into a time of reflection for which I am now thankful.
It's easy to get caught up in the 'busyness' of our everyday lives & we don't allow the quiet time to just switch off, retreat & take stock of how our lives are really going? Curled up in bed for a few days certainly gave me the opportunity to do some 'soul searching'. What's working - what's not. What needs to change? Have some of my expectations been a bit unrealistic?
Unrealistic expectations can leave us feeling disappointed, angry, resentful, depressed. It can be looking for the perfect relationship, expecting a promotion that doesn't happen, expecting people to treat you a certain way, etc. We focus on what went wrong & miss the opportunity to see the good that is in our life. I find that when I let go of expectations of how something should turn out, you take the pressure off yourself, there is less room for disappointment & you can actually be pleasantly surprised by a good outcome that you hadn't been expecting. Hanging onto the vision of how the situation 'should' be, can stop you seeing the possibility of new opportunities coming into your life that can actually be better for you. Just accepting we are all different and doing the best we can and looking for the good in others, can improve the quality of our lives.
Daily appreciation of the good in our lives dissolves the feelings of disappointment & negativity that unrealistic expectations create. Being thankful for the good in our lives, grounds us in the present, a glancing back, with thanks for what was and projecting forward to what could be - our hopes and dreams. Get into the habit of being thankful of every positive aspect of your life, no matter how small. You feel more alive & attract less conflict into your life. We can tend to worry about the things we don't have in our life & take for granted the many things that we are fortunate to have.
Years ago I started a Gratitude Journal in a small notebook that I keep next to my bed & most evenings before I go to bed, write down 5 things I was thankful for that day. It can include comments like - "I am thankful for my good health, finding the car keys, living in a peaceful country, loving what I do, being appreciated for something I've done, etc. On the days that haven't been that good, I read some of the previous pages, to remind myself of all the good in my life. This lifts my spirits & stops me getting stuck in negative thinking.
Find something or someone to be thankful for everyday. Thank you so much to the people who have emailed me, to share their positive feedback about the newsletters. I'm so glad that my topics are of interest to those people.
Cheers, Eva
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