This Post Will Not Disappoint - # 111

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In Posts #107 to Post #110 (plus four midweek bonus posts), we explored the mystery of disappointment. 

I would classify posts on disappointment as serious. I readily admit to taking things seriously; hopefully you haven't felt a "heaviness of spirit" in my inquiry or in yourself as you contemplated the role of disappointment in your life.**

We discern what needs to be taken seriously when we pay attention. Paying attention to disappointment yields benefits because it helps us understand more of what we experience.

Jeffrey B. Rubin*** believes that one of Freud's towering insights was that people grow ill---and suffer from---experiences they don't understand.

Paying attention to feelings of disappointment enables us to spend time with our experiences. The "understood experience" leads to an appropriate response (anger, grief, regret) - and to knowledge that will guide us in the future.

Have you been paying attention to disappointment the last few weeks? I have. Paying attention has helped me recognize disappointment isn't a disaster and doesn't mean I did something wrong.

Let me know what you've learned about disappointment. What is your most common disappointment and how you manage it?

Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall

*Picture taken in Bali last April while barreling through the streets in a tour bus. I was disappointed I couldn't have time with the massive masterpiece and grateful the out-the-window picture captured the strength and majesty evident driving by.

**Ideas integrated while reading May 3 poem in A Year With Rilke (2009). I would be happy to send you a copy of Rilke's poem if you request by email.

***Rubin's article found in Spring: A Journal of Archetype and Culture (2013).