~ Six Habits of Hope ~
Having worked on environmental and social issues for my entire career, I have often struggled to be hopeful about the future. Several years ago, this prompted me to launch a personal inquiry into hope. This inquiry led to the idea of "intrinsic hope" and to these six habits that I have found helpful for cultivating it.
So if you are struggling to be hopeful about your life or about the state of the world, I “hope” these six habits are helpful to you.
1. Being present cultivates intrinsic hope because it increases our awareness of life. Although our bodies are always in the present, our minds are usually wandering somewhere else. Descartes said “I think, therefore I am” but it may be more accurate to say “I think, therefore I am not present”. So it’s inevitable that we miss a lot. But when we are present, our minds slow down, life reveals itself and this makes it possible for us to respond to what’s happening in a fresh, unobstructed and positive way.
2. Expressing gratitude fosters intrinsic hope. When we are grateful, we naturally become more hopeful. By recognizing and appreciating the gifts we have been given, gratitude breeds hope. It doesn’t deny the mess we’re in, but it offers another way of being with our problems. We can express gratitude for anything that brings a smile to our faces and cheerfulness to our hearts. It’s what gets poured into the glass to make it half full. It’s counting our blessings, not only our problems.
3. Loving the world nurtures intrinsic hope because when we feel love for others, or experience others’ love for us, we naturally feel good. We can love other people whether we know them or not, we can love specific communities and places, and we can love the earth itself. When asked what led to the successful negotiations for the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, Christina Figueras, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, replied “It's love for the planet, for our home, it's love for each other, it's love for those who we know...(and) it's also love for all of those people that we will never know”.
4. Accepting the reality of our situation lays a foundation for hope because gives us the possibility of changing things. By saying yes – even a qualified or reluctant yes - we accept responsibility for doing something about our problems. Acceptance means we have stopped telling ourselves how life should be, or how we want it to be, and are ready to work with our situation, just as it is. With acceptance, we are willing to try to make a difference. Without it, we doom ourselves to failure and hopelessness.
5. Taking action develops hope because it transforms an insubstantial thought or emotion into something tangible, thereby breaking us out of apathy and denial. Taking action liberates us from the vicious cycle of not wanting to do anything because we feel hopeless and then feeling hopeless because we are not doing enough. As author Rebecca Solnit says “Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope…To hope is to give yourself to the future, and that commitment to the future makes the present uninhabitable. Anything could happen, and whether we act or not has everything to do with it.”
6. Persevering for the long haul is essential for intrinsic hope because it provides the determination to endure whatever happens and keep on going. Perseverance persists – day after day, month after month and year after year. Its stamina and fortitude are necessary to maintain and cultivate intrinsic hope. With perseverance, we can work to resolve our problems and build a just, peaceful and sustainable world without expecting to see the fruits of our efforts.
Based on "Intrinsic Hope: Living Courageously in Troubled Times"
So if you are struggling to be hopeful about your life or about the state of the world, I “hope” these six habits are helpful to you.
1. Being present cultivates intrinsic hope because it increases our awareness of life. Although our bodies are always in the present, our minds are usually wandering somewhere else. Descartes said “I think, therefore I am” but it may be more accurate to say “I think, therefore I am not present”. So it’s inevitable that we miss a lot. But when we are present, our minds slow down, life reveals itself and this makes it possible for us to respond to what’s happening in a fresh, unobstructed and positive way.
2. Expressing gratitude fosters intrinsic hope. When we are grateful, we naturally become more hopeful. By recognizing and appreciating the gifts we have been given, gratitude breeds hope. It doesn’t deny the mess we’re in, but it offers another way of being with our problems. We can express gratitude for anything that brings a smile to our faces and cheerfulness to our hearts. It’s what gets poured into the glass to make it half full. It’s counting our blessings, not only our problems.
3. Loving the world nurtures intrinsic hope because when we feel love for others, or experience others’ love for us, we naturally feel good. We can love other people whether we know them or not, we can love specific communities and places, and we can love the earth itself. When asked what led to the successful negotiations for the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, Christina Figueras, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, replied “It's love for the planet, for our home, it's love for each other, it's love for those who we know...(and) it's also love for all of those people that we will never know”.
4. Accepting the reality of our situation lays a foundation for hope because gives us the possibility of changing things. By saying yes – even a qualified or reluctant yes - we accept responsibility for doing something about our problems. Acceptance means we have stopped telling ourselves how life should be, or how we want it to be, and are ready to work with our situation, just as it is. With acceptance, we are willing to try to make a difference. Without it, we doom ourselves to failure and hopelessness.
5. Taking action develops hope because it transforms an insubstantial thought or emotion into something tangible, thereby breaking us out of apathy and denial. Taking action liberates us from the vicious cycle of not wanting to do anything because we feel hopeless and then feeling hopeless because we are not doing enough. As author Rebecca Solnit says “Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope…To hope is to give yourself to the future, and that commitment to the future makes the present uninhabitable. Anything could happen, and whether we act or not has everything to do with it.”
6. Persevering for the long haul is essential for intrinsic hope because it provides the determination to endure whatever happens and keep on going. Perseverance persists – day after day, month after month and year after year. Its stamina and fortitude are necessary to maintain and cultivate intrinsic hope. With perseverance, we can work to resolve our problems and build a just, peaceful and sustainable world without expecting to see the fruits of our efforts.
Based on "Intrinsic Hope: Living Courageously in Troubled Times"