“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall
never be disappointed.” Alexander Pope
If you are diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, one of the many autoimmune diseases, you may
feel devastated when the doctor tells you that there is no cure. When the
doctor prescribes some medications for you to treat your disease symptoms, you
expect they will be effective; when they don’t work, you then become
disappointed.
Given that nearly all of us go through life expecting
certain things to happen, we become greatly disappointed when things do not
turn out the way we think they should. As a matter of fact, in life, things
seldom go our ways, and life is never what it should be. Our disappointments
can easily turn into anger, anxiety, despair, regret, and many other negative
emotions that adversely affect who we are and how we process our thoughts.
To offset or diminish the devastating emotional
consequences as a result of not meeting our expectations, many of us may resort
to mentally expecting the worst, instead of the best, while hoping against hope
that we may still be pleasantly surprised; deliberately lowering our life
expectations to proportionately reduce the extent of our disappointments; and
consciously expecting no expectation whatsoever with our complete detachment.
Processing expectations is more complex than we may
think. The mental exertion to “expect the unexpected”, to “go with the flow”,
and to “live in the present without any future expectation” is easier said than
done, and may be even difficult or impossible for most of us.
So, how do we live our lives in these circumstances? How should we process our life expectations?
THE BOOK OF LIFE AND LIVING may provide you with
the wisdom in the art of living well. This 200-page book explains in simple
language with common everyday examples to illustrate the essence of Tao wisdom
and how it may integrate with conventional wisdom to live a life of your choice.
Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau
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