Depression to Happiness

As we travel through our days, stressed, overwhelmed, and lacking the flow of energy we seem to have once had, we try to swim out of the slum. It seems that the more we focus on life and the act of unraveling the turmoil the more it comes springing back to like a bungee cord. The more we tighten ourselves, holding in the anger and stress, the harder it comes back to us. It may not spring back right away. It will give us a false sense of security; this bottling up of ourselves. But once the cord breaks and we feels its wind rushing toward us, we know we are in for a bang.

The trouble is figuring out how to maintain our focus in order to keep the cord from coiling; to keep us in a solid state. We always wish for the best, always hoping that we will have a stress-free day or that the usual traffic jam will magically be inactive that day. We try to reach for hope as often as we can. It is that focus that, when perpetuated into a moment by moment activity, will help lead to our focus, our strength.

As we travel through our days we tend to deliver our hope in a false sense. Meaning that when we hope for the best it is sometimes a less then genuine cover-up for our true feelings of certain doom. We give hope a chance by thinking the thought, by saying to ourselves, “Yes, I hope for the best today. I hope that nothing goes wrong at work. I hope that the construction on highway 12 won’t interrupt my drive.” These thoughts are genuine wishes of hope, but how often do you truly follow through with these thoughts for the remainder of the day? If you hope for a smooth ride home from the city, but in the back of your mind you are telling yourself that it’s impossible because of the construction, then your hope has turned into fear.

It is true for most people, that a wish is a fleeting request. True hope is not a momentary wish, or thought. Hope is a lasting feeling that stays with you moment by moment, day by day. When the feelings and thoughts of hope come to you hold onto them. Grasp that hope and turn it into ‘knowing’. When you fail to acknowledge the possibilities that are hidden within hope, then you lose sight of the very reason for having hope.

Hope is not a matter of waiting for things outside of us to get better. It’s about leveraging your inner vision, outlook, and belief to reflect the possibilities. It is seeing and knowing that the best in life is possible and holding tight to that knowing.  It is about finding that shred of faith that leads you to your own definition of hope. Faith and hope are tied together by your belief. Hold to your vision of goodness, and hope will be there.