I have been listening to a webinar hosted by Sounds True on HOPE whose keynote speaker was Jane Goodall. What an amazing wise woman whose spirit continues to shine through at a time in our lives and the life of our planet which may cause discouragement and despair. She clearly tells us that hope is not just a wishful feeling, but an orientation to life that needs action. Hope involves an awakening of your heart as well involvement of your mind. Hope is a verb. To feel the energy of hope inside of you requires setting a goal you can work towards. With a goal, no matter how small, you can feel the energy inside of you to be an agent of change for yourself and others.
One researcher, Chad Hellman, PhD.reported that based on 2000 published papers, we know that hope is the best predictor of your ability to thrive. Hope is a way of thinking that you can learn. It is about future action and believing you have the power to create change. Goals are the cornerstone or the pathways to identify the skills you need. Willpower is the ability to sustain your drive to move along the pathways by focusing your attention on your goals. Wishing for something is important, but is a more passive approach to change. Hope is to take action. When times are tough, we often just want to avoid more pain and focus on what we don’t want to happen. Hope can be restored when our goals shift towards a more defined short- term focus.
To create a sense of hope within yourself, you must create opportunities to experience the feeling of AWE. Where can you find a sense of WONDER around you? Do you feel this sense of interconnectedness in nature ? One speaker quoted that “when you feel hopeless, get helpful “. Perhaps when you lift someone else up or engage in an act of giving to your community you feel more hopeful about the future of our society or the health of the planet. We as human being are wired to experience awe when we ourselves are in an open receptive and not reactive fearful state. As Tara Brach stated in her talk, “the starting place for hope is to pause”.
I ask you to take a mindful pause and allow your mind and body to settle and calm to be able to connect with yourself. Use your breath to create a small clearing within you. Ask yourself, who are the people in your life that bring you a sense of hope? What are the activities that create that sense of AWE and bring you to feeling the interconnectedness of all life on this planet? No matter how small a goal it might be, set your intention to take some action to bring HOPE into your life and the lives of others. As Jane Goodall said, “It’s not only that we can, but we will”.