Cultivating Hope
As we begin to peel and unpack away the layers of experiences in these last two years, we may notice a shift in our ability to access hope. Our relationship with hope changed. We changed. Hope demonstrates the power to support ourselves and those we love. When it is wavered thin due to the chaos and uncertainty around us, mental health issues, and the fatigue in utilizing our survival skills, hope can feel distant and difficult to grasp.
I find that sometimes our society when speaking of hope, positivity, and overall self-care, can be quite insufficient. At times this narrative can diminish and minimize our suffering, experiences, cultures, and backgrounds. There’s a notion that to access hope, even happiness, that we must abandon or no longer feel our pain, and that to reach this level of existence we must be healed. Hope is not the absence of pain, it’s the understanding that our pain can co-exist while we cherish a desire. Our varied emotions are usually accompanied by one another and can provide us with a roadmap to what we need and who we truly are.
With the snow beginning to melt, possibly freezing again, a month passing into this new, uncertain, and unfamiliar year, it’s okay if your ability to harness hope is challenging. Fortunately, it’s a muscle we can exercise and practice. Our resilience to pain and difficulties is evidence that we have the capacity to be hopeful. If we are willing to be open and flexible to the many emotions we experience, without downplaying our pain, we can allow the opportunity for joy, love and abundance.
We can cultivate hope through simple acts of identifying our strengths, whether this being the strength of getting through the day when grief, depression, and anxiety, encompasses our being, or the strength in our ability to show up and care for those we love. We can make attainable goals for ourselves each day, opening the possibility to feel differently than the day before. This being, simply adding breath work to our routine, or making sure we see the sun, rain or clouds each day. We can cultivate hope through learning acceptance with uncertainties, lowering difficult to reach expectations, and acknowledging the possibility for mistakes. We can also harness hope through our relationships, communities, and connections with others. This can look like connecting deeper with our loved ones and sharing our relatable vulnerability. We can also do this by widening our perception to the connections we can make within our community, whether this is simply waving to your neighbors, or starting a conversation, we can build relationships with the people outside of our inner circle. I invite you to ask yourself what patterns or behaviors are enhancing your growth, resilience, ability to instill hope, and what might be in the way or keeping you stuck. Hope is contagious and the more we exercise the muscle, the more we may see it not only in ourselves but in the people around us and in the wider world.
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At the Stram Center, we recognize that mental health is often the basis of your potential to navigate life’s challenges as well as to heal from physical illness. Understanding your full self, including traumas and difficulties you may have experienced, is often the first step to learn what your unique strategies are in the face of life’s difficulties. Quality healthcare should include support…Mental Health Counseling
