There’s a Hermetic principle I’ve been poking at recently called Mentalism.

It basically says: “The All is Mind.”

Which, depending on your tolerance for this sort of thing, might sound either fascinating or a bit WTF.

At its simplest, it’s the idea that mind isn’t just sitting there observing a completely separate reality. Mind plays a part in the reality we experience.

And if that’s true, then what we believe and expect becomes rather important. Because our expectations are essentially our mind’s predictions about what reality is going to do next.

And that’s where it gets interesting, because science already tells us that expectation can have a very real effect on our experience.

Take the placebo effect for instance.

Someone believes they’ve been given something that will help them and that expectation can actually change their experience with measurable results.

The pill might simply be sugar. But the expectation can still create a very real response.

And then there’s the brain itself. It isn’t just passively taking in everything around you like a video camera. It’s constantly using previous experience to make predictions about what’s happening and what’s likely to happen next.

Which got me thinking about something that came up with a client recently.

She’d been feeling let down by the universe.

She’d been doing the work. Taking action and trying to trust that things would work out. But she felt like the universe wasn’t holding up its end of the bargain.

As we tapped, we started talking about relationships, and she realised she had a pretty deeply held expectation of them.

You can’t fully trust the other person. Eventually, they’ll let you down.

Then came the interesting realisation: she’d been relating to the universe in exactly the same way.

She wanted to trust it. To believe she was supported.

But underneath that was: eventually, you’ll let me down too.

And right now, from her perspective at least, the universe appeared to be doing a bloody good job of proving her right. In a weird way, it WAS holding up its end of the bargain. Just not the bargain she thought she’d made.

It was behaving exactly as she’d come to expect relationships to behave.

Which raises an interesting question.

How much of what we experience is being shaped by what we already expect?

Because listen to the language we use:

I can never find the right person.

I’m just not good at that.

People always let me down.

I never have enough money.

Nobody’s interested in what I do.

Things always go wrong for me.

I never stick at anything.

Those don’t sound like expectations. They sound like facts.

We’re not saying: “I’m worried I might not find the right person.”

We’re saying: “I can never find the right person.”

Bippity boppity boo – prediction made.

Now, what happens when you carry that prediction into the next date, the next sales conversation, the next opportunity, the next attempt at doing something differently?

What do you notice?

What do you ignore?

How do you behave?

How quickly do you interpret something as evidence that it’s happening again? And perhaps most importantly…what do you do next?

Because this is where it can become self-reinforcing. You expect something. Your brain looks at the world through that expectation. You think, feel and behave accordingly. Something happens that appears to confirm it.

And you go: See? I fucking knew it.

Maybe that’s all that’s happening. Maybe there’s something bigger going on. I genuinely don’t know. But either way, I think it’s worth paying attention to the predictions we’re making all day long without even realising we’re making them.

So catch yourself this week.

Listen for the always.

The never.

The I can’t.

The I’m just not.

And rather than immediately trying to replace it with a positive affirmation you don’t believe, get curious: Is that actually a fact?

Or is it an expectation you’ve repeated so many times you’ve stopped noticing the difference?

And then challenge the prediction with two little words: What if…?

What if I can?

What if it does work out?

What if I am good at this?

What if this time is different?

You don’t have to believe any of it yet.

You’re just giving your mind another possibility to predict.

C x