Managing Expectations
July 12 to 18, 2026
I’m not even sure how to start off my recap of the week. I was out for supper Sunday night because I had an urge to leave the house and be somewhere else and it happened to be around mealtime. This doesn’t happen often as I am a true homebody and love being in my space. The supper didn’t end up being as tasty as I would have liked and that maybe sums up this week best. It was lacking in delivery of my expectations and full of weird energy.
Maybe it was just me being off. Maybe it was the stagnation I feel in my momentum. Maybe it is the astrology. Maybe it is all of those things and more. I had a few outings and most of them ended in disappointment. One day had a trip to the city for a haircut, some groceries, and some bank appointments. None of these things went as planned, which if I’m honest, isn’t that surprising, but still frustrating in the end. It was good to get out, but upon returning, we found that there was an infestation of mites and fleas in the chicken house (gross!). My partner ended up cleaning it out and spraying it down twice, tearing out insulation, taping up plastic, and finally smoking out any remaining bugs. What an ordeal! But after all that, our birds are finally in one place, which makes things easier for daily management.
I try my hardest not to dwell in the negative as I know that life’s challenges are always provided as a means for growth and learning. However, sometimes things are just too much and something needs to give. This was my feeling on Friday and it resulted in a talk with my partner. Nothing was really resolved, but both of us had a chance to say things that had been left unsaid, allowing tension to build over time. We both speak different languages (emotionally, not literally) and so a lot of times, this makes for very confusing interactions where each of us come away with a different idea of what actually was said. I know this is true for many people and this idea of everyone experiencing their own reality of a situation seemed to be a theme this week.
It showed up in some of my most recent client interactions. It is difficult to know what people experience under hypnosis, especially if they are unfamiliar with it and don’t have the language to convey it. This was my experience for at least the first three times I was hypnotized. It took me a lot of time, reflection, and processing to know and understand how I receive information and how I felt about the experiences themselves. I’m still learning every day and it is a fascinating obsession I have in finding out more, but that might not be the case for everyone. Some people have enough to deal with in everyday life that trying to decode themselves and how they work is just too much. And that’s ok.
I’m still learning on how to approach my explanation of hypnosis. The experience is unique to everyone and to every session. Add in the unique perspective, energy and approach of the therapist, and you can guess that you’ll never have the same experience twice. This makes it an interesting and fascinating tool to use, but it also means that you never know what to expect or how people are going to respond to it. Therefore, how can you really prepare someone for it except to ask them to go in with an open mind and no expectations? Or to expect the unexpected. Or not to expect what they’re expecting. Ha! Easier said than done, especially in a world that wants to categorize, measure and quantify everything!
A few years ago, I had my partner rototill a patch of grass for a flower garden. I planted some wildflowers and some perennials. I don’t have much of a green thumb, so I like things that are low maintenance and self-sufficient. Last year, it looked pretty good. This spring, we received an abundance of rain, which was amazing for all the trees I planted throughout the yard. It was also amazing for the weeds. Since I’d planted a number of perennials in this flower garden, I knew that they were going to emerge at different times and wasn’t concerned about having everything blooming at once. What I didn’t anticipate was that all the rain provided a large number of seeds that fell from nearby trees to receive a chance at life. This was an unexpected gift. It also means that I need to transplant them elsewhere in the yard so that any perennials that might come up still have a chance to bloom.
My expectation was that my perennials would grow on their own along with some weeds. My unexpected gift was the abundance of free baby trees. So, the lesson I take from this experience is that we don’t always get what we want, but sometimes what we need – in this case, more free trees! And despite seeing this as a burden or additional work to undertake, it can also be viewed as a gift and a blessing. Granted, I still need to pull out the weeds, but I am grateful for the unexpected help from the Earth in trying to make this little piece of land better.
Now, onto the other gifts I received this week in the form of messages. They are birthday party games where everyone wins, reading making people fall asleep, Wizard of Oz, cougar, soapbox, removing the marble from the sculpture to reveal the sculpture, dust, and timeline shifting/reality shifting/parallel realities.
Birthday party games where everyone wins – This message was revealed in a podcast in which one of the hosts described a child’s birthday party games. Despite recreating the even from an adult’s party in which there were winners and losers, the hosts decided to allow all the kids to receive a prize. This message also showed up in an episode of a cartoon that recreated a character’s 8th birthday party. I think for me, this message is obvious. My vision of the world in the future is one that is vastly different from what we experience today. It involves everyone being abundant and compassionate and supportive; one where everyone wins. That’s how I interpret this message and the fact that it came through as a message, gives me hope that one day it will be realized.
Reading making people fall asleep – This idea was presented during a card reading where the reader explained that she has to walk as she’s reading or she’ll fall asleep. It was also mentioned in a podcast about a host who falls asleep when she reads. Additionally, it came up in conversation with a friend who was having trouble falling asleep until she put on an audiobook. This message feels very clear to me also. I read scripts to people during hypnosis sessions. Even though the word hypnosis contains the word hypnos, which means sleep in Greek, during hypnosis, you are not actually sleeping. But, my voice, tone, and pace are all very relaxing during a hypnosis session and many people cannot experience this relaxed state unless they are asleep. So, to me, this message is an indication to keep using my skills to help people relax and tune in to their inner worlds.
Wizard of Oz – The Wizard of Oz, the yellow brick road and other references to this movie were mentioned in three different card readings this week. I’m not sure if I’ve ever watched the whole movie myself, but I know what it is about as it is very prevalent in pop culture. The whole story is a quest to obtain qualities (cleverness, compassion, courage) in the outside world that end up being within each of the characters and revealed to them through obstacles they overcome along their journey. It is about coming home to the answers you already hold within yourself, so again, this message feels pretty obvious.
Cougar – This message appeared as a real life sighting close to my home and in an episode of a tv show exploring an ancient site in Bolivia. Puma Punku means gate of the Puma and pumas are another name for cougars. I like cats, so this was a welcome message and when animals appear in my life, I regularly reflect on the spiritual meaning hidden beneath. Cougars are symbolic of personal power, confidence, and action. They are known for their strength, independence, and their ability to trust their instincts. I am guessing that these are things that I should be focusing on within myself.
Soapbox – This word doesn’t show up much in my life, but it did twice this week. The first occurrence was during a free webinar in which the host was relaying her opinion about what meditation was and wasn’t. The second was in a podcast when the guest was discussing how scientists have dismissed the validity of a vulnerable group of people’s experiences simply because it doesn’t fit within their rules of measurement. I don’t often passionately talk about my beliefs or opinions when in public. I guess it is because I’ve learned that expressing a passionate opinion can result in danger and divisiveness. However, I am learning to speak my truth in a bolder way, trying to ensure that no one feels attacked or cornered and I try to leave myself open to other people’s views, opinions, and reactions. Maybe this message is saying that it is time for me to get on that soapbox and passionately speak about my beliefs.
Removing the marble from the sculpture to reveal the sculpture – This isn’t a verbatim quote of the message that showed up, but rather a summation. The idea comes from what Michelangelo said about his sculpture of David, which I don’t believe I’d heard before. I’m not going to quote him specifically because I found so many different variations of the “quote” when I googled it that I’m not sure what it actually was (“Cowabunga!” if you don’t specify that you’re looking for the famous sculptor and not the fictional Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle). Regardless of the actual words spoken, the idea is that the sculpture was just waiting to be revealed in the stone by the sculptor. This is a beautiful metaphor for healing and hypnotherapy or any other tool that can be used to find your true self hidden within the layers of societal and family programming, trauma, and masks. The more work you do through personal growth helps you shed the layers to reveal more of your authentic self hidden within.
Dust – Dust came up as a topic of conversation on a community Facebook page. It also was mentioned in a free online event in which the host was providing messages to guests. The woman mentioned she’d been a doormat for years, allowing people to walk all over her and the host told her it was time to pick up the mat and shake off the dust. The appearance of the ticks and mites in our chicken coop prompted us to provide a dust bath for the chickens by placing ash in their outdoor enclosure so they could bathe themselves in it. Dust has the implication that something has been left alone for a time or set down. Maybe the meaning here is to return to something that has been set aside in the past, but is now ready for another chance. It could also hold a meaning of leaving something behind because things start moving quickly. I’m not quite sure which way to take this one.
Timeline shifting/reality shifting/parallel realities – Even though these concepts are slightly different from each other, they all overlap with meaning. A message forwarded to me regarding the Mandela effect and an alternative way of thinking about it was the first way this showed up. The second was in a YouTube video proposing that the reason we all experience things differently is that we are all capable of jumping timelines. And the third was a card reading about parallel realities. I have always been fascinated by time, time travel, alternate realities, multiple parallel universes, and anything of this nature. I do believe that we create our own reality, and I think that has a lot to do with our emotional state of being. Someone living in fear is going to view the world as a scary and dangerous place, while someone who believes in the goodness of the human heart will live in a world of optimistic possibilities. Someone who is obsessed with facts and collecting data and being right will always be trying to prove themselves and what they experience is real, while someone who is fascinated with adventure and pushing boundaries will always be looking for ways to push the limits on the human experience. We are all unique, multifaceted beings who are constantly shifting and changing, so I don’t doubt that we have multiple versions of ourselves living out every permutation of our possible experiences.
So, once again, I believe I can piece together the meanings of the messages into a coherent overview without the use of hypnosis. I should continue to imagine a world in which everyone wins. My hypnotherapy is a tool to help people tap into a state of relaxation they may not be able to experience in any other way than sleep. I should continue to look within myself to find the cleverness, compassion, and courage I need to navigate my future and trust my intuition, strength, and independence to continue on my aligned path. It might be time to speak passionately about my beliefs and continue to peel away the layers of programming to reveal my true self, while helping others to do the same. I can dust off old talents, skills, or ways of being and see if they can be picked up and used again. I can use the idea of alternate timelines and realities to help me understand how things can be different and explore possibilities of what could be.
I have tried to get back into some creativity this week. I didn’t get far, but I know things are moving within me, so I’m hoping whatever wants to be birthed will come through my hands into something tactile soon. Instead of any art pictures, I’ll leave you with a picture of my weed filled “flower” garden, consisting of a few perennials that bloomed this week and a whole lot of baby trees that need transplanting. It's hard to distinguish in the picture which are trees, and which are weeds, but trust me, there's lots of both!
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