Uluru Reflections:
the weight of expectations on experience
by Nanci Bradley
If you follow me online, you may have seen the blink-and-miss-it mention of my holiday to Uluru earlier this month. This trip is a bucket-list item for many people, especially those of us in the spiritual community, and with that comes a great deal of expectation and build up. When a place, person or experience has so many expectations attached, it inevitably impacts our actual experience in the moment, whether we mean it to or not.
We have crafted this idea in our mind of what it will be like when we get there, the types of things we can expect from the experience. But the universe loves to surprise us, in both exciting and disappointing ways.
When we set expectations for something, there are only three options for what follows – it is even better than we hoped, it meets our expectations (but feels a bit underwhelming as a result) or it disappoints us.
Now I will say, first of all, that I loved every part of my trip to central Australia. I spent my week camping, hiking, being in nature, meeting new people and seeing stunning sights. It pushed me in some ways and was comfortable in others, in ways that I did not fully expect before I began my trip. It was the right timing and circumstances for my first trip to Uluru.
But when I think about my favourite place on Earth (with Uluru as the second favourite, currently) – the Waipoua Kauri Forest on the north island of New Zealand – I had a very different experience to my time at Uluru, simply because I had no expectations about what it would be like.
I was doing my own solo road trip around the north island and decided that the forest would be one of my stops for the day, even though it added an extra hour to my journey. I generally love trees and forests, and there weren’t any other stops I felt drawn to for my trip that day.
But as soon as my car turned onto the road, with trees surrounding me from both sides, I was in awe. Spending time to walk to Te Matua Ngahere, the only option available on the day, with the light rain falling and only a few other people spotted on my walk. It was breath-taking and awe-inspiring. I can’t fully put into words how I was feeling in that moment, but I still remember it vividly to this day.
My experience with Uluru was different, partially because of the expectations that I had before I even got there. It was beautiful from first glance and I was surprised by how different it looked when we got close. But that first quick stop was a bit disappointing, simply because I was expecting to be blown away by the energy.
That evening, I set the intention to let go of my expectations, accept the experience that I have and simply exist in the moment, for our proper visit to Uluru the next day. And when I was able to do that, and honour my own process of being alone to fully appreciate the moment and place, I was able to feel the awe, the gratitude, the beauty of Uluru rather than just seeing it as I had the day before.
It was only by reminding myself to simply be in the moment, to feel and see it as it was rather than having a constant refrain in mind of “It’s different in this way” or “It’s not as … as I thought”.
It was a powerful reminder to myself that although expectations are inevitable, we can still create our own experience once we get there. We can let go of those expectations in the moment and simply appreciate what is in front of us.
Getting out of our heads, into our bodies, and simply being.
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