Overcoming Challenges with an Optimistic Heart 💛 and The Power of Hope
August 28, 2021
We’re all the same, at least a little bit. 🤏
Different hair, different eyes, but probably very similar lives.
We all face challenges.
We all face obstacles in life.
We all hit a roadblock here and there.
Oftentimes, these roadblocks and challenges make us who we are and shape us along the journey of life, don’t they? We tend to stress out early with worry and consider the infinite what-ifs for the potential failures or problems that might arise.
BUT - IF HISTORY WOULD TELL US ANYTHING TO BE TRUE…
It would be that we have an incredible ability to overcome our challenges.
Don’t just skip over that truth. Take a moment to reflect back over your life and muse over some of those most challenging events…. guess where you are today… you’ve overcome quite a lot I would imagine, no? You’re a champion, a strong warrior inside your heart and you didn’t even know it.
You’ve faced countless obstacles, roadblocks and hardships. You didn’t know how you were going to make it through, but guess what.. you made it through didn’t you?
So, whatever you may be dealing with today, tomorrow, or whatever happened to you yesterday that you’re still stuck worrying about today… just know the truth that you will indeed overcome and rise up over this obstacle. You will overcome, because that’s exactly what you do as an overcomer.
Mandisa does a splendid job to illustrate how we overcome challenges in our lives and the beauty of the journey. It’s one of my favorite songs to recommend to people going through any kind of hard times. One- because it’s a song of champions and really ignites your soul, but also 2- because it’s a song of truth and has touched a lot of precious vulnerable hearts in a time of need for a message of hope.
Hope.
With HOPE comes healing. When we lose sight of HOPE, we use sight of ourselves in the great big journey that is life.
HOPE
Many psychologists point to the power of Hope being the indesputable tool for people walking through challenges. The conversation takes on one of Person A vs. Person B both facing a similar challenge. Person A holds onto hope, person B gives up all hope.
Person A grows into a survivor while Person B grows into a victim.
Now, this is just a framework that psychologists suggests helps us understand the power of hope, but I’m sure you may actually be able to connect to this lesson in your own life and people that you know have taken on the storyline of Person A and some others who have succumbed to the narrative of Person B.
It’s no secret that hope has incredible power for human health and longevity too.
Hope - is also the name of the town where I went to high school oddly enough. The word Hope, has always meant a little more to me than the average person I think. Hope is what kept me excited to move so much while growing up as a kid being gifted into the need to make new friends every single year in every new school I would attend. Likewise, hope is what helped me stay stable and enjoy myself through many adventures alone and unknown steps along the way.
I’ve traveled to several different countries, talked to many many.. MANY people at this point and one thing stands out to me as such a strong precedent on how people hold themselves… with either hope that helps us hold on or the hopelessness that draws us into escapism like a leap into quicksand that warps us into another dimension like a wormhole in outer space.
Let’s cut back to HOPE in childhood. Think back to your own life as a young kid. Was it filled with hope, joy, love, excitement…. or perhaps something much different, like pain, distractions, afflictions, upset adults yelling and screaming or maybe even just vacant of others at all. How did you press on through your childhood through your tweens and teens and in-between then and now for you as an adult?
Did you face challenge?
Did you utilize the power of hope to help you get through?
I believe one of the most important things we can do for our kids today is to help them hold onto hope. Mental Health professionals are faced with strange surges of problems showcasing in children and young adults today, some even presenting with such high levels of PTSD and anxiety that would be matched with a veteran of fighting a bloody war. I’ve also come to see many kids these days with a hopeless perspective on the world due to all the many negative exposures they’ve been exposed to on the news and many media outlets.
They’ve also grown up seeing the relentless hysteria on television and elsewhere that is quite literally designed to ignite your Amygdala - aka the ALERT and FEAR and PANIC and SURVIVAL control portion of the brain… lighting up this part of the brain forces you into disaster mode, but instead of the sky really falling outside like in Chicken Little… instead its just that all the angry and aggressive talking heads on TV and media outlets get paid to keep people watching and the best way to keep someone attentive IS TO SOUND THE ALARMS!!!
🚨🚨🚨🔥🔥🔥🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🔥🔥🔥🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🚨🔥🔥
But, as I’ve written about before.. we can really only interact with the village, not the world. We have to acknowledge the boundary of our influence, for taking action and receiving information on about too.
Rather, in today’s current climate… everyone hangs out full of fear inside their homes, afraid to go out and SERVE, afraid to dedicate an hour of their time to just relax and breathe at the park… many people feel so stressed and overwhelmed that their brains then lead them for perpetual feelings of “comfort seeking” saying i need help.. i need something to fix and resolve this problem I’m dealing with. I need something to give me some pleasure because right now.. my heart and mind feel dark, broken, and cold.
- insert ice cream
- insert chips
- insert soda
- insert alcohol
- insert vaping
- insert sugar
Our kids have less resilience and less hope today than many generations in the past they say, with massively higher rates of anxiety and depression, as well as overweight, obesity, problems sleeping and so much more. It’s a sad state of affairs… but I HAVE HOPE because I believe in educating families, parents, teachers, community care givers, childcare professionals AND the kids themselves on how to harness their biology with awareness and education to truly tap into the way the human body and human life was meant to live and designed to thrive.
“BIG DREAMS, Jon.. ”
Trust me, I get it. I have all these crazy ambitions and a hope for the future that maybe others don’t have… but I also have to have the first step of hope… being the HOPE FOR HOPE… now don’t get lost..
What I mean is that before we actually HAVE HOPE… we need to hope for having hope if we’ve lost that magic at some point in the past.
Likewise, before I can change the world of health and wellness with improved systems of informed consent and promoting personal agency through prevention… I have to first believe and hope that this mission can be accomplished and hope that I can make a difference. I have to hold on to hope in order to keep going…. and I’ll bet that’s that how you’ve accomplished so much in your life too.
I’d love to hear a short story of your own life in how you overcame a challenge or championed over an obstacle by leaving a comment below.
At the end of the day, we’ve all faced difficult times.
Some more than others, some vastly different than others. What we have in common is that for us to overcome anything, we have to hold on to hope.. so this weekend I wanted to send you a message of hope and one to send you along your reflections with yourself and your loved ones to appreciate your memories, where you’ve come from and where you’re going. Remember, if history does repeat itself, you’ll likely face more challenges in the future… and you’ll also grow through those difficult times and you’ll overcome what comes your way.
Keep good people close. Keep your eyes on what matters most. Hold onto hope for as long as you can… for without it life becomes a very dark place and I want you to have the chance to live life in the light, to live life with love and delight. It is with all this being said that I send you off with some sprinkles of hope and dash of invigorating inspiration to cherish yourself and where you’ve come from as you push forward.
To all your health and happiness, 😁 🌱 💙
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We take on many challenges and we overcome as the champions we are. 💪