Spiritual nature of expectation

The Spiritual nature of expectations:

My mentor Linda and our spirit guide Z wrote recently wrote an article on the nature of personal expectations. I wanted to write my own interpretation of it detailing my own feelings on the matter. You can find Linda's article here:

http://www.dragonofdrama.com/archives

http://dragonofdrama.com/ssllessonarchives/ssl51-current/Lesson57TheDangersofExpectations.pdf

Here is what I wrote:

My musings on expectations:

What we expect (our expectations) is not so much bad, as it is an assumption about our desires. As such we are saying something with emotional energy about what we assume we do not have. This is really an unexplored belief backed up by unexpressed feelings. It manifests in our reality. This then becomes a perceived circumstance that highlights our feelings of lack and unfilled attainment of the expectation. And so instead of often getting what we think we should have it becomes a revolving self fulfilling cycle of what we do not have, or lack.

It is important not to judge your expectation and assign them a value or label of good or bad, but rather to look at them honestly. Front and back and just feel them, feel yourself, when placed against your highest possible self. Don't ignore them or how you view yourself in them. Keep an open mind as you move through life, open to what may be an expectation. It is then, with feeling you can let go and release those that do not serve the greater good, your greater good.

When you run across thoughts of worry, stress, and judgement of yourself and others that give you resistance; Look at your expectations in terms of outcome. What results did or do you expect and why? Are they fair to others and yourself. Why? In both cases... Look behind the why. What feelings did doing so engender? What do they say about yourself? Is that who you are?

If we can be honest with ourselves, even should we not understand what we feel, even should we be unsure of what we even think, even should we even not know what we expect; It is important to understand that the beliefs and feelings behind these thoughts are creative tools. They will manifest and they will engage others besides your self.

The best co-creations come from mutual agreement, co-operation, and mutual understanding of equality. Where the manifestation of expectation gets us into trouble is when we hold onto it's engendered desires and make assumptions about not only our part, but that of others. Many times these assumptions are enmeshed with many other unexplored beliefs and feelings such as gain, selfishness, fear, love, lust, desire, want, need, etc. So what even on the surface may seem like a simple thing. It really is a storm waiting to brew. Expectation is simply the signal to stop and examine it, if only we take the time to do so.

Some times our expectations intertwine with what is not only emotional energy, but that of perceived life goals, tasks, jobs, duties and responsibilities. Wealth, status, and life style demands. All of which on the surface seem to only be of a physical or ephemeral nature, but are really emotional manifestations. We not only place these into categories of right or wrong, but assign value judgements and labels on our self perceptions, but additionally on others and our relationship to those perceptions. The point is that we often become lost while deep in focus of any desire. Who we are becomes a jumble of emotions that seem to run away from us.

We encounter emotional resistance in our lives when confronted with such things. We often take the path of least resistance. Which at the time, we feel may lay outside of us and in others. Our feelings of expectation become an attitude. This then becomes a highly charged creative force. But because we are focused in what we seem to lack, it only creates more lack and more misconception from who and what we are. Because we are so focused on what is outside of ourselves when we feel this way, we often deny our inner nature.

It is important to know that all of this, is actually a state of being. A frame of mind, or a focus of consciousness. While neither here nor there in the grand scheme of things, such expectations only allow for stagnation and places the burden of your emotional energy on others to whom you are seeking validation of your expectation from. This will only create problems as you are then no longer co-creating in harmony with others. The result is like two magnets of the same polarity attempting to collide. They will bounce back with equal force, unable to complement each other.

We all have expectations. We shouldn't just ignore them. It is a tool for expansion and growth. What we should do is examine how we feel about them and the beliefs behind those feelings. There are many types of expectations. There are those we have of those we share life and work with. They involve actions or reactions we desire to use, to further our own experiences or agendas. Then there are expectations that involve your perceptions of others beliefs and feelings. These are frequently born out of you desiring to control your environment.

Sometimes these expectations come into being due to family or interpersonal relationships, dependency and support. Many times these expectations are never met, but produce the opposite effect as disharmonious experiences. If such happens it's vital that the emotional energy generated is not internalized in destructive ways. You can transfer, transform, absorb, reflect, or let it flow around you.

Many times we are unable to refocus our consciousness in the event of unfulfilled expectations. This is basically us refusing to look inward. We stay focused on external events, and people as blame, judgement, and evaluation.

This sort of thing happens not only unfairly with others, but we are often our own worst critics and judges. The expectations we heap on ourselves are often unnecessary and wildly out of line with out best interest. We confuse needs with desire. And these desires are often not even our own. They are born out of how we mis-percieve others beliefs and feelings. Our misconception of others expectations of us, society and life in general. Not only that we reflect this back in unfair expectations that are not in others best interest or for the greater good.

The point of this is to not give into what you do not examine. To ignore your inner self is to abandon equal co-creation in the moment of now. It is to live in the past or future and force an emotional or physical manifestation. This disharmonious energy creates an ever baring cycle of energy that has no where to go, but in creating worry, doubt, fear, anger, frustration, and anxiety. When you ignore your inner power in the moment of now we often create a co-dependency to fill what we perceive are holes in our lives. You are not only giving your power away, you are allowing it to be taken from you. Only you can take back the reins of life.

To release expectation is not to struggle with the mystical desire to rid yourself of emotional desire, want, or need. It is to simply take the time to stop, look, and feel yourself within each circumstance. To compare that to your highest possible self, in light of the greater good. Do unto others as you would do unto yourself.

When you approach life with the goal of understanding your emotional energy you naturally balance and release misaligned expectation, and desire. And you work in harmony with others as you seek to equally co-create your experiences. In this frame of mind you will be more willing to accept personal responsibility for your choices, actions, and beliefs regardless of life circumstances. The love you will see within you as available for sharing will be unconditional. It is work. Hard work, but this intention is not. The intention to maintain inner mindfulness is smooth, natural and easy to return to. It is a simple choice based on your new awareness.

Once the personal affirmation of the inner self is acknowledged you may just find that what you thought you desired and expected... you did not really want or need anyway. Because it wasn't who you really are. Now freed you can refocus with your better understanding of self.