I love people that make me laugh!

Expectations are the Anchor, Not the Engine

Expectations are the anchor, not the engine.

Our yoga instructors at Corepower Yoga would consistently drop truths on us to ponder during our yoga hours at the studio. One of our favorite teachers was coping with the recent diagnosis that her mother had Alzheimer’s. She noted that the doctor sat her and her dad down to gently remind them to focus on the here and now. Don’t look back to the past or be sad for the future, he told them. Be present now. In this day. We still remember her moving remarks and we attempt to live that way now.

Mark stated this, expectations are the anchor, not the engine, during our C2 Yoga on the Grass class this morning in Louisville, Colorado under a crystal clear blue sky day. It was 62 degrees and 26 yogis went through a tough routine, sweating like we were in the 103 degree Corepower Yoga studio! Mark is one of our favorite instructors. He sports a bandanna on his head, long silver gray beard, tatted left arm, and he blasts 70’s rock music for the whole hour. We love his classes. He works us hard and by the end of the session, my legs are shaking. I feel stronger as I roll up my yoga mat and we all laughingly disperse.

And today he spoke this truth. Expectations are the anchor, not the engine.

Right now in 2020, a global pandemic has blown up all of our expectations. Expecting to travel. Expecting to live seasonally around the world. Expecting to celebrate special events by hugging my family and friends. Expecting that the world will continue as planned. Expecting that our lives should proceed as they did back in the easy, breezy days of February.

I have been heartsick by this whole topsy turvy world and I wake up hoping that the day before was merely a dream. I don’t want to live like this. No one wishes to live like this! I want to travel. I want to live abroad. I want to be in all of the locations we had planned right now. And then I realize how narcissistic I appear. It’s about me! So far no one we know has succumbed to this awful disease. But it could happen and I have to step back and stop being selfish.

The expectation to live seasonally around the world is my “anchor” right now. I am holding on to this rightful belief, stamp my foot, mentality which holds me back from accepting this awful reality we live in. That anchor is weighing me down. Keeping me rooted in anger and denial.

Rick’s friend, Stewart Emery, wrote the book, Who’s In Your Room. In his highly visual description, he lays out the truths about our lives. If we let someone in our “room” or our life, they should not be anchors. Who wants people around you who spew negative thoughts, continually criticize, espouse pessimistic, defeatist and gloomy comments?

People want engines in their lives. Friends who build you up and enrich us with their optimistic opinions. Make you feel like you can be the best version of yourself. I like happy people who smile. Doesn’t everyone?

Emery is correct. We desire engines in our lives, not anchors.

So if I am holding onto my expectations for 2020, my expectations have become anchors. I need engines to propel me forward. These engines can be my people in my room who are my happy, optimistic friends. The people in my life who continually make me laugh. Or it can be the release of the expectations I have held onto which have become my anchors.

So today I am fully releasing my expectations. I will motor forward. At least I can try!

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