Hope Is a Muscle
These past few weeks, as the reality of the scope and devastation of Covid-19 pandemic became apparent, my family members began to say to one another “This reminds me of The Fire.”
I asked my family members to share some things they learned from living through that catastrophic fire that I could pass along to you.
One thing I learned right away from my family was that each one of us had different experiences and memories of the fire depending on what was going on in our lives. Two of our children were living at home, two were away at college. Here is a picture of my family from around that time.
Likewise, each of us have very different experiences of living in this global pandemic.
Some are coping with the coronavirus illness itself, some may have lost family members or friends to the disease, some may be frontline healthcare or essential workers, others are more heavily impacted by the economic disruption, and others may be suffering from the isolation required to stop the contagion and others may sadly experience all of the above.
Over the next few blog posts, I will be writing about how we can develop psychological capital in the midst of this calamity.
Psychological capital, as understood in positive psychology, is comprised of four resources, Hope, Efficacy, Resilience and Optimism.
We can use these resources to calm our nervous system and to calm the anxiety that naturally accompanies us in this period of fear and uncertainty.
The first letters of each word form the acronym HERO.
In this edition of my newsletter, I will focus on Hope.
I think of Hope as a muscle that we can flex in times of distress and disaster.
Just like our physical muscles we can strengthen our Hope through regular exercise.
Shane Lopez, the author of Making Hope Happen states that “we build our hopes from memories.”**
Each one of us can think of previous times in our lives that were difficult and demanding.
Indeed, managing fibromyalgia and chronic illness is difficult and demanding on a regular basis!
In times of great sorrow and devastation we can mine our memories for principles we have learned from past challenges and apply them to the current situation
We can use those principles creatively to help us find a way forward, adapting with ingenuity and hopefulness as we respond to quickly changing circumstances.
This is how we put into practice or exercise Hope.
You can ask yourself the same questions I asked my family about our experiences with the Cerro Grande Fire and use them them to consider a time in your life that was difficult and/or devastating:
- What did you learn?
- What gave you hope?
- How was your behavior or outlook changed?
- Who were the helpers?
- How does your experience inform your reaction to the coronavirus pandemic?
Hope is a perspective, a lens through which we view our lives and the world.
Absolutely the most frequent comment I receive from my fibro warrior clients when they start working with me is, “You gave me hope.”
Hope gives us the fuel, the energy to keep going when things look bleak.
When Hope is grounded in solid experiences of overcoming hardship and developing hard won skills of coming through difficult times it is a powerful resource we can rely on to navigate this new normal and whatever else may come our way.
If you find that you are stuck or struggling during this demanding and disorienting time in the world and you realize you could make good use of some extra support during this troublesome time please consider scheduling a FREE Fibromyalgia Wellness Breakthrough Session with me to see if we would be a good fit for working together to help you feel more optimistic and confident as you manage your chronic illness.
