Let Life Surprise You
I am a big daydreamer.
Sometimes I convince myself that what I’m doing is “manifesting” but since manifestation requires you to have no attachment to the outcome, and I tend to get very attached to my imagined outcomes, yeah, I’m just daydreaming.
And there’s nothing wrong with daydreaming!
However.
I love to craft the coolest, most unique and feel-good endings to my daydreams and then I love to expect those endings to actually come to fruition. On occasion they do, most times they do not. And then I get upset.
A new friend of mine by the name of Julie V. (hey girl!!) reminded me recently about a mantra that is currently making real sense.
Let life surprise you.
All of my imagined scenarios…
whose outcomes I obviously, on some level, try to manipulate in my favor for 2 reasons:
I can believe that I’ve truly manifested something great
I can believe I am a full-fledged psychic
…lead me to disappointment when the perceived climax isn’t how I imagined it to be.
Even when the outcome IS how I imagined it, something is always off. It doesn’t feel as surreal as it did in my daydream, or it isn’t as magical as I expected it to be. For some reason, it’s missing the goosebumps or fireworks or heart bursts that were present in my head.
If I stopped inventing these mental scenarios, everything that happened to me would be a total surprise.
Surprise! Your temporary apartment in Mexico City is across the street from a tortillera, where you can buy 10 freshly made tortillas for 20 cents.
Surprise! Flying with a cat isn’t nearly as big a deal as you thought it would be. Maybe she’s actually a dog.
Surprise! This new audio book that everyone raved about is actually super boring and overrated and now you don’t have to waste 10 hours listening to it.
Surprise! Prince Charming is sitting next to you at the corner cafe on a day that you washed your hair and put on some tinted lip gloss.
Surprise! That didn’t happen, it’s just an attempt at manifestation.
Rewiring my brain NOT to ruminate over every outcome of every situation I could possibly find myself in is hard. I’ve been spending so much time floating in and out of these scenarios in my head that floating out of them permanently is hugely uncomfortable.
However, it’s been easier to catch myself daydreaming (thank you, 193 days of meditation) and when I do, I interrupt myself with the mantra “Let life surprise you”.
The idea that something totally new and wacky that I never could think up in a million years might happen in the next minute or hour is WONDERFUL. It triggers my curious mind, which is more fun to hang out with than my ruminating mind, and I relax and feel myself open up. Go ahead life, surprise me today.
Sometimes the surprises are almost undetectable. I oddly ordered a Taro Latte recently for no apparent reason and was pleasantly surprised to discover it tastes exactly like ice cream. Just warm and more liquidy. Likely equal amounts of sugar.
Other times, the surprises are significant. A friend of a friend was in a bind, looking desperately for an apartment in Miami to no avail, and is now living in mine and paying my rent as I frolic around Mexico. AND watering my plants!
This little mantra is changing the game for me. Do I sometimes have to repeat it about one hundred times in a row? Why yes. Yes I do. But whatever!
Anyway my point is this. Not all daydreams are bad. It’s the expectation of a desired outcome that throws a wrench in it. When we create artificial outcomes, it leaves very little room for BETTER outcomes. The universe has no chance to surprise you. Life gets linear and predictable and becomes one more task that you feel you need to control.
You don’t.
Let it go, let it be hard, let it be uncomfortable. It will get easier, lighter, and more jovial as you fall into a comfy hammock of trust. When you’re finally swinging free in that hammock is when the surprises come.
You’ll see, life is absolutely full of them.
Like, SURPRISE! My return flight to Miami is taking off RIGHT NOW, yet here I am at my kitchen table in Mexico City, writing this love letter to you! Guess I’ll see you later than expected!
With ALLLLLL the love,
Bethany
