Hope is the anchor for our souls

Hope is the Anchor for our Souls

I once saw this article’s headline as a quote on a t-shirt and it had a profound effect on me. For weeks I thought about how differently you see life when you have hope and when you don’t. When the days are good and things are going well, the hope is an ingrained unconscious mind set. But there are also many bad days when you feel you just can’t do one more day. Hope goes hand and hand with faith as something that will guide you out of the darkness. When we have hope, we believe things will somehow work out to the better and hold on because we believe those better days are coming! Real hope combines that hopeful outlook with a firm grip on reality.

One bad day is only one bad day. Its 24 hours, 1,440 minutes, and 86,400 seconds but when those bad days start turning into weeks, months and possibly years and you come to that place where you ask that powerful question to yourself and the universe, “Is there hope?” The answer is yes, there is always hope. Humans can’t live without hope. Hope is the driving force that keeps us going. It’s just as important as food and water. Where we find it is through faith that it is there for us. We attract to us what we are and there is a big difference between surrendering an overwhelming challenge to a higher power to help you solve and get through it and giving up, believing that there will never be sunshine in your life again.

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Turning to the internet experts, I was surprised to see the deep definitions of having hope and hanging onto false hope. It is the latter that beats us down into giving up altogether and falling down even deeper into the dark rabbit hole of self-pity and despair. If we adhere to some of the advice given below, we can differentiate between surrendering a problem to a higher power in faith, which has many more resources to give you a helping hand. Hopelessness is being unable to see past the problems in front of you. This is where your ego confidently tells you that the rest of your life is going to be just this hopeless. NOTHING ever stays the same but it is up to you what you do, to change things in your life.

What Hope Is:

1. Somehow this will turn out for the best, even if I cannot see it right now.
2. Holding onto the possibility that things will get better, regardless of how it may look at the moment.
3. Holding onto a positive picture of the future, even if you can’t figure out how that would happen.
4. Not losing your sense of anticipation that at any moment it could turn for the better, even in small ways.
5. Staying focused on future goals, regardless of how long it takes. Baby steps forward count.
6. Being willing to change and take risks to bring about the outcome you are hoping for.
7. Letting go of the idea that someone or something is going to ‘save’ you. It’s all you regardless.

What False Hope Is:

1. Holding onto a desire that is truly impossible to achieve, regardless of what you do.
2. Believing that the odds are always in your favor, they are not. Life, sometimes is not fair and that reality must be accepted.
3. Having unrealistic goals when the odds are totally against you.
4. Following a dream without the tools. i.e.: Want to be a rock star and can’t sing well nor write music.
5. Letting go of your responsibility for caution by giving in to unfounded optimism.
6. Refusing to listen to your ‘voices’ of reason and only hear what you want to hear.
7. Wanting the desired outcome but unwilling to put the work, time and effort needed to accomplish it.

Susan Z

Susan Z Rich is an emotional addiction counselor, spiritual intuitive and holistic therapist. She counsels others to see life in a more positive way and teaches personal accountability for life choices. She is also the author of several children’s books and Soul Windows…Secrets From The Divine.