Seasonal Suffering: The Sting of Expectations

Can we find joy in what we have?

by Alison Bonds Shapiro, M.B.A. in Healing Into Possibility
Originally published online by Psychology Today

In this season of joy there is also a great deal of suffering. Two kinds of suffering that arise during the holidays come to mind and one directly influences the other. The first kind of holiday suffering is created by our expectations. We tell ourselves what our lives should be and we imagine what our lives will be. These expectations of what is true and what will be true are the product of the stories we tell ourselves about our lives. They are not the same as what is actually happening.

Our internal stories are essential. I'm not suggesting that we can or should rid ourselves of our stories, only that we realize we have constructed them, often with a minimum of tangible information.

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