Recognizing and Adjusting Unreasonable Expectations of Ourselves

The Self-Awareness and Self-Compassion Podcast

Allergy season caught me out this year, and I have had to make peace with a reality that I really didn’t want to be true. This week’s podcast is about accommodating our reality even when we deeply prefer not to experience what’s happening.

Having asthma and needing to deal with it made me aware that sometimes I choose to ignore clear negative symptoms and ongoing setbacks because I stubbornly had in my head that I shouldn’t have this problem.

I figured I’d overcome it in the past and now I liked to think of myself as an allergy-free person or an asthma-free person.

It sounds ridiculous, but honestly, I really had a mental block that was getting in the way of seeking help that was readily available and effective.

Many of us have mental and emotional blocks like this, and they prevent us from taking helpful action on our own behalf.

Sometimes, we need to mourn for ourselves that we aren’t perfect, and allow that even if we’ve made huge strides forward already, that doesn’t guarantee that negative experiences or situations won’t arise again.

Only when we can see plainly what is currently happening and stop telling ourselves the story of why it shouldn’t be happening are we able to move forward taking effective action.

In my case, I needed to suck it up and get back on medication I didn’t really want to be taking, but that absolutely has increased the quality of my daily life.

A great question we can ask ourselves is, “How can I still create the quality of experience I want to have?”

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