Hopeless? 6 steps to regain inner strength

Without hope we are shipwrecked adrift. There is no shore to reach. We live without horizon or direction. Without hope there is only surrender.

It is hope that enables individual and collective actions that bring about a transformation, a change that can improve our current situation and perhaps the world.

But as many experts – and mental health figures too – point out We live immersed in a crisis of hope.especially at the collective level. Ideals seem illusory and fanciful to us. There are few references that mark a direction where we should go to create a world that we feel “home”.

There is a lack of models that invite to carry out the “small revolutions” that we need so much so that the Earth and the living beings that inhabit it have a future. So is it possible to regain hope?

yes you can regain hope

When I was about three years old my father died and my mother was left with nine childrenmany of them very small. I have often wondered where he got my mother the force to get up the day after my father’s death.

The truth is We all have that inner strength that pushes us to keep going.That survival instinct.

“We all have that inner strength that is activated by a challenge. It is not about external wealth or poverty, but about an internal wealth that is in us,” he explains. Juan Guillermo Ocampo creator of the Red de Escuelas de Música de Medellín program in his conference “The Strength of Hope”.

Ocampo decided to feed the flame of hope among boys and girls from the poorest and most abandoned neighborhoods of Medellín with music. He distributed among them different symphonic instruments and taught them to play. Very soon, together, they reached such a good musical level that they staged concerts in different cities in Europe. They achieved what seemed impossible because no one told them they couldn’t..

Another example that we can regain hope. After the attacks in Paris, the journalist Monique Atlán and the philosopher Roger Pol Droit they called recover hope and integrate it into our thinking.

“We can find it again and feed it, because it is a small flame that sometimes goes down, but does not go out. Yes, hope continues to be our most alive resource, a force that keeps us on our feet, that keeps us going even in the darkest moments.

It is hope that led resistance to compromise, that gave birth to children in the seediest of places, hope is the most beautiful, most irreducible and most human force“, say the authors of L’espoir at-il un avenir? (Editions Flammarion).

hopeless: how to regain trust

We have left the new generations without hope. What do we need to get this feeling back?

During the year 2021 in Catalonia, The Hope Telephone (Help and Hope Foundation) answered 48,893 calls from people with mental health problems (31.85%), relational problems (21.88%) or a state of unwanted loneliness (17.41%) they felt desperate.

“The volunteers of the Telephone of Hope do not perform psychotherapy, but a non-professional emotional accompaniment in which an attempt is made for the person to regain hope in life and in their ability to solve their difficulties, either by themselves or by asking others for help.

Mainly this is achieved building a safe space in which the person can talk openly about sensitive aspects of their subjectivity without feeling judged. It is listened with respect and interest, with an attitude of non-judgment and a look of unconditional acceptance.

In this listening process, a link is woven that allows the user to perceive the volunteer as trustworthy, which has a multiplier effect: I trust the other and the other trusts me, and this allows me to trust myself and life again“, says Clara Campañá, from the communication department of the Ayuda y Esperanza Foundation.

hope is contagious

for the naturalist jane goodallwe have reasons to feel hopeful if we accompany this feeling with actions and commitment.

“People tend to think that hope is a passive illusion: ‘I hope something will happen, but I won’t do anything about it.’ This is, in fact, the opposite of the true hopethat requires action and commitment.

hope is contagious. Your actions will inspire others. Hope is what allows us to face adversity. It’s what we want to happen but we have to prepare and work hard to promote itGoodall notes in The book of hope A survival guide for difficult times (Ediciones Paidós), written together with Douglas Abrams.

This work also provides examples to continue trusting that change is possible if we join to row in the same direction.

“The cumulative effect of thousands of ethical actions will help save and improve our world for generations to come,” says Jane Goodall.

OPEN AGAIN

Like the pear tree that survived the attack of the twin towers and still blooms in spring, we are nature and nature is resilient. But simply hoping for better tomorrows is a limited form of hope.

When everything is dark, in addition to feeling that the light shines at the end of the tunnel, it is about finding the internal and external resources that allow us to move forward. It is about overcoming the paralysis that can come from pain and going further by committing to life.

The key is to open up instead of closing downin finding thoughts that allow us to believe that there are new paths.

Hope is a voice that tells us that we are capable, that today’s damage can be diluted tomorrow for us, that behind the difficulty an opportunity can be hidden.

This belief is what will allow us to develop our creativity and maintain willpower because it makes us trust in life and in ourselves. keeps us optimistic in the face of difficulty giving us the impulse to take a first step towards something better.

ACCEPT TO PROCEED

But this hopeful feeling must be accompanied by objectiveseven if they are small, because as Hannah Arent says, “action is a genuine human faculty to perform miracles.”

Hope committed to action it requires a certain stubbornness to maintain the effort over time.

Also needs stomp your feet on the ground. It is not about believing in a hope that leads us to flee from the present or from reality, but rather that, despite the disaster, gives us the possibility of Explore before you give up.

positive hope it is the one that allows us to cry for what is no longer possible, but lets us glimpse what can still be. AND from the acceptance of what is, act accordingly.

It is about giving ourselves the opportunity before giving up and seek support by creating a community, making a tribe.

Unity makes strength and also hope because, when one declines, it may be the other who takes over.

6 actions to regain hope

Acceptance, looking for references and embracing new experiences They help me out of the tunnel.

1. STOP RUNNING AWAY AND ACCEPT

Living more in the future than in the present is the great danger of a hope that distances us from reality. Stop denying what is and express the pain helps to recover a useful hope. By accepting what is, we can move forward.

2. FIND THE MEANING

“Nothing stronger than a small hope that does not give up,” writes Matt Haig in the book of hope (ed. Backlight). To maintain tenacity and not waste the miracle of being alive, nothing better than having a why.

3. LISTEN TO MUSIC

H. Arlen and Y. Harburg wrote Somewhere Over The Rainbow in 1939, one of the most difficult years for humanity. A simple song can lift our spirits and lift us out of despair. Create your list for difficult times.

4. CREATE YOUR OWN TRIBE

Faced with a problem that leads us to despair, turn to a support group, associations and organizations who fight for what we want, will help us develop an active and committed hope.

5. SEEK BEAUTY

contemplate something beautiful gives us hope, like a smile, the gesture of a child, a story… One of the most powerful beauties is that of nature, because It connects us with transcendence and reminds us that, with time, everything changes.

6. FIND REFERENCES

Hope is often lost by feeling lost. treat us with affection will help us think of people who inspire us and serve as an example for their ability to overcome or way of proceeding or relating.