I have had the great opportunity of experiencing a beautiful retreat here in the high desert of New Mexico with Gregg Braden. It’s called “Human Breakthrough.” On our first day, my husband and I had a conversation about intentions vs. expectations. It stemmed from the activities of our traveling day. We had a very smooth day of travel. It was long, but safe and free flowing until the last moment when we got to the hotel to discover the tire on our car was flat. Our first thought was how grateful we were to discover the flat once we had reached our destination and to be safe. There were other scenarios that could have taken place on a freeway going 75 miles an hour.

This is where the idea of expectation vs. intention came into play for us. After our initial reaction and then going through the process of remedying the situation, we realized that our expectation was not being met. After all, we were on retreat. Should we be hassling with taking care of fixing a flat tire, exchanging a rental car, etc.? The truth is: our intention was met. We were safe. We were about to experience a beautiful retreat. The flat tire took place in a place where we were cared for and attended to.

Expectations have a positive or negative affect on our lives depending on how we deal with them. If our expectations have a “how it’s going to happen” tag on them, then we are dictating to the Universe how it is going to bring forth our intentions. As we set our intentions for our day, I invite us to take our attention off how it will manifest and focus on the feeling of what we want. For example, a flat tire, can be an opportunity to stop, meet special people, see something we might have missed and fulfill our intention of safety and wellbeing. I call this looking for the hidden treasure or the good.

My daughter recently made a good analogy about looking for treasures in daily happenings. She was talking about the daily experiences of her job. She said, “It’s like a cereal box, Mom, with those special gifts hidden inside. I always look for the pleasant surprise.

Life doesn’t just present itself to us challenge free. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn something, go deeper and live from a higher consciousness. It’s all about perception. It’s all about our level of trust in the Good of life. There is a song by Jason Mraz called “Look for the Good.”

“Everyone is nature, everyone is God. Everyone is God, love and light and vibration. Look for the good. Look for the good. Everyone gets mad sometimes and maybe they should. Look for the good. Look for the good. Yeah, look out for all the heroes in your neighborhood. Look for the good. Life sure would be sweater if everybody would.”

Can you imagine a world where everyone looked for the good? Wow!

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita Andriello-Feren, Co-Founding Director CSL Kaua`i and the Institute of Magnificence and Author of “What Do I Need to KNOW? 101 Thoughts That Changed My Life” and “This Thing Called Treatment,” both available on Amazon.