I think that it's really important in life to try and find balance. That's a huge goal of mine and something I encourage my clients to find, too. An important aspect of finding balance and happiness is expectations. Evaluating one's expectations is so crucial when we find ourselves in situations where we feel upset or disappointed by others in our lives. Looking at both the overt and hidden messages that people send us with their language and actions can help us to decrease our own disappointment.
Sure, sometimes people surprise us, and behave or react in ways we don't expect, but for the most part, people are consistent. What I try to tell my clients, and work to integrate for myself, is that we can't change other people, we can only change ourselves.
It's hard to accept disappointment, because unfortunately even when we work hard to set our expectations at a reasonable place, we still have the wild card of other people's choices and actions to contend with.
Even though I teach it to my clients, it is something that I continue to work on in my own life- recite with me now, "I can only change myself, I can't change anyone else", with some deep, cleansing breaths...
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