The Expand Your Awareness Five Week Challenge. Week Five: Choosing awareness over expectation

Welcome to the final article in the expand your awareness five-week challenge. In the last four weeks, we have developed strategies to help us choose awareness over judgement, projection, rejection and separation. This week’s final challenge is to harness your awareness over feelings of expectation.

What are your expectations?

Do you ever find that you get angry with someone because they failed to live up to an expectation you have (e.g. returning your call, turning up to your appointment on time)?

Expectations are the judgements you place on someone else on what they should or shouldn’t do. It is these expectations that we use to have a level of control for ourselves. The expectations help us to separate and reject ourselves from others.

As well as having an expectation of others, we may also suffer as a result of someone else’s expectations of us. For example, parents will often tell their children to be good or perfect. However, this will involve someone living by someone else’s standards and not their own.

The problem with expectations is they create only two options; to be right or wrong. To live up to expectations, or feel like you have failed. The problem multiplies when so many different people have expectations, which means you are bound to upset someone and be wrong at some point. As the saying goes; you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

Why choose awareness over expectation?

Holding on to expectations or living up to expectations is unrealistic. By following someone’s expectations of you, you will inevitably not live up standards set by someone else. By creating expectations of others, we cause hurt, sadness and anxiety for ourselves as well as the other person. Instead, having awareness and acceptance can help us to be happy and honour our true path.

In order to have a great relationship with yourself and others, you need to let go of damaging expectations. Just because someone does something one day, does not mean that they will do it the next day. By allowing others to grow, you allow yourself to grow. No expectations mean you can be whomever you want to be and you support others in being themselves too.

How to choose awareness over expectation

1. Notice when you have an expectation of someone or someone is expecting of you.
2. Ask yourself how the expectation makes you feel?
3. Consider how your feelings would change if there were no expectation.
4. Check whether your expectation is stopping you or others from being their true self.
5. Address each situation as if it is new, without expectation or prediction.

Expectations are easy to manifest, but when they do, you have the power to address them. Remember, people change and grow, as do relationships. As long as you honour your true self and allow yourself to be human, there should be no expectation for you and others. Having no expectation helps to make everything new, unexpected and an exciting adventure.

Start choosing awareness over expectation today

For so many of my clients, one of the biggest hurdles getting in the way of their happiness is expectation. Whether it is an expectation of their partner, of themselves or the stress of trying to live up to the expectation of others, many people struggle and it is completely normal.

Through an innovative blend of hypnotherapy techniques and life coaching, I can help you to find your true path and rid yourself of the burden of expectation to find happiness. What to find out more? Email me at info@hypnosis-in-london.com, and we can arrange a free 15-minute consultation to find the best path for you.

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References:

Consciousness, A. (2018). 10 Tips to Creating a Great Relationship – Access Consciousness Blog. [online] Access Consciousness Blog. Available at: http://access-consciousness-blog.com/2017/11/10-tips-creating-great-relationship/ [Accessed 13 May 2018].

Consciousness, A. (2018). Creating a Relationship That Works For You – Access Consciousness Blog. [online] Access Consciousness Blog. Available at: http://access-consciousness-blog.com/2017/06/creating-relationship-works/ [Accessed 13 May 2018].

Golden, B. (2018). How Realistic Are Your Expectations of Your Partner?. [online] Psychology Today. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/overcoming-destructive-anger/201803/how-realistic-are-your-expectations-your-partner [Accessed 13 May 2018].