Finding Hope in a Hopeless World
(10/16/18) She sits at her computer, staring at the screen with a blank look on her face. She has been coming to this job for years, but now something has changed. Tears begin to well up in her eyes and she knows she can barely fight it anymore. At home, her marriage has grown dull. She can't remember the last time her husband said anything supportive to her. Her friends have grown distant and the weight of her past choices are starting to weigh her down more than ever. Life has turned into an endless loop of the same old pains day in and day out and dead-ends are appearing in every direction. Hope is gone.
Does this sound familiar? If so, you may be one of millions of people worldwide suffering from a preventable form of depression. It is hopelessness. A psychologist would be tempted to say it is depression and put you on medications, but the real story is that when bad things happen over and over again, many people stop smiling and sadness sets in. Ongoing sadness then creates hopelessness. I, myself, have suffered with this too and would like to discuss ways in which you can overcome the power that hopelessness has over your life and help you begin living again.
Gratitude
Gratitude is the first step to reclaiming the power that hopelessness has over you. A hope-filled life has many tangible rewards, but before you can get there, you have to form a mindset that focuses on positive vibrations. Gratitude is always where you start. If you have been complaining, feeling a lot of frustrations or anger during your interactions with others, you may need to look at how your mindset has possibly shifted without you even realizing it. So how do you become more grateful when so many things are upsetting you? Pray and write down what you are thankful for.
Research has shown that when people write down what they are thankful for, over time, they will actually become more happy. When you focus on what you are thankful for, your brain will rewire itself to find even more reasons to be thankful! You should remember that everything you have ever achieved has been because of the sacrifices of others. Think about it; when your car breaks down on the side of the road, you interrupt someone, who has to put their own needs aside, to come tow you to the shop. The repairman chooses to come to work every day, because they enjoy helping people keep their cars running. You have the money to pay for the repair, because someone saw something good in you and decided to hire you! Blessings come in many forms and acknowledging them tells God to give you even more. Other things you can feel gratitude for are things such as your health, your job, nice comments people give you, or any number of things you find good.
Start your gratitude journey by focusing on everything you enjoy for one full day. When something you enjoy happens, say, "I like that." Did you like the way that food tasted? "I like that." Do you like that the sun is shining after a rainy day? "I like that." Did you enjoy a compliment someone made to you? "I like that." I bet at the end of the day you will find you said "I like that" hundreds of times in just a single day!
Inspire Yourself
Humans are spiritual creatures. We are not meant to live a mundanely grounded existence! Getting involved in a spiritually based activity is a great way to begin raising your positive vibrations to another level. This isn't to say that all spiritual activities will be positive. Make sure whatever that activity is inspires you. A few things I do to help with my spiritual health is to go to church regularly (my church is always inspiring), volunteer by serving the less fortunate when I can, and writing on my blog. My blog satisfies a deep spiritual hunger I have, because I have faith that it impacts many thousands of people in a meaningful way as well as gives me time to reflect on the Lord's grace and faithfulness. It gives me a chance to keep inspired daily.
Just Have Faith
An easy thing to say, but not always so easy to put into practice. Faith is the belief in the unseen without proof. I will say, however, once your spiritual program is developed, this gets much easier. In my own life, I have seen unfathomable miracles. The Lord has shown his goodness to me so many times now that I cannot even begin to doubt that everything I am going through, he knows about, and is working on a fix. I have found, through experience, that the longer I have to wait on a prayer getting answered, the sweeter and more beautiful the answer becomes. Know that your Father loves you and when you are ready for his gift, he will deliver it to you. One does not give fine jewels to a child who will simply cast them in a mud puddle and stomp over them.
"And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly." Luke 18:6-8
Stop Doing Things that Drain Your Life Source
If you work full time, you may definitely understand the struggle of having a limited number of hours a day to get things done. That being said, it is all that much more important that you begin to cut the clutter out of your life so you can devote your time to spiritually fulfilling activities. You owe it to yourself to free up enough time so that you may be happy and healthy.
For instance, as an example, each and every day, you pick up your child from school, come home to make dinner, throw in a load of laundry, wash dishes, and finally treat yourself to 40 minutes of your favorite episode on Netflix. If you're lucky, you might even get 7 hours of sleep tonight. Well what if you decided that twice a week, someone else would pick up your child. 2 times a week, you would do "quick dinner" instead of the 2 hour session that usually happens, and then start doing laundry only twice a week. If shopping takes up a lot of time, be firm that shopping only happens one night per week. With the savings of an hour per day, you can dedicate yourself to 30 minutes of spiritual uplifting activity and even watch an extra episode of your favorite show! These are only examples, but stop and think of a few ways you could cut some clutter out.
Love Continuously and Unconditionally
Once you have raised your positive vibrations, you are now prepped to begin doing what you've actually been preparing for. Love.
You cannot love when you are emotionally and spiritually deficient. That is why this isn't the first step, but loving others is the most powerful step, however, in regaining hope. When a person loves others, extremely powerful things begin to happen. People begin to love back! When you receive loving feedback, you will begin to want to express even more love, because that feedback is an affirming action. Affirming actions tell us that the decisions we are making are correct and that we are on the right path. Ways in which you can love others is simply by keeping your eyes open for the opportunity. When you feel your heart tugging to help someone, jump at that chance, because the payment of well-being you'll feel when helping others cannot possibly be measured. On the flip side, a great reputation can be a very valuable thing!
Forgive Others as God Forgave You
One of the most loving things you can do is to forgive. The Lord said, "forgive others as I have forgiven you." A hard heart builds hate and resentment. The worst thing is that it does little except to harm the person NOT doing the forgiving. Holding someone accountable for the rest of their life drains your life source like nothing else. Remember, just as the Lord loves you, that person is also God's child and under the Lord, regardless of what someone has done to you, they are family. The Lord will show them the error of their ways, which actually frees you from having to execute the judgment yourself so you can free your mind up for more positive and uplifting activity.
You may wonder where to start on this. People often don't realize that forgiving someone doesn't mean you have to have coffee with them. It doesn't even mean you have to trust them at all. It just means that you release them from judgment and let them know you do not harbor ill will against them and will not retaliate or spread rumors or gossip about them. If someone is manipulative or offensive by nature, do not continue to put yourself in harms way by devoting yourself to being their best friend. In fact, if being their friend is causing them to sin, it may be in the best interest for both of you to move apart, but for the sake of your health, forgive them. Love them to the point at which your trust allows and rest easy in the fact that you are saving two souls in the process, even though you may have lost a close friend.
Jesus said, "And now these three remain: Faith, Hope, and Love, but the greatest is love (1 Corinthians 13:13). It is these three things along with gratitude that can help you overcome depression and take back hope again. The loss of hope is like a loss of the spirit, in which the body cannot survive long. You owe it to yourself to be happy and by following these steps, you too, can begin seeing daylight again. I wish you love and only the best that life has to offer.
Author: Jason Cook
www.searchlightorganization.com
Copyright Date: 10/16/18
Does this sound familiar? If so, you may be one of millions of people worldwide suffering from a preventable form of depression. It is hopelessness. A psychologist would be tempted to say it is depression and put you on medications, but the real story is that when bad things happen over and over again, many people stop smiling and sadness sets in. Ongoing sadness then creates hopelessness. I, myself, have suffered with this too and would like to discuss ways in which you can overcome the power that hopelessness has over your life and help you begin living again.
Gratitude
Gratitude is the first step to reclaiming the power that hopelessness has over you. A hope-filled life has many tangible rewards, but before you can get there, you have to form a mindset that focuses on positive vibrations. Gratitude is always where you start. If you have been complaining, feeling a lot of frustrations or anger during your interactions with others, you may need to look at how your mindset has possibly shifted without you even realizing it. So how do you become more grateful when so many things are upsetting you? Pray and write down what you are thankful for.
Research has shown that when people write down what they are thankful for, over time, they will actually become more happy. When you focus on what you are thankful for, your brain will rewire itself to find even more reasons to be thankful! You should remember that everything you have ever achieved has been because of the sacrifices of others. Think about it; when your car breaks down on the side of the road, you interrupt someone, who has to put their own needs aside, to come tow you to the shop. The repairman chooses to come to work every day, because they enjoy helping people keep their cars running. You have the money to pay for the repair, because someone saw something good in you and decided to hire you! Blessings come in many forms and acknowledging them tells God to give you even more. Other things you can feel gratitude for are things such as your health, your job, nice comments people give you, or any number of things you find good.
Start your gratitude journey by focusing on everything you enjoy for one full day. When something you enjoy happens, say, "I like that." Did you like the way that food tasted? "I like that." Do you like that the sun is shining after a rainy day? "I like that." Did you enjoy a compliment someone made to you? "I like that." I bet at the end of the day you will find you said "I like that" hundreds of times in just a single day!
Inspire Yourself
Humans are spiritual creatures. We are not meant to live a mundanely grounded existence! Getting involved in a spiritually based activity is a great way to begin raising your positive vibrations to another level. This isn't to say that all spiritual activities will be positive. Make sure whatever that activity is inspires you. A few things I do to help with my spiritual health is to go to church regularly (my church is always inspiring), volunteer by serving the less fortunate when I can, and writing on my blog. My blog satisfies a deep spiritual hunger I have, because I have faith that it impacts many thousands of people in a meaningful way as well as gives me time to reflect on the Lord's grace and faithfulness. It gives me a chance to keep inspired daily.
Just Have Faith
An easy thing to say, but not always so easy to put into practice. Faith is the belief in the unseen without proof. I will say, however, once your spiritual program is developed, this gets much easier. In my own life, I have seen unfathomable miracles. The Lord has shown his goodness to me so many times now that I cannot even begin to doubt that everything I am going through, he knows about, and is working on a fix. I have found, through experience, that the longer I have to wait on a prayer getting answered, the sweeter and more beautiful the answer becomes. Know that your Father loves you and when you are ready for his gift, he will deliver it to you. One does not give fine jewels to a child who will simply cast them in a mud puddle and stomp over them.
"And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly." Luke 18:6-8
Stop Doing Things that Drain Your Life Source
If you work full time, you may definitely understand the struggle of having a limited number of hours a day to get things done. That being said, it is all that much more important that you begin to cut the clutter out of your life so you can devote your time to spiritually fulfilling activities. You owe it to yourself to free up enough time so that you may be happy and healthy.
For instance, as an example, each and every day, you pick up your child from school, come home to make dinner, throw in a load of laundry, wash dishes, and finally treat yourself to 40 minutes of your favorite episode on Netflix. If you're lucky, you might even get 7 hours of sleep tonight. Well what if you decided that twice a week, someone else would pick up your child. 2 times a week, you would do "quick dinner" instead of the 2 hour session that usually happens, and then start doing laundry only twice a week. If shopping takes up a lot of time, be firm that shopping only happens one night per week. With the savings of an hour per day, you can dedicate yourself to 30 minutes of spiritual uplifting activity and even watch an extra episode of your favorite show! These are only examples, but stop and think of a few ways you could cut some clutter out.
Love Continuously and Unconditionally
Once you have raised your positive vibrations, you are now prepped to begin doing what you've actually been preparing for. Love.
You cannot love when you are emotionally and spiritually deficient. That is why this isn't the first step, but loving others is the most powerful step, however, in regaining hope. When a person loves others, extremely powerful things begin to happen. People begin to love back! When you receive loving feedback, you will begin to want to express even more love, because that feedback is an affirming action. Affirming actions tell us that the decisions we are making are correct and that we are on the right path. Ways in which you can love others is simply by keeping your eyes open for the opportunity. When you feel your heart tugging to help someone, jump at that chance, because the payment of well-being you'll feel when helping others cannot possibly be measured. On the flip side, a great reputation can be a very valuable thing!
Forgive Others as God Forgave You
One of the most loving things you can do is to forgive. The Lord said, "forgive others as I have forgiven you." A hard heart builds hate and resentment. The worst thing is that it does little except to harm the person NOT doing the forgiving. Holding someone accountable for the rest of their life drains your life source like nothing else. Remember, just as the Lord loves you, that person is also God's child and under the Lord, regardless of what someone has done to you, they are family. The Lord will show them the error of their ways, which actually frees you from having to execute the judgment yourself so you can free your mind up for more positive and uplifting activity.
You may wonder where to start on this. People often don't realize that forgiving someone doesn't mean you have to have coffee with them. It doesn't even mean you have to trust them at all. It just means that you release them from judgment and let them know you do not harbor ill will against them and will not retaliate or spread rumors or gossip about them. If someone is manipulative or offensive by nature, do not continue to put yourself in harms way by devoting yourself to being their best friend. In fact, if being their friend is causing them to sin, it may be in the best interest for both of you to move apart, but for the sake of your health, forgive them. Love them to the point at which your trust allows and rest easy in the fact that you are saving two souls in the process, even though you may have lost a close friend.
Jesus said, "And now these three remain: Faith, Hope, and Love, but the greatest is love (1 Corinthians 13:13). It is these three things along with gratitude that can help you overcome depression and take back hope again. The loss of hope is like a loss of the spirit, in which the body cannot survive long. You owe it to yourself to be happy and by following these steps, you too, can begin seeing daylight again. I wish you love and only the best that life has to offer.
Author: Jason Cook
www.searchlightorganization.com
Copyright Date: 10/16/18