Navigating Disappointment

A guided meditation to feel less alone in your disappointment and reconnect to who you are and what is true. Disappointment is a very human aspect of living a full life where you take risks and walk bravely into the unknown! I'd love to sit with you in your disappointment to hold it and be curious about it together so it can transform and feel a little lighter. I would love to hear what resonates with you. The music is beautifully provided by Lesfm.

Transcript

Oh,

Friend,

Disappointment can be so hard.

I just want to take this time to sit with you in your disappointment,

To remind you that you're not alone,

To remind you of how human this emotion is,

And to remind you who you are,

To remind you what is true.

Sometimes these emotions can really hijack our system and we get away from ourselves.

So I would love to invite you to reconnect with Earth energy right now,

Whatever that might mean for you,

Feeling your feet on the ground,

Feeling how your chair or your couch or your car is supporting you,

How you're being held up quite literally by Earth.

And we'll take a couple of deep breaths together with longer exhales than inhales to invite our nervous system to just down regulate a bit,

To come back to center a bit,

To invite the nervous system to be in our present moment with us right here,

Right now,

Where we're actually very safe.

So exhaling everything now and inhale and exhale.

Inhale and exhale.

You're doing great.

Inhale and exhale.

Beautiful.

Keep breathing at your own pace,

Your own rhythm,

Really feeling how that breath can move through your body,

Give some space in your body,

Just like emotions can move through us.

Really continue to connect to your breath.

And I'm curious about your disappointment.

These are the questions that I ask myself in disappointment all the time.

But what is this disappointment trying to teach us?

What does it want us to know?

Are we disappointed because of how we've been treated in some way or we haven't been recognized in some way or heard in some way?

And in that case,

Is there a different way that we can show up to advocate for ourselves or to express ourselves?

Is our disappointment showing us that we're worthy of something else?

And do we need to take action on that?

The other disappointment that I tend to feel a lot is actually me being disappointed in how things turned out.

But often I'm not actually disappointed by the thing happening in the present moment.

My mind has already attached a story on how it was supposed to turn out and I'm disappointed or grieving that future vision.

So the new connection or the new opportunity or the new experience that I said yes to,

My mind put a story on top of it about where it was going to lead me,

About what that experience was supposed to be for me,

About how it was supposed to turn out.

And I'm disappointed that the reality did not match what my mind thought it should be.

And this can be really tender.

And here's what I want us to also hold is that when we choose to live a really full life,

When we choose to be guided by our intuition or choose to be guided by hope or possibilities or our dreams and we say yes to them and we move forward without certainty,

Disappointment will exist in that life because we're constantly moving forward into the unknown.

That means there will not be certainty.

We cannot predict how it will turn out.

And our mind tries to protect us by giving us a story about how it will turn out.

So this disappointment can be considered a sign that you're moving forward,

That you're trying new things,

That you're saying yes and taking action.

And that the disappointment is human.

It's natural.

It is part of living a really full life and we don't need to be scared of it.

We don't need to beat ourselves up that we should have known better or we should have avoided this or predicted this or we shouldn't have been so hopeful about a certain outcome.

The disappointment is just showing that you're capable of hope.

You're capable of imagining big things for yourself.

It's showing you how courageous you are because there is no certainty.

The mind wants certainty.

It will hold on to stories to pretend that there is certainty,

But we both know nothing is certain.

So there's no way you could have known without trying.

And if you were to stay in a really small world of only trying when you think you know exactly how it would work out,

You would feel really stuck.

Things would be really stagnant.

So actually disappointment can be a sign that you're moving towards alignment.

If this thing isn't for you,

It's guiding you to what is for you.

Something even better,

Something more beautiful,

Something your mind could not have predicted.

When we co-create with the universe,

It sends us on a very nonlinear path to be experiencing the fullness of life.

And part of that fullness is our soul wanting to experience contrast,

Wanting to experience disappointment with hope.

I think it takes a lot of courage to move forward into the unknown.

A lot of resilience to keep choosing life over collapsing on yourself or being stagnant or stuck or frozen.

It takes a lot of courage,

A lot of strength,

A lot of resilience.

So this disappointment might just be that your mind's version of what you thought it should be is not aligning with what your soul is here to experience.

And the universe gave you a no so that you could be guided towards your yes.

If not this,

It's something better,

Something bigger,

Something even more beautiful.

And that the disappointment is actually helping you become aligned.

So what does this disappointment want to tell you?

When you connect to your core wise self,

What is actually true right now?

Perhaps in this moment,

We're meant to just practice some more self compassion,

Some kindness,

Some tenderness when things don't go the way that we planned,

The way that we hoped.

I see that that hurts.

I'm so proud of you for trying.

I can see how much courage that took.

There's more for us.

So just breathing again,

Reminding yourself that you are supported.

You're always being guided.

Your soul is here to experience something so beautiful in this lifetime and that what is meant for you will not pass you by.

And that you're always being encouraged to be in alignment with what you are here to experience in this lifetime.

So breathing everything out now.

Breathing in some of that self compassion.

Breathing out any self judgment.

Breathing in fresh air.

Breathing out anything that doesn't serve you.

And one more breath in and breathe out.

Beautiful.

You are leading a very full life,

My friend,

That comes with a full range of emotions.

We are here for it.

I hope you feel guided and supported and that you can do something really kind for yourself coming off the back of this meditation.

One small kind thing just to tell yourself you're doing a beautiful job.

Sending you so much love from here.

Reviews

Thank you for the reminder for self-compassion. 🙏🏾

This was a beautiful message and meditation, I took many things from this. This one's being saved for later 🙏✨🕉️

I didn’t even know I needed this! I’m so happy I did this. Thank you for your words and energy ✨

Felt like this meditation was meant for me at this moment. Really helped to make me feel better. Thank you!

This is so awesome!!!
Thank you I really enjoyed you
and loved your take and turnaround on disappointment😌🙂🙏💓🔆

Much wisdom in this meditation. The part about detaching from my imagined story and realizing that disappointment is actually grieving the loss of that story was very helpful in understanding my feelings of disappointment. I’m not yet ready to believe that something better will come along but at least I feel ready to let go a bit and to not punish myself for having had a vision and hope. Thank you so much Kathryn.

ooooh my heart needed this. Thank you for your wisdom and for speaking with such warmth and connection even over a recording… 🙌

Just what I needed to navigate a current in the moment disappointment. Thank you! 🙏

Like a comforting talk with your best friend. Soothing tone of voice & gentle pace. Exactly what I needed. Simply wonderful.

This was everything I didn’t know I needed to hear- thank you! 🙏🏽

Thank you for this. With a tendency to be hard on myself for whatever I consider has gone wrong, listening to your words has allowed me to understand that I have still gained from today.

Thank you SO SO SO much for this. Really felt genuine and caring. 🙏🏽

This went straight to my heart. Cried and cried, and needed it so much. Thank you for this 🙏🏼

This was 100% what I needed to hear now. Very intuitive and compassionate. Thank you!!!

THAT is amazing! So many feels here. A lifetime of disappointment in others...learning to give to my Self that which cannot come from others. Thank you for this.

Don’t let the giggly voice scare you off. I found this very helpful and encouraging.