No matter how overwhelming things may seem, there is no situation in life that is hopeless. Hope and despair may be opposite concepts, but they only exist within the human mind. It's not my circumstances that are hopeless - it's me. What I can change right now is the way I look at things.The person who feels despair has given up and that's good, because we need to be in that awful place before we can turn to a Higher Power and begin to feel hopeful again. The person who feels hope has faith in his or her heart and fosters a belief that no matter what, it can only get better. Hope might not always be there right away, especially if we're caught in the middle of a crisis, but with time and patience, it will come.
During tough times, it's beneficial to turn to a Higher Power for guidance and advice. How do I turn my life over to God? Simply by being willing to do so, and by being open to the possibility of something out there, a power greater than myself, greater than my ego and its selfish desires.
Be guided. Be aware. Tune into your body and its signals will reveal a lot of secrets to you. For instance, if you feel that tightness in your throat or that constrictive pain in your stomach, you're lucky because your body is trying to tell you something. Listen to your emotions, trust your gut feeling - what is it telling you? Anything wrong will feel wrong to you. It might even make you sick. But anything right will give you an immediate sense of relief, like a weight off your shoulders...
In a desperate situation, we give up hope because we can't see the possibility of improvement - not yet. But as we examine our circumstances from a different angle, we can recognize our own mistakes, the roadblocks that we've been putting in our own way. It's up to us to remove these, and replace them with the tools to achieve hope: prayer, meditation, support groups, friends, talking about our feelings, listening, helping others, counseling, education, making plans, recreation, relaxation, smiling, laughing... And above all: living a day at a time.
Painting: "Monarch Butterfly" by Derek McCrea
