Coaching Yourself COURAGEOUSLY – Choosing Hope

by | Jul 1, 2020

Once you choose hope, anything is possible –  Christopher Reeve

When we look back at this difficult time in history, I’d love to say that we chose, as a nation, and as humanity, to cultivate hope during these uncertain times.

Crisis Kit

I have created this anti-anxiety and anti-stress tool kit, proven by science, to help you reduce anxiety and stress. I guarantee you that if you implement some of these ideas and use these tools; you will navigate this uncertainty boat like a highly skilled Captain.

As a nation and in the world I feel very much like we are in a perpetual stormy sea. What we thought was going to be a great excursion, 2020, turned out to be the year of the uninterrupted hurricane season; with wave after wave pounding us.

So what do we do? There is only one thing we can do; choose to utilize our strengths as we ride out this tsunami season.

In this blog post, I am going to share the power of embracing hope with you and invite you to cultivate it during this time. Cultivating hope will not only strengthen your own sense of health and well-being, it will have a ripple effect that enables you to be a beacon of light to those around you.

Hope as a Strength

Hope is expecting the best in the future and working to make it happen. In addition to that, Positive Psychology has also identified hope as a strength that you already possess.

According to research, people who are hopeful are less likely to be anxious and depressed. Those who cultivate hopefulness, when they do experience anxiety or depression, are not typically overwhelmed by those feelings.

To apply this practically, let’s look at how you can cultivate hope.

3 Ways to Cultivate Hope

1. Decide

Cultivating hope starts with a decision. Decisions do not occur by happenstance; you must make an intentional choice to resolve to do something.

By not making a decision, you choose indecision, and whether you realize it or not indecision is a decision.

It takes bravery to choose hope. So many people are afraid to hope because they don’t want to risk being disappointed. If you do not make an intentional choice to decide, you will risk finding hope to help you create a brighter future.

Think of this decision as an investment in yourself.  When you invest in something, you take ownership of it; it then becomes a part of who you are which adds value to your investment.

Coaching Questions:

  • What is one thing you can decide to do that will help grow hope in your life?
  • What is one obstacle you are facing right now that you can decide to take steps to overcome?

 

“More is lost by indecision than wrong decision. Indecision is the thief of opportunity. It will steal you blind.” – Cicero

2. Find Some Quick Wins

Did you know that you can train your brain to feed off of bursts of dopamine to help you achieve your goals?

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in your brain that has many functions. One of these roles is to create a sensation of pleasure when the brain is stimulated by achievement.

So how can you use dopamine to help foster hopefulness?

Since it is harder to see progress when your goals are lofty and long-term, it’s important to break your goals down into tiny steps; much like a step ladder.

This gives you an immediate sense of accomplishment because anytime your brain likes the feeling of something, it releases dopamine; thus this is an instant reward to avoid discouragement and to build on small wins.

Coaching Questions:

  • What is one very small goal you want to achieve in the next 2 weeks?
  • How can you breakdown that small goal into even smaller steps so you can reward yourself daily?

This stepladder approach will lead to small victories which will encourage you and create an environment that raises your morale and creates patterns of success to build upon.

When you have small victories, you are more energized and stick with your goals rather than getting discouraged and throwing in the towel.

3. Neutralize/Reframe

Chronically stressful circumstances affect our emotions, energy, and mindset. That’s why it’s so important to reframe them into something our brain can handle.

That’s where hope comes in as an ally for us. Hope is the ability to see beyond our present circumstances to that which is unseen.

“Hope is the DNA of men and women who learn from their losses.” – John Maxwell

To cultivate hope, you must not let your circumstances dictate your feelings or decisions.

Reframing your mindset is a vital tool that allows you to neutralize the situation so as to take away the severity of the power it has over your reasoning.

I started this blog post by saying it felt like we were living in a tsunami. A tsunami is a long high sea wave caused by an earthquake or an occurrence of something in overwhelming quantities or amounts.

Life under Construction

By reframing your thoughts, you can lessen any destructive power they have over you.

This is how neutralizing something works. Neutralizing something empowers you to escape being overwhelmed so that you can be proactive in finding a way out of the situation. Once you take away some of the strength of the problem, it becomes more manageable.

What if we downgrade the tsunami right now? Instead of a violent tsunami, let’s look at our current circumstances as life was under construction.

Coaching Questions:

  • What are you magnifying in your current situation that you could neutralize or reframe?
  • What would reframing this circumstance give you?

Although being under construction is not an easy place to live, it gives us hope that the innovative and creative construction process will be well worth the investment of time, finances, and energy to get to the other side; a new and improved normal.

“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.” – Nelson Mandela

Make it a courageous day!
Keep believing,

Rita

Crisis Kit

I have created this anti-anxiety and anti-stress tool kit, proven by science, to help you reduce anxiety and stress. I guarantee you that if you implement some of these ideas and use these tools; you will navigate this uncertainty boat like a highly skilled Captain.

Rita Hudgens
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