Hope is the ability to think beyond restraint. Doubt is the desire not to participate in such a possibility. When our lives feel permeated by global grief it seems challenging to think beyond restraint as we face financial hardship or uncertainty, wars, cyber-attacks and the influence of AI on our futures. Yet not succumbing to the grief, as disheartening as it maybe, means finding ways to expand the brain’s capacity to create, drawing inspiration from quantum physics and neuroscience and their invitation to cultivate a brain that thinks beyond restraint.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”— Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
Before I go into what you can do to support yourself in not losing your sense of self or hope, I want to acknowledge a few things I have noticed in my practice of late.
There are two major things happening to people in these times:
1. Trusting their bodies more than they trust their minds
I have noticed people living more congruently within themselves, moving into greater alignment with what feels right in their body and spirit—not simply what looks good on the outside.
People are moving through life letting their body navigate, rather than their mind, at the same time, not knowing what that will look like, just knowing that it feels right. I am not talking about avoiding childhood wounds, or being ambivalent but trusting the body and its wisdom to be the guide.
Philip Shepherd ,in his book Radical Wholeness, gave this a term: holosapience, referring to our capacity to sense wholeness through the body, rather than understand life only through the thinking mind.
“The world will speak to you as intimately as your mother did when you were a child, if you can allow the body to teach you its different way of listening.”
— Philip Shepherd, interview in The Sun, “Out of Our Heads”
2. Connecting to heart community (one’s tribe).
In following their hearts, people are reconnecting and moving towards community where they feel loved, embraced and respected for the part they play, their role and their contribution to this community.
For some this means moving interstate. For others it means creating community in their backyard, reaching out and cultivating deeper connections within existing community.
We need each other in times of stress. Community is our strength. This depth of connection fills us to the core, provides deep fulfilment, lightens our being and can ease the stress associated with loneliness.
As we move more into our heart, trusting our bodies’ signals there are ways to meet the duality in our lives: acknowledging the grief of our present reality while remaining connected to our embodied selves and open to creating possibilities beyond our thinking.
Cultivating a lightness of being
Drawing inspiration from quantum physics and ideas from neuroscience, here are a few things you can do to cultivate a lightness of being and bring back the magic in your life, beyond familiar patterns of thinking.
1. Create your day the moment you wake,
before your brain connects to it old neural net and believes the same thoughts you did yesterday. Create a day that brings you hope for living, filled with magic, unusual encounters, abundance, vitality and joy. Begin by saying “Today I will experience……”
For more how to Create Your Day
2. Keep a Gratitude diary and write in it everyday.
Gratitude stops one going into the negative bias in the brain, it also produces dopamine and serotonin creating feelings of happiness and pleasure. It reduces cortisol, lowers blood pressure, activated the hippocampus, the right inferior temporal gyrus and allows us to sleep better, releases toxic emotions, reduces anxiety and depression, amongst a myriad more of benefits. Fundamentally it creates new neural pathways opening up to a sense of expansiveness.
The invitation is to find at least one thing you are grateful for everyday, writing it down, drawing it, but in some way recording it and watch what happens
For more on gratitude and creating gratitude communities
3. Befriending Not Knowing:
In a world of so much uncertainty and change, the ability to directly experience ‘not knowing’, without focusing on trying to know with your mind supports moving in the flow. We have never experienced this combination of events before in history therefore how are we to know how to navigate it other than meet it with curiosity and directly experiencing, rather than resisting the feelings that arise along the way in living it.
4. Tiny acts of kindness completely transform lives.
One person connecting to you in some small way has a big impact! It does not have to be ritualised, although if you connect with someone you love, every morning, even if it is via text, it supports your entire day. Buddy up with a friend, create launching the day rituals with a partner or have a coffee at your local coffee shop where they know your name!
5. Taking care of your physical body.
When life becomes busy or overwhelming, caring for the body can slip down the list of priorities.
In lives that can be increasingly sedentary, make room for movement you enjoy. What feels right for you—walking, swimming, dancing, stretching, gardening or something else?
Rather than making movement another demand, consider how it might become a regular act of care. Create a rhythm that fits your circumstances and abilities, with room for rest as well as activity.
Making room for hope
Cultivating a lightness of being is not about escaping reality or forcing ourselves to feel positive. It is about staying connected to ourselves, the wisdom of our bodies, and one another while bringing back the magic.
“When we are no longer able to change a situation—we are challenged to change ourselves.” — Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
We can acknowledge the grief, listen to the body, reach towards community and take small, meaningful steps into each day.
Hope simply requires we think beyond restraint. It begins with creating your day!
