Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop

I have been thinking a lot about the phrase “waiting for the other shoe to drop.” This mindset comes from a place of protection after so much disappointment. And this mindset also hinders your ability to experience joy/happiness/satisfaction fully, in an attempt to curb the upcoming disappointment. When we are looking for something, we will always find it. So, when you are looking for something to point to as “the shoe that dropped,” you will find that too.

What would happen if you stopped looking for that other shoe? Sure, you would have disappointments, bad news, sorrow, but you would also have more room to experience joy, happiness, satisfaction, pleasure, and more. When we avoid our feelings in an attempt to minimize pain, we also avoid our full experience of everything else. For every shoe that drops, there is also an opportunity to notice the parts of life that make it worth living.

By no means am I saying to ignore the hard parts of life or just focus on the positive. What I am saying instead, is that there can be an opportunity to notice more than just the hard parts of life. What would it be like to notice some moments of pleasure, gratitude, joy, beauty, awe, etc? Could you experience those and know that any future difficult moment doesn’t need to erase them?

As always, take what is helpful and leave the rest. I hope you have the week you need.