“Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” So said Alexander Pope, whose words from An Essay On Man are still as profound as they are poetic. Although he wrote those words in 1733, we are certainly reaching for them in 2020. Hope is what we are clutching to as the holidays approach, the cold winter weather sets in, and we are longing to be with family and friends, but know that is not our safest choice.

Hope provides a refuge from pessimism and fear. It galvanizes our courage and reenergizes our spirit. It improves our mood and enhances our creative thinking. Hope is clearly an incredibly powerful emotion, and some people are naturally more hopeful than others, but I do believe we all have the capacity to exercise our “hopeful muscle.” But how do we do that? What are you doing to remain hopeful right now?

I believe hope is a very personal thing. What I do to be hopeful, may not work for you and vice versa. But here are some resources to help boost your hopefulness and I hope you find them helpful. We will, one day soon, look back on this time and be very grateful that it’s over. But for now, while we are in the trenches, let’s help each other be more hopeful every single day.

8 TEDtalks on hopefulness: https://ideas.ted.com/how-to-be-more-hopeful/

A recent article from SELF: https://www.self.com/story/how-to-be-hopeful

3 Ideas from Inc. Magazine: https://www.inc.com/…/heres-how-you-can-feel-more…

Arrianna Huffington from Thrive Global always has good advice: https://thriveglobal.com/…/how-to-be-hopeful-even-in…/

With Gratitude,

Beth