Hope

I think the theme of this week, this weekend, is most definitely turning out to be hope.

Why is hope important:

1. You cannot align your actions with your intentions without hope: If you do not believe that actions will benefit you, you will be far less likely to take them. This is very common in the case of a discouraged worker: she or he does not believe they will find employement that befits them, and thus stops looking.

2. You cannot fake hope: Others can tell. You can, of course, force yourself into the situations half-heartedly, without hope, but you cannot be effective. If you do not hope your date will go well, you will be sending a plethora of signals, from body language, eye contact, manner of voice, manner of communicating...even such minor details such as the brightness of your eyes. All of that will show through. And they will effect the people around you. Alternatively, if you have hope you will attract lots of people towards you.

3. Hope creates compassion. It has been my observation that if one chooses to suffer, he or she will be of the opinion that everyone else should suffer in a similar fashion as well. This is because in order to choose to suffer, I must tell myself that I only have one option in a situation, even if it is an option I do not like, or that I have two options, one which has less suffering than the other. I then expect everyone else to be in similar situations and make similar choices, or be annoyed when they do not have to make such a choice. And it is subconscious. We may want to believe that we want freedom, love and happiness for others, but unless we have it for ourselves, it is not possible.

I am going to research hope and find physical, emotional and spiritual practices to cultivate it.