Sweet Anticipation

Simultaneously anticipation can be the most exquisite and the most unbearable thing you can imagine.  Nothing compares to the longing we have before we get what we really want, and nothing compares to the fear and anxiety we feel before we get the things we really don't.  They say anticipating pain is like enduring it twice, and yet we do not anticipate pleasure in the same way, if anything the elation and excitation we feel in anticipation can in itself be considered cruel and in its own way painful to endure.  Yet the feeling and the sensation that goes along with it not only ensnare the senses and bewitch the mind but they can intoxicate the soul.

There are many things in life that I have experienced that lived up to my expectations and few that went far beyond them, but through it all the anticipation is often the best part.  What we experience when we await the things we want is an imagination unbridled, a heart unleashed, and a yearning that all together dream up fantastical experiences that are anything and everything we ever wanted.  The reality of course is that nothing ever lives up to such rampant ruminations which is why it is important to rein in our minds in those moments with doses of reality, that is of course if you put far greater emphasis on the event rather than the run-up.  If however you accept that anticipation will always surpass reality and simply enjoy the experience then you can find a level of exquisite joy that no event could ever bring.

Overcoming the fall from such heights is the hardest part.  If you can train yourself to come down easy when reality is disappointing then you can tap into this fountain of fantastical forethought.  The fall can be hard and when it hits with vigour it can truly knock us off our feet, leave us deflated, disappointed, dejected, and lost in a state of dysphoria. 

How then do you train yourself to come down easy, without bridling the imagination?  To remind ourselves of reality is to limit our imagination, one cannot engage in blue sky thinking by gathering clouds.  Perhaps the best approach is to write instead.  To write in the first instance of what our realistic expectations are, what we think will actually happen, and use this as an anchor to keep us rooted in reality.  Then write in the second instance all of what we imagine, and let that imagination run well and truly wild.  Then we can play out both scenarios to their fullest knowing that we created twin expectations, one for the best and one for the most likely.