Expectations

Many wise people have said essentially this throughout the ages:

Any kind of expectation creates a problem. We should accept, but not expect. Whatever comes, accept it. Whatever goes, accept it. The immediate benefit is that your mind is always peaceful.

~~Sri Swami Satchidananda

It's hard not to have expectations, I know. And I think we often have them unconsciously and then experience great disappointment when they're not met. The way to work with that reality is to accept the feeling disappointment without judgment when it arises and then to say, "Oh, I guess I had the expectation of such-and-such." The next step is to let go of the attachment to whatever the expectation was. In this way we can learn to sit loose to our expectations even if we can't eliminate them altogether.