how to cultivate hope when hopeless

Here is one thing I have recently been digging into…

I refuse to live in a world without hope. Of course I don't have control over how anyone else experiences or doesn't experience hope, but me, myself, and I, will choose hope every time. Sometimes it's me choosing hope out of desperation, out of a desire not to fall down despair or into depression. Sometimes it's me choosing hope by clawing, and fighting my way through, but it's a hope resilience nonetheless. 

A friend told me once that she didn't believe in hope because it was pointless. She said it's actionless, there's nothing you can do with hope so holding it doesn't matter. I couldn't disagree more. Hope might be our greatest revolutionary act of all. All our action comes from hope. If you've ever had a dream, you taking action towards manifesting your dream is rooted from a place of hope, of believing. If you've ever worked for something, it's rooted in hope. If you've ever had to believe in the impossible and then experienced the impossible happening, it's rooted in hope.

No, we don't always get everything we want, and bad, terrible things happen to great people, to those we love, to ourselves. And that's often when our hope falters, when we decide hope is pointless because it hurts too bad to believe in another possibility.

But choosing to hope is action - the act of choice. It's the choice to pick yourself back up again. The choice to stand on your two feet no matter how you've been knocked down. It's the choice to move through grief, and possibly the bravest choice, the choice to feel grief when it needs to be felt. 

Hope is our greatest ally. It's where all our action stems from, from the choice to believe in something greater than ourselves. The choice to believe in something we can do about it.

A child is a symbol of real hope, of the chance to create something better for them. A sunset is a symbol of real hope, of the day you made it through, and the day that will come for you to begin again. A friendship is a symbol of real hope, of the way chosen love can hold you.

To cultivate hope when you feel hopeless is a choice. Make the choice to believe in hope and that is how you cultivate more of it. Let hope root into you and there it will grow. Cultivating hope is a practice of being with what is possible. When I need to cultivate my hope today I touch my baby boys arm, wrap him in a hug, take myself to nature. When I need to cultivate my hope I read and write poetry. I let words inspire me, hold me through my own lived experience. When I need to cultivate hope I let myself feel the despair of it, and before it sinks me under, I make the choice to get fresh air, and lean on my tools. When I need to cultivate hope I breathe in, connecting to my pain, to my wisdom and open the doors for love and hope to wash through me.

Choosing to believe in hope in the midst of fear, in the midst of great pain, of the unknown is the only way forward. 

Breathing into hope, choosing hope over and over again, that is the way I fight. 

Holding hope in the midst of fear, of the unknown is the greatest contribution to our world, to your people and to yourself.