Hope and resilience may go hand in hand. When we cultivate hope, we are also cultivating resilience. Hope is the desire or expectation for a certain outcome. Holding hope nurtures a positive mindset and positive emotional states. Positive emotional states support our resilience.
Cultivating hope and resilience doesn’t mean that we deny or turn away from pain or difficult times in our lives. Practicing mindfulness teaches us that we can do both—practice being with pain, acknowledging it and meeting it with kindness, and cultivate and savor moments of hope, joy, and other positive emotions as well. It’s all about balance. If we meet the pain but lose touch with the joy that remains in life, this leaves us unbalanced and in a state of despair. If we deny and turn away from the pain in life and only embrace the joy and positive experiences, this leaves us unbalanced and likely experiencing anxious avoidance.
We can cultivate a more balanced mental and emotional state by making time and room to be present with whatever arises in our inner and outer landscape. If there is stress, anxiety, or grief –related to a pandemic, war and disruption, or personal loss—we make room in our heart and mind for the wave of emotion. We practice mindfulness of feelings, observing the sensations that come and go with the present moment experience of the emotion. We practice meeting whatever arises with kindness and curiosity. And when the wave of emotion passes, we let it go.
To stay balanced, we can also practice seeking, noticing, and savoring the good. We can seek out positive experiences –appreciating the brilliant blue sky, a warm cup of tea, holding a loved one or pet close. We can notice the positive experiences when they arise in the moment—a memory of joy or connection, a card in the mail from a friend, the pleasant smell of soap in the shower. We can practice savoring these good experiences so that we remember at the end of the day that there were good things. Otherwise, our minds dwell on the difficulty, and we get to the end of the day thinking about how awful the day was.
10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows
Chuang Tzu
As we focus on the good that remains in this world, this generates feelings of hope. Yes, there are a zillion difficult things happening in our world, and… the sun is still rising and setting, the sky remains beautiful whether it’s sunny or cloudy, and the birds are still singing.