Courage to choose hope

Hope. What a word to be using just now. After long months of incremental losses, disappointment and joy-sucking restrictions, there is a general feeling of weariness and heaviness around. 

 

This week we can have courage to choose hope because a new word is filtering into our news and consciousness – not pandemic, nor lockdown, but….vaccine. 

We can hope in a future that is free of Covid-19 illness and restrictions because of all the approaching reality of available and effective vaccines. We have courage to choose hope in the wonders of modern and collaborative science. 

But this week, perhaps let hope go deeper than this. 

Sunday sees the beginning of Advent – the four weeks leading up to Christmas that are a time of preparation and anticipation. This is especially important in the Christian calendar, but whether you are a person of faith or not, this year more than ever gives us cause to hope for better things to come. If you are a person of faith, hope goes deeper still.

What are you hoping for in 2021?  

So many things have not been what we expected this year – both on a global and tragic scale, and on a smaller scale of the changes and impact to each of our lives as individuals. Perhaps this Advent season can see us take a little time to take stock of what our lives look like just now, where we might have had hopes dashed, and what it means to hope for change and new ways of living in 2021.

It might be a simple hope that there will be fewer restrictions and that you can once again hug your loved ones. Or a hope in our own ability to live more in keeping with the values that have been highlighted as much of normal life was stripped away (more on this here). 

Hope takes courage.

Hope is not something we can manufacture through gritted teeth and clenched fists and sheer force of will.

But part of being someone of hope is being someone with a more positive, gratitude filled optimistic outlook. We are more reliant on what we know to be true and who we know ourselves to be than our emotions, which can swing wildly from hour to hour. 

The hope we have for the future links in part to how we view the past. 

Do you tend to view the past with gratitude or regret?

When it comes to the present, are you mindful or absent and distracted?

And considering the future, do you do so with hope or with anxiety?

These perspectives are connected. Underlying attitudes of anxiety, regret and fear tend to promote pessimism and lack of hope. 

When we have an optimistic outlook, we view bad events as temporary, isolated and beyond our control. 

And an optimistic outlook views good events as permanent, far reaching and due to my own efforts. 

What is fascinating is to reverse this, which is what a pessimistic outlook gives us:

We view bad events as permanent, far reaching and due to our own efforts. And we view good events as temporary, isolated and beyond our control. 

Quite a thought isn’t it?

How we interpret events will have a huge effect on the outcome. Of course, there is much that is beyond our control. But this also links back to our secret super power:

The power of choice.

Because we choose our response, and as we approach Advent and the season of anticipation, perhaps this week we can take courage to choose hope. 

Hope in the power of the human spirit to recover.

   …Hope in the ripple benefits of small acts of kindness.

      …Hope in the goodness of human nature at it’s best.

         …Hope in the outlook and perspective shifting benefits of gratitude. 

Perhaps hope in what you CAN do rather than being hamstrung by what you can’t.

This is also linked to resilience and growth mindset, as we learn how to learn from difficult circumstances and challenges. 

I heard this wonderful quote on a podcast last week:

We don’t learn from our experiences. We learn from reflecting on our experiences.”

So this Advent, give yourself a gift of some space to stop and reflect on all you have learned about yourself and your life through these difficult Covid-dominated months. 

And take all that you see that is good about who you are, what you can do and what is most important to you and take courage to choose hope for yourself, your family and community, and our futures. 

One comment on the photos on my blog  – with a small number of exceptions, the photos on my blog are all originals taken by a member of my family, usually MB [My Beloved as he is known here!]. This stunning photo was taken by Elder Nearest-and-Dearest from the top of Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh, and I am very pleased to use it here.