Modernise yourself | Shattering Expectations Series – Theme 2021

(lightly edited transcript)

Welcome we are the Ancestral medicine Women and this is the continuation of our talks about our theme for this year “Shattering Expectations”.

If you have listened to any of our other talks, when we are talking about Shattering Of Expectations we are talking about the personal development and creation perhaps, of yourself where you are seeing blocks in your life or where you are seeing old patterns returning or continuing, habits that you cannot break from, situations that you are feeling you are repeating history and so on.

And knowing that those things are informed by this concept of Expectation. The expectation could come from families, society, ancestors, children, yourself and then knowing that those expectations can be shattered and not just understood, accepted and fulfilling but completely shattered, not rid of. so that you can create your own expectation or of a situation as opposed to of yourself.

So, today we want to talk about this idea of modernising yourself and your know it is interesting because you probably know people like this and perhaps you are one of these people that you look to the past of humanity, perhaps not on yourself or your own family but perhaps on the group itself of humanity and you see that in the past people lived, what is considered now, a much simpler life.They grew their own food, they didn’t have the expectation on them now to be successful, own cars and homes and things like that they had more time to think and to be themselves. They didn’t have to be constantly pursuing activities as we see with many young children and their parents, where they have them in one to two activities per day on top of their schooling so that they can be well rounded and have many opportunities in many areas.So they are constantly active and moving. In the past and previous times it is perceived by us that now we look back on that and we say it was much simpler.

Of course, that’s not the reality. Growing your own food if you have ever done it, and totally reliant on that is extremely difficult, extremely precarious and if you do not know in great detail the land, the plants that you are growing in great detail and what you can do to preserve those and so on, it’s a very difficult life. It’s a constant difficult life.

So, we have these perceptions of what in the past seems like a much easier life and we want to go back to that time. We also want to go back to that time because we see how people are living now, have complicated things. The way that we use materials now, like fossil fuels, plastics and so on is out of control. So we want to go back to those times where those things are not there anymore or those things are not what we are reliant on.

But again, even those things have come about, those things have been made popular because it has created a certain ease in our lives but humans are always wanting to complicate, make more and even back then when things seemed easier, there are always difficulties.

How does this relate to expectations and shattering those expectations?

If we look at that as a metaphor for this idea of expectations, expectations are something that are placed upon us by ourselves, family, friends, workplaces, communities, societies, nations and humanity themselves and those expectations fit some of us very well.

Not all expectations, however fit all of us all of us very well and not all the time and they can be quite burdensome, they can create a life where you feel like you are working towards other things that other people want and before you know you have a lack of control, a lack of freedom, lack of agency, lack of choice and this causes you to feel that you cannot move, you cannot develop, you cannot thrive and you are trying even just to survive.

When we talk about modernising yourself what we are actually talking about is this idea of shattering those expectations and creating a modern version of yourself.

When we go back to this idea of looking back to the past was simpler then and you wanted to recreate that life, we are using that as an example of the expectations that are coming from others, from previous times that are apparently informing our life.

We are asking you to look back at those things, just like you would like back at the simpler way of life and actually ‘see it’ for what it really is!

So those expectations may or may not fit you, may not come from even your family group, may not come from your society, they may be forcing people into a particular thought process just because perhaps, it suited one particular person or one particular event or idea.

It’s the same thing when you look back at a simpler time or idea to what you want to live and if you really look at that and you will see the difficulties, you will see the burdens, you will see how people were captured in a particular way of being and whilst that looks like it is simpler, in fact it is exactly the same as the expectations, as they are expectations.

So when we talk about modernising yourself, what we are talking about is actually looking at these past expectations that are currently in your life or things that you look at and you think: ‘Oh, it was simpler then. My grandparents, my great-grandparents life was simpler. They grew and preserved their own food, they ate meals together, they worked only this many hours per day,’ and so on.

Look at those things and then look at what’s around them, look at what’s shaped them, look what made that happen and you will possibly find that it’s now how you would like to live your life now.

The idea of it, that superficial idea, that romantic feeling of that time, might be something that attracts you, but the actual working and expectations involved in it you will find that they are most probably actually the same as what is keeping you in your place right now.

The shattering of expectations is actually looking at what’s informing your life now, where they came from, why they are there and then deciding whether they are helpful to you right now and where you want to go in your life right now.

Of course you have to really know, or at least have an idea of where you want to go in your life, what do you want to do with yourself, how you want to experience your life and how you want others around you to experience you and your life.

So, there is a bit of pre-work involved in that, because you can’t get rid of or shatter expectations if they are helping you to get where you want to be.

That’s the very first step but then when you look at the things that are informing you, that you feel are blocking you and you understand that as an expectation, then you start to work on that expectation. Where did it come from? Where is it taking me? Why is it here?

You start to break it apart and shatter that expectation.

It’s exactly like looking back and really seeing what was going on then.

You look at your expectations, you see what is going on around you, and you really see what is going on there, what it is really going to lead you to or really stopping me from doing.

In the shattering of that expectation when you really realise this is not helpful to me, not helpful to anybody I don’t want this in my life anymore, this is the part that you modernise yourself, so you actually look at that expectation and if that expectation does not work for me: ‘What do I want?’

This is the modernising part where you decide, you work out and you modernise the way that you live, the way that you think, the way that you act, the way you respond to things because expectations always inform those things.

So, the modernising of yourself is the shattering, the understanding of what you are shattering, but then, the creation of where you want to go. Who you want to be.That boundary or that idea that forms your future self.

That’s the modernising of yourself. Not going back and trying to live a life that belonged to somebody else in a different time, but actually looking at yourself where you are now and how you want to go forward!

You might decide that you want to grow all of your own food, do want to have what I see as a simple life, but to do that you would have to get rid of the expectation of perhaps earning a large wage in a large corporation. You would have to get rid of that expectation of what that money buys you and your standing in society.

You would have to get rid of the expectation that people would respect you, that people would think you rebel, yes that you would be someone special. You would have to get rid of the expectation of having a lot of people around you, would want to get to know you.

You would have to get rid of the expectation that you are going to have excess funds to support you in retirement.

So, there are a lot of things, expectations in your current life that you would have to remove so that you could modernise those so you can grow all your own food, lead a more ‘earth’ life, lead a life where you are close to the elements and really supporting yourself and really having that feeling you are really a self-sustaining individual and that you are providing something to the atmosphere, to the environment that you have not been able to do before.

These are new expectations, but YOU are deciding what these expectations are. That’s the modernising. That’s the important part that you are shattering the expectations that belong to others, belong to society, belong to a past experience that no longer, or have never supported you, or never got you to where you have wanted to be, or have never made you happy and modernise them into your ones that you own.

So, we hope you have understood what we are saying and that you can apply it to your life.

We wish you much love and many blessings.

Thank you.

The Mothers.