Post Archives

Month: March 2011

Day 15 – Making Hope a Priority!

What would look different in your life if you had more hope?

How would you feel if you had more hope?

How would today feel different?

What would you do differently?

Would you go about the day, doing all of the same things but with more spring in your step? Or would you laugh more and feel more joy?

Would you go to bed earlier (to refuel for another promising day), would you accomplish more, spend more time doing what matters, spend more time with people you love, spend less time attempting to escape negative moods and feelings, take more chances, try harder, dream bigger?

If you can really get in touch with what would be different, you might take action to make it all happen.

What would be different, and what will you do?

Day 14 – Making Hope a Priority!

What is your why for the day?

“He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.”

– Friedrich Nietzsche

We are reminded with the above quote that once we can identify our why for the day, that hope can spring forth instantly… If we have a project we’re working on that is building momentum, or we know we may get to connect with a friend or maybe we’re halfway through a book we’re reading that is intriguing or inspiring to us… these things can unbound the energy within to get through all the things we MUST do, to get to the things we want to do with a hopeful attitude propelling us forward.

Allow Hope to Wash Over You!


Allow hope to wash over you today… Let’s all take a moment to soak it in and allow for the feeling of hope to absorb and radiate. Today is a hopeful day. And today we can lay the foundation for a hopeful, productive and inspiring week–
“The only recognizable feature of hope is action!”
–Grace Paley

Laughter is Contagious!


“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.”
 –Victor Borge
Laughter makes us feel good. Laughter is contagious. Let’s let it in today… even for just a moment.
 Dr. Bernie Siegel notes in Love, Medicine and Miracles, “There are sound, scientific reasons why we call robust unrestrained laughter ‘hearty.” It produces complete, relaxed action of the diaphragm, exercising the lungs, increasing the blood’s oxygen level, and gently toning the entire cardiovascular system. Norman Cousins termed it ‘internal jogging,’ and others have likened it to a deep massage.”
What makes you laugh? Maybe a partner, friend, co-worker, child or pet? Maybe a stand up comedy show or a favorite memory? If we focus on what makes us laugh we will do so more and more until it becomes a frequent occurrence that lifts our moods and increases our energy and well-being.
What will you do to laugh today?

Day 13 – Making Hope a Priority!

Where is hope when we don’t feel it?

Hope is always present even if we are not currently aware of it, can’t seem to see it or even feel it. It doesn’t need to be packaged in a particular way or even be constant, necessarily, for it to make an impact. It can be just a moment, a feeling of hope, and that feeling of hope can be brought forward into our lives to draw upon and use at our disposal. We can think of hope as money in the bank – store up on hope and use as necessary! When you are feeling down, do what you need to do to remind yourself that the “down” is just one of many feelings inside of you and that hope is also still inside of you. It is the same bright, beautiful world you felt it was the last time you were feeling hopeful.

“The voyage of discovery lies not in finding new landscapes but in having new eyes.”

-Marcel Proust

Day 12 – Making Hope a Priority!

What is one thing you can often do, when it seems you really can’t do anything?

So often people feel they are not in a position to do anything for someone they love. And generally there is much they can do. One thing is to listen. If the person is verbal and wants to talk, there is real value here. It can be amazing what just talking about something can do, even talking about something that it does not seem there is anything that can be done about. We are talking about the kind of listening where you are not just waiting for the other person to stop talking so that you can say what you want to say. We are talking about real, active listening, where you are jot judging or waiting to tell the person what to do and when, but just listening.

Below is a Procovery Note from pages 161 & 162 of The Power of Procovery in Healing:

Listen. Particularly with the lessening availability of therapy, being a gentle listener can be of enormous benefit. Recognize that what may seem like an emotional overreaction may instead be a rational reaction to an overwhelming set of circumstances and resulting emotions. Productive venting of what seems like irrational feelings can lead to rational action.

“When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain, and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is the friend who cares.”

–Henri J. M. Nouwen

Do you have a story that you would like to share, about the power of having had someone listen to you, or you listening to someone? We’d love to have you join the discussion!

Day 11 – Making Hope a Priority!

What is your intention for today?

“There is no medicine like hope
 No incentive so great
 And no tonic so powerful
As the expectation
Of something better tomorrow.”

– Orison Swett Marden

This quote reminds us to keep hope in our hearts as we expand our awareness, activities and attitudes; the power of Procovery combined with a hopeful attitude can make all the difference for a better today and an even more hopeful tomorrow.

What is your intention for today? What will you do that will make a difference– difference in your day, that of someone you love or that of someone you do not even know! Often so much of what we do doesn’t even really need to be done or won’t really matter in the big picture.  Sometimes we do things that don’t matter out of a misplaced sense of responsibility or obligation or expectation. Just think about it! You have the power, right now, today, to make a difference. What will you do? And we would like to invite you, if you would like to, to share your intention, here, with us. We are listening and would love for you to join the discussion!

Day 10 – Making Hope a Priority!

What do you do that diminishes your hope? 

Do you go places, spend time with people or do things that lessen, or even crush, your hope? Sometimes we have habits that don’t serve us well, but we don’t realize it or we downplay the impact or we feel we don’t have the energy to do anything differently. Routine conversations, interactions with neighbors or co-workers, watching the news before you go to bed rather than reading a book that may inspire a good night’s sleep… Can you think of things you can do differently to create and preserve your hope and energy?

It can help to remember that hope sends ripples and it builds and even the smallest action taken now can have an impact today, and plant seeds for tomorrow!

“Hope, like some basic force of nature, seems to live stubbornly, if barely perceptibly, inside even the most depressed of us, waiting like some sleeping beauty for the faintest glimmer of light, the slightest sympathetic touch, to awaken it. We should cherish hope. “

– James Gordon, M.D.

Day 9 – Making Hope a Priority!

Do you tend to be very specific about what you are hoping for?

Being specific can be a really good thing as it can help you keep, front and center, what you would like to see come about. And to quote Reverend Michael Beckwith, “What you think about you bring about.” But there can also be a downside to being really specific. For one, being really specific can, at times, actually be very limiting. If you are not in a place to see your potential or what is really possible, you can set the bar very low.  Additionally by envisioning and waiting and looking for one specific thing, you might not notice or appreciate OTHER good things that are coming your way.

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

–Alexander Graham Bell