May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.
– Nelson Mandela
I woke this morning to a bramble of thoughts. Some of those thoughts were encouraging, others weren’t, and I feared the less encouraging thoughts would overpower the positive ones, which could make for an unpleasant day.
To move from fear to hope is not an easy endeavor and one that requires a helping hand, because I’m not always capable of discerning what’s fear and what’s hope.
My fears will prop themselves on supposed fact and logic. They will announce their “rightness” and even allure to the possibility that hope is hiding in the cracks of their make-up.
Fear can stifle and strangle all that is possible for me, and I will believe it’s storyline because I want to make the “right” choice. So many things in this world stem from a blurry rendition of right, that me trying to do the “right” thing is not always my best origination point.
I can begin with something simple: What do I hope for?
If my hope is too grand, like world peace, I can break it down into manageable bites, something I can work with. Then I can look at what action I can take today to cultivate that hope, one granule at a time.
For example: I hope to experience laughter and joy on a regular basis. I can brainstorm activities I can do to create laughter and joy. Maybe I do something fun or ask a friend to coffee. Maybe I do something creative that requires me to loosen up. Maybe I get a ball of string and play with my cat. The ideas are endless.
Instead of staying in what I can’t do or how it’s not going to work out, which is my fear, I can focus on my manageable bites of hope and make choices that reflect those hopes.
Source Image: Maxpixel
Weathered Well 