#16 – On hope
Five practices to cultivate more hope
Happy Spring (or Autumn), dear readers! March 19 officially marked the first day of spring for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. Happy Autumn to you if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere :)
In Toronto, where I live, this week has been filled with rainy days interspersed with sunny skies. It’s still a bit chilly but knowing that spring is here fills me with such a deep sense of gladness and hope!
These days, I think of hope as a sustenance in life. Its form may not be tangible in the physical world, but I feel that its presence is as vital to the human spirit as air, water and light. In his book The Pedagogy of Hope, Brazilian author Paulo Freire has described hope as a natural human characteristic that “begins as knowledge and with time, transforms into wisdom.”
Inspired by this perspective, I have been trying to think of hope as not something outside of me as if it were a fairy-like magical pixie dust sprinkled upon my life by the Universe. Instead, I’ve been trying to nurture and cultivate hope in myself with time, attention and effort. In this faith, I’d like to share with you five things that have been helpful for me:
Creating resolutions for the season rather than the year
Today is April 6 – that’s to say, 2024 is well underway! This year, I did not have new year resolutions per se because I was wary of committing to anything that I was not sure of being able to follow for an entire year, and a year felt like kind of a long time!
But recently, it occurred to me that there could be a third option besides just having resolutions for the year or not having any – and that is having resolutions for the season rather than the year. This shift in perspective has been helpful because resolutions for a season or a three-month period feel way more manageable. This way, it feels like I am setting myself up for success rather than disappointment. It also gives me a sense of completion when I am able to keep up a resolution for a season. Even if I blow off a resolution during a month, the thought that I can start anew in the next season is giving me lots of hope.
Taking concrete actions, i.e. getting up and doing something
Many years ago, I was a stressed-out university student who had signed up for way too many opportunities on campus. One day, my schedule was so jam-packed that I was reeling from the mere sight of it. I felt so overwhelmed that I just felt like sitting all day in my classroom like a frozen statue.
But, just at this time, one of my professors shared with me a quote which jolted me awake (okay, more accurately, she shared it with an entire group of people, not just me, but I took it personally). Sometimes, when certain words are spoken to us at just the right time, they land in our consciousness with such force that their impact continues to reverberate even years later. I admit that it may sound cheesy, but it works for me like magic. To this day, whenever I am overwhelmed, I tell myself, “Saran, remember that quote,” and it instantly changes my mindset. Here is that quote:
“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”― Barack Obama
Create a “Ta-Da” list rather than a “to-do” list
Ever since the aforementioned university days, I have been a creature of action and to-do lists. But, one day, I knew I had a *slight* problem when I realized I was creating a to-do list to keep track of my to-do lists. Ever since noticing this, I have been trying to work on my relationship with to-do lists, and while it’s not perfect, it’s definitely getting better. (See Saran Wrapped Letter #2 if you’re interested).
But, a couple of years ago, I came across a super fun and creative twist on to-do lists in one of Gretchen Rubin’s books. And that is the Ta-Da list, which is basically a list of all the things that have already been done!
Instead of thinking about the long list of things that need to be done, why not celebrate the ones you have already done? Ta-Da list is definitely more fun, more joy-conducive and more exhilarating!
I am still mostly a to-do list person, but whenever I do a Ta-Da list, I am always happy that I did it, and it always gives me a little more hope and a little more confidence.
If you’ve never done a Ta-Da list, I encourage you to try it out!
Schedule “recess time” for yourself
Remember when, back in childhood, teacher would call for recess during the day, and you promptly drop everything, go eat snacks, drink apple juice with tiny plastic straws and run outside to the playground? At least, that’s what I did when I was in elementary school. As much as I loved my classes, I always looked forward to recess time with a joyful sense of anticipation – just that feeling of dropping everything and going to have fun felt so liberating.
In adulthood, we are our own teacher, and we are our own student, and everyone is our teacher, and everyone is our student. This has many implications, but one of the fun sides of this is that we have the authority to schedule “recess time” for ourselves!
More recently, I have been scheduling recess time for myself after work – basically, it’s another word for downtime in which I allow myself to do whatever I want (tbh, mostly reading and writing). But setting aside this time in my calendar and calling it “recess” time has been sparking lots of joy and lightheartedness in my life.
I don’t fully understand how this works, but whenever I feel lighthearted and rested, I find it easier to feel more hopeful about life.
Write Letters from Love
Saving the best for the last! A practice that has been generating lots of hope in me is Letters From Love. I learned this from the Substack community created by
and (and the Lovelets). Oh man! I have no words to describe how kind, incandescent and love-giving that community is.The core practice is writing yourself a letter from a place of unconditional love. Basically, you pull out a piece of paper and give yourself the prompt, “Dear Love — what would you have me know today?” Then start writing and let Love speak to you! Write to yourself all the things unconditional Love would like to say to you.
Lizzy has said, “It is an act of imagination before it becomes an act of faith.” And I could not agree more! Of course, you can do this at any time, but doing it first thing in the morning or as the last thing before going to sleep feels particularly powerful.
It may sound a little weird if you’ve never done it before (at first, I thought so, too) but after you do it once or a couple of times, you will understand! It’s truly one of the most awe-inspiring and healing practices I have ever encountered. I hope you try it out! All the details are on Lizzy’s Substack!
Thank you for being here. I’m grateful to you for reading this :)
May all your days be filled with hope,
Saran
PS: I am loving this photo from the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.
