If there is one truth after many years of contemplation and soul searching, this is it.  One should expect nothing. This is the only way to contentment and liberation of the mind. As humans we yearn for everything.  We want so much.  Our desires may even be insatiable.  On every level of life we want more, more, more.  We want the perfect life, the perfect relationship, the perfect friendships, the best job, the best house, the best of everything, etc……Unfortunately there is no such thing.  Perfect does not exist.  There is no best of anything.  There is always something better comparatively.What I’ve come to discover is that these expectations will lead only to disappointment.  Our friends, family, lovers, bosses, colleagues, fellow humans will only disappoint us. They will not meet our expectations.  That is the human condition.  This is the only truth to happiness.  When we stop expecting things in return or certain results we are less in our heads and more in reality.  We are able to be more aware and mindful of the moments.  And we all know moments are fleeting.  When we do things out of the goodness of our hearts to be the best we can be just because we begin to live fully.  We begin to see life for what it is.  Life is a school.  It is a series of ups and downs and lessons to boot.  When we let go of expectations we are free.  We also open ourselves to the possibility of appreciation in a really grand way.  When we expect nothing and something wonderful happens we are in abundant gratitude of it.  We live into that moment much more fully.  We are grateful for the unexpected awesomeness.  Awesome things do happen in life.  However we shouldn’t have preconceived ideas of how things should turn out.  These are our expectations that far too often are met with disappointment.  While I’m an avid believer and proponent of positive thinking and the law of attraction we must understand the difference between creating an amazing reality for ourselves with positive thoughts and expecting certain outcomes.  Life really is what you make it.  When we think positive thoughts awesome things transpire in our lives.  When we spread positive energy we receive positive energy and synergy in our auric fields.  At the same token life will knock us down.  Life will offer trials and tribulations and life will inevitably in some very big way disappoint each and every one of us.  That is life.  We are here to learn, grow, evolve and become better in the process.When we have grand expectations and not even so grand expectations and things don’t turn out as we had “planned, hoped or expected” we are left with disappointment.  Letting go of expectations is the only real way of setting ourselves free.  I have been disappointed in so many aspects of life and in the end what I’ve come to realize is I did it to myself.  As we evolve and continue on our personal soul journey we realize it wasn’t life that failed us, but our expectations of what should’ve been, could’ve been.  Life was simply presenting us with a lesson for our higher growth and evolution.  We were expecting much more out of the experience than a lesson.  Nevertheless in the end we are stronger for it.  It is just realizing it and seeing it for what it is and not allowing our expectations that fell short to disappoint, but teach us that perhaps we were expecting too much.  I’m a realist and today I  expect nothing and welcome everything.  And I promise you when something wonderful happens I am able to much more greatly and with mindful awareness receive it, cherish it and be grateful for it.