 Hello and welcome to day 84 of the Mindfulness Challenge. Today we're going to talk about expectation. We're going to do a meditation and we're going to talk about addiction as well, addiction, expectation and how we have sometimes these unrealistic ideas within our minds of where we should be and how we can be. That turns us then to throw things away and not work with certain aspects and etc etc. So what I want to talk about today is how, through our own internal expectations, how we sometimes put ourselves under too much pressure and there's a Buddhist saying called hungry ghosts. That basically means that within a spiritual or psychic realm that certain states or certain types of people are people who are never completely happy. They always want something else, they always need something else and that really is something to drive within yourself to always be better. I get that because obviously you want to progress and you want to move forward, but those drivers to become better and better and better and better and better can sometimes form parts of addiction. I know a lot of people who've lost a job or lost a loved one or whatever the scenario is and instead of trying to work within, they work outside and that work outside turns to alcohol, can turn to drugs, can turn to all of those things. And if you've read my book from a burden to a blessing, you will understand that I can be quite, I can have a lot of empathy with people who have been there because, you know, we've all, a lot of us have had the dark night of the soul, but it's what our expectations are and what we want and how we can sometimes think that, you know, without desire and expectation or ambition, everything in our lives is sufficient. And we should always want to be better and do better things, but not at the expense of everything else. And living a simple but meaningful life can sometimes be the best way. And that's not, you know, not to say that, you know, you shouldn't treat yourself and have nice things. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is, is that, you know, plain vegetables are as nutritious, if not more than some of the very expensive vegetables. And it's all about how we, you know, understand our expectations, our ambitions, our desires and that that doesn't become a tool or a stick to beat ourselves with, that then turns us back to something that gives us comfort that forms an addiction. And, you know, we always, we always try to think of ourselves as being, you know, people who will help others and we be love and give love is very important. But just be kind to yourself in terms of your expectation and be kind to yourself in a way that, you know, that gives yourself that little lift without having to really exert or or desire something too much or move forward too fast or push yourself too hard. There's a great cartoon that I've seen recently and there's a dog on a couch and the dog saying to the psychologist, why is it only ever good dog? Why can't it ever be great dog? And it's, it's, I love that it's really good and it's really funny to understand that, you know, the compliments or the way in which we look at ourselves, the expectations and and the desires and things like that. You know, we can, we can put ourselves down one way and and try to aspire too much the other way and the ability to be able to sit, as I say, in the in the sea of uncertainty without no expectation. Having the want to to develop ourselves along our spiritual pathway, but not turning that into a craving or a desire or an addiction is key to that. I have a lot of questions recently about saying, you know, I've started doing spirituality now and, you know, why and why isn't this happening or why isn't that happening and what can this be done and why am I now? And I think to myself, well, the key to the key to spirituality and spiritualism is connection and relationship with self and connection and relationship with spirit. And that connection and relationship with self and connection and relationship with spirit is all about meditation. It's all about loving kindness. It's all about compassion, empathy, all of the words that I've used a zillion times over the past 84 days. So when we talk about our own development and an understanding where we are and thinking about how we don't form addiction and and how we don't become these hungry ghosts who always have a desire for an insatiable capacity, and that they really or rarely satisfied grasping addiction that they can get caught up in and thinking about a really nice space where we have this understanding of movement and understanding of pace and understanding of the organic nature and understanding of how we develop at a rate that is depicted and pleasant for ourselves. It's really important and think about how we might remember ourselves going forward. How do we look back on this phase of our life and how do we think about things? We worry a lot about, innately dissect the past or worry about the future and being in the moment and understanding that today I'm going to do some stuff that's going to help me move forward. I said the other day that Rome wasn't built in a day but some of it wasn't and we can get lost in the bigger picture stuff. If we can make some small changes to ourselves and to our lives and our well-being and our health and everything else, it's really important. So what I'd like you to do now, we're going to go into a meditation and I'm going to put a picture up. And what I'm going to do is now is I want you just to close your eyes, take a deep breath in, hold it for two seconds and just breathe out, breathing in, hold it for two seconds and just breathing out. And with that, I'd like you to just bring your awareness to your right foot. It's very important that we bring our awareness to our feet, it grounds us and that's very important indeed. And when we bring our awareness to our right foot, sense any of the sensations in your body and what are you feeling at the moment. And then bring your attention to your left foot and what sensations are you feeling there at the moment. Your feet planted on the ground allows you to ground yourself, allows you to feel stable and secure. And I want you to feel stable and secure. And I'd like you to bring in your mind to the awareness of you sat in one of your favourite places, wherever that is in the world. And when you sat here, I just want you to bring your awareness and the vividness of this situation and look around you and smell and see the colours and feel the energy that's around you. And be grateful and thankful for this wonderful place that is so special and dear to your heart and sit in that space. And just bring to your mind why is this space so special to you? What are the things that make it so? What are the things that fill the chambers of your heart with love? Just bring them to mind. And as we do, we understand that the simplicities of life, love, friendship, family, children, spirituality are all things that we've had or we have or we could have and understand that our desires, our ambitions, our expectations should be to grow and develop. But at the rate of the will of nature, of Gaia, of God, of the divine and knowing that by doing the smallest thing today, it could make a big difference tomorrow. And taking away some of those desires to manifest some of the materialistic things that we may want and bring it back to the heartfelt needs and desires of simplicity. And I want you in your mind just to think to yourself without placing any attachment. We strive and put ourselves into situations. We stress ourselves. We push ourselves too far to buy things and to do things. We don't really need or want, but have a ffictitious desire to have. I want you to bring to mind something that you would like to achieve within the next six months. And I want you to bring that to mind in a way that is so vivid, is so real, that you can talk about it in the present tense because it has been manifested, it's been delivered. But this is something that is going to allow you to grow personally as a human, as a spiritual soul. For the betterment, not only of yourself, but for those around you. And just sit with that for a moment. And I want you to just turn your attention now to your heart. And I want you to invest in your heart, a space of internalised love that you are good enough, that you can manifest your true potential. And then a desire to always look better and do more and more and more and more, dissipates for the organic abundance of our own journey, step by step. And when we don't achieve some of the things that we set out to do for us to be that betterment in our mind, body and soul, is we don't say that I can't do this. I haven't got the willpower to be this person. And I don't want you to condition the wrong way around, to go inside and sense, what is it you really want in? What is it you really want to get to? And how are you truly going to get that? And let go of all of those expectations and feel to yourself a lovable nature. Saying that I can breathe, I can be, I will do, but in a healthy, well-being organic way. And feel the inner love, beauty and rational of taking your time, allowing things to unfold. Moving forward step by step to oneness and true enlightenment of your body, your mind and your soul. Without desire, everything is sufficient and allow your love and pathway to fill your heart. From this day forward, you have the ability to appreciate yourself, to appreciate everything that's around you and to organically move forward to that space of loving kindness, oneness and enlightenment. When you're ready, take a deep breath in, slowly wiggle your fingers and come back into the room. It's funny sometimes where I go with things and I just had large parts of that channeled and being pointed towards certain things. Expectation is an interesting one. And who sets expectations and how do we meet them? And I'm not talking about dumbing yourself down so you have no ambition. Progress along your spiritual pathway is of paramount importance. But putting yourself under huge amounts of pressure, turning to other things because you haven't achieved or things have gone wrong. The need for a drink, the need to... I don't know. It doesn't never satisfy the hungry ghosts. So be pure in your intentions. Give yourself that loving kindness and support that you need to be able to move forward in a way that is conducive to your development both as a human being and as a spiritual soul. Be love and help others and give love. Day 84 of the Mindfulness Challenge. I hope you enjoyed it. I shall see you all tomorrow. God bless. Be love and give love. Good morning, Julian. I love you and I hope you're staying well and staying safe and shining your light as brightly as you can. It's important, especially today. See you later. Take care. Bye-bye.