Power of Hope

Have you ever felt at the end of your rope? Ever wanted to give up on your dreams? Sometimes when things don't seem to be going our way it can be very discouraging to maintain a hopeful attitude that things will work out in our favor, at least to some degree.

When we feel justified in our hopelessness we may begin to embody and taken on a victim mentality. If we feel guilty for something we've said or done it can also bring us down. "Why bother?" we might say to ourselves. "It's no use trying or hoping. It's never going to be good enough. I'm never going to be good enough."

Without hope, the challenge to push forward can leave us crippled with doubt and discomfort. Yet hope is a tricky thing! Often times we can feel hopeful, and then have to wrestle with our guilt for wanting something different than we have because aren't we supposed to be content? Shouldn't we feel satisfied with what we have without always striving or reaching for something else?

Yes, and also no. It is possible to reach forward without straining so far that we lose balance and fall over. It is possible to practice gratitude for what we have now, where we are at today, while also dreaming up where we might be moving toward. To recognize this juxtaposition is to give yourself permission to live in two worlds at once.

The coin of Hope is comprised of the side of Pain and the side of Pleasure. What do I like, yet also feel uncomfortable about liking? What do I not like but feel bad for or wish that I did? Am I supposed to feel guilty about what I'm saying or doing, and/or is there some part of me that feels kinda good about it? Balance, balance, balance, as always. If we add black to a color we can make it darker, or make it lighter by adding white. Working in incremental amounts of lightness and darkness can help us find balance in the same way that finding the right amount of struggle and ease for ourselves in any given situation helps keep us aligned.

This sacral energy is represented by the color orange, and the element of water. It's located in the hips, and is helpful to stretch this area regularly (along with the rest of the body) to set ourselves up for a more hopeful framework as we tend to carry a lot of emotional baggage and pain from the past here. Yin yoga is great for this, because it works by holding seated and lying down postures for longer periods, giving our muscles time enough to relax so that we begin stretching into our connective tissues. Even those of us who move and stretch regularly can forgo these kinds of slow-paced exercises, yet we're actually losing out on more than half of our flexibility by ignoring these long held, deep stretches.

Hope is not as much about specific moderation, deciding what we say yes to and in what quantity at what times, it's more about vibing. Flowing in flexibility. Taking new shapes and trying on new experiences. If we allow fear to control this, then yes, we may overdo it and feel guilty, while too much excitement can cause us to over-indulge. Too many sweets will make us sick to our stomach, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't enjoy these things at all. Hope is about trying what we feel is going to be a positive experience, sometimes realizing that it isn't quite what we expected, whether for better or worse.

It is wise to consider others when learning about our guilt and pleasure, because the opinions and experiences of someone else can be valuable in our journey toward self-reflection and discovery, however it is not someone else's place to decide what is worthy of these labels. Only you can look inside yourself and decide what feels comfortable for you. When something feels uncomfortable, you can ask yourself if that's because you yourself have an issue with what you've said or done and wish to try things another way. If you simply regret that it bothers someone else or that they're allowing themselves to hurt because of it, you may inadvertently take on the pain of another and run the risk of choosing their adventure over your own story. The life you were born to contribute to this world, because you are a valuable and amazing part of this technicolor family.

There's an excellent story about a person who continues to fall upon "good" and "bad" luck. Every time something bad happens, their community says "Oh, that's so awful!" and whenever something good happens, the community says "Oh, that's so wonderful!" In either case, the person always response "Perhaps." Now, this could be seen as indifferent or even pessimistic, yet as each seemingly good thing leads to something bad, and that bad thing leads to something good, then back and forth and on and on, it illustrates the fact that there are peeks and valleys in life for a reason and usually many lessons to be gathered along the way.

Whether we "like" or "dislike" what is happening may play a huge part in our attitude toward it, but that doesn't mean it isn't part of a bigger picture that we might not fully understand until we look back from another point in the road. To take an attitude of "Perhaps" is to find balance between what we are attracted to or repulsed by. For attraction feels good in appropriate degrees and repulsion feels yucky yet can be incredibly helpful, but for the most part who are we to say what is objectively good or bad? Even if someone else agrees with us, or we feel there is evidence to prove our point, it is still merely our current perspective. One that may change over time as we perceive things with a different version of the same senses we've always traveled with. And travel we most certainly will!