Are Your Own Expectations Holding You Back?
Hello wonderful beings,
I hope this email finds you well.
The weather in D.C. has been tough this week. It doesn’t feel like spring is really here even though the Gregorian calendar says it is. I planned to write to you about growth and renewal, but when I sat to get my thoughts out on paper I didn't feel inspired by the beautiful rebirth that usually comes with the changing of seasons. At first I got frustrated, then I realized that I was facing resistance because what I was trying to write about something that just didn't resonate with me in the moment. I was wishing for sunshine and warmth while watching inches of snow pile up outside my window.
So, I sat, took a deep breath, and listened to my heart. It unveiled an important and timeless topic: attachment.
We make life harder when we resist reality. In this instance, I was attached to what I had expected to write about and what I had hoped the weather would be. I was creating my own suffering by attaching to an idea that could (quite literally!) change with the weather. Sometimes we get so caught up in how we expect something or someone to be that we can’t be present and see the beauty in what is actually occurring. I didn’t want snow to be falling or the temperature to be 29 degrees, but that was the reality and it was actually breathtakingly beautiful when I stopped and paid full attention.
My wish for you today is that you can have the space and clarity to examine your expectations and chose your reactions to reality carefully. As one of my teachers, Sharon Salzberg, says: “we are not trying to change our thoughts, we are trying to change or relationship to them."
Wishing you a wonderful spring. Remember: you are the sky. Everything else is just the weather.
Love, light, and deep breaths,
Liz
P.S. If this winter weather has you feeling a little stiff, come move, strengthen & stretch with me this weekend! I’ll be at Yoga Heights this Sunday!
Hamstrings – Stretch & Strengthen
Yoga Heights Georgia Avenue
Sunday, March 25th / 1:30 - 3 p.m. / $20
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