I’ve blogged before about the negative bias of the brain. It seems to me that we have a general bias to staying stuck in the muck. Do I go so far as to say we actually like it, maybe even prefer it? We like to despair, to moan, complain and whine and generally feel sorry for ourselves. That attracts attention, sympathy, an ear from friends/family. We like to watch bad news and bad events. It makes us feel lucky that those things happened over there, to them, not here, to me. Many of us like those things more than being, what others might call, “The Eternal Optimist”. It seems that is often said with a bit of a sneer. Example: “Oh yeah, there’s the Eternal Optimist”. Is it shameful to be hopeful daily? To wish for and actually expect that something good will happen today?
What do we have if we don’t have hope? Hope can come in small doses: I hope the sun shines today. I hope I can sleep well tonight. I hope I wake up well rested tomorrow. I hope the dog’s belly will heal soon. I hope I can help my neighbour with their task. You see, most of these simple hopes expect a good outcome. And if that outcome doesn’t come about, we don’t need to despair. We just need to remain hopeful. Because it will come about… if we stay hopeful!
I’m reminded of a quote I read long ago: “Life is a ball that just rolls and you just get on it. And sometimes you’re going to get squished and sometimes you’re going to be at the top”.
A coin rolls like a ball and sometimes it will land on the side of despair and sometimes on hope. The thing to remember when the despair side is face up, is that hope is just waiting on the other side. Maybe YOU can help flip that coin over by holding on to hope!
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