Sometimes expecting something to be a particular way is very useful. Now that we are planning vacations again, imagining what is going to happen helps us prepare for it.

When you’re planning a trip to the beach, packing swimsuits and sunscreen because you expect swimming on warm sunny days is useful. But what happens if the weather is cool and rainy?

Did you consider this possibility too? Did you bring a sweatshirt, an umbrella and some playing cards along with your beach prep? If you did, you are probably feeling a little disappointed but managing just fine.

But if all your anticipated scenarios involve sunshine, you may be feeling stressed, angry and/or cheated. Your picture of how things should be interferes with your ability to respond to what actually IS.

This is a time to recognize that your expectations, those pictures of sunshine, are triggering an unpleasant reaction. If you want to change your reaction, you can work hard to count your blessings and focus on something positive.

You could also retrieve and reclaim your energy from the images of sunshine using the 3 sentences you learn in this book. Then your negative reactions will disappear, and you’ll be able to respond to your current circumstances.

This process works any time you react to unmet expectations.

This paragraph is a comment I wrote about a passage on Page 111 of Letting It Go: Relieve Anxiety and Toxic Stress in Just a Few Minutes Using Only Words (Rapid Relief with Logosynthesis®.) You can see the passage in the book. You can also see the excerpt here. This link will take you to Bublish.com, where I regularly publish comments on parts of this book. This is a site where authors share of their work. You can subscribe to my musings, there, as well as to the musings of many other authors. It’s a great place to learn about new books and I recommend that you visit.