Day 18 – Making Hope a Priority!

What will you do to celebrate you this weekend?

“Give fools their gold, and knaves their power; let fortune’s bubbles rise and fall; who sows a field, or trains a flower, or plants a tree, is more than all.”

–John Greenleaf Whittier
So many of us find, or make sure we take, the time to do things for others, but we so often neglect ourselves. We “say” things to ourselves we would never say to others. We push ourselves in ways we wouldn’t push others and we take ourselves for granted.
But you have the power to STOP right now and begin to do things differently. Even just five minutes a day can get the ball rolling!
What will you do to celebrate the wonder of you this weekend?

Day 17 – Making Hope a Priority!

What do you do to positively impact your feelings?

Sometimes feelings have a bad reputation, like change. People sometimes feel a victim of their feelings and view them as they do the weather. They come, they go, sometimes they are bright, sometimes not. But feelings can be powerful fuel!

You can actively create feelings rather than only responding to them! The Procovery Note™ below, from page 158 of The Power of Procovery in Healing, talks about this:

Create moods. Start your own running list of mood enhancers – specific books, movies, music, people, places, hobbies or specific actions, such as exercising, straightening up your place, wearing your favorite hat or scarf or helping someone else.

“What is changed by my feelings is not what is out there but what I think I and others may be able to do about them.”

–John Holt

What will you do today to create feelings rather than only respond to them?

Day 16 – Making Hope a Priority!

Where do the light and energy go sometimes? On the hard days, during the difficult times?

The light and energy are still here. They are always here, but so is the darkness. Some days we are more in tune with energy and life and possibilities than other days and we have or find or make more time to view and appreciate what is right with the world. Other days we may be drowning in day to day responsibilities and realities and be in more of a gray or dark place.

Even if you don’t feel physically as though you can do something – maybe you can do something in your thoughts or in your dreams. Can you THINK of a time when things will be better and take a moment to visualize and feel and appreciate what that will feel like?

The secret is not to feel guilty that you are down or guilty that you are joyful. The secret is to understand where you are, and in what direction you want to move, and then do something – anything – to move in that direction.


“Change your thoughts and you change your world.”

–Norman Vincent Peale

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 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 6 – Making Hope a Priority!

Today we have a few questions for you:

Are there specific things you do to feel hopeful?

How often do you do them?

Can you think of new things to try?


Whether it’s getting exercise, playing guitar, sending a letter, planting a garden, or organizing your schedule or ipod playlists, what kinds of things increase your hope?

Another way of thinking about this is, what gives you energy? Real energy, not caffeine induced, but energy from within, and how can you do more things to add to your energy bucket?

Today we leave you with some words from a Procovery Note from page 90 of The Power of Procovery in Healing:

Find out what pulls rather than pushes you. Go where the positive energy is.

“Don’t worry about what the world wants from you, worry about what makes you come more alive.  Because what the world really needs are people who are more alive.”

-Lawrence LeShan