Right away I’m realizing that I have some issues around this word. My initial feeling when I contemplate hope is fear and sadness. Fear that I’m just fooling myself and sadness that whatever I’m hoping for will never be
I use hope for things that I don’t believe I have any ability or power to get or bring about myself. So on the hope/hopeless spectrum I see that I am definitely closer to the hopeless side because of that feeling of powerlessness
For hope we need the ability to look away from how things are and feel and see with our inner eye how they could be
Imagination is needed for hope
Does hope include a sense of not really believing something will happen? If you have 100% belief that something will happen or materialize, isn’t that knowing?
When does wishing become hoping? When does hoping become knowing?
Hope includes doubt, uncertainty, and chance
Am I allowing fear-based filters to twist what hope means? Is all that I’ve noted so far about the true hope?
Have I been confusing hope with yearning? I think I have
Could I reframe and look at hope as even being able to see a better version of what is? There are times when people fall so low or physical reality feels so dense that is hard for them to visualize anything better than where they are
But perhaps there is a kernel of truth to the feeling of powerlessness that I had around hope. I think it’s that hope isn’t based on action but having hope can bring you ideas that lead to action
My old belief that if I can’t do something with my own two hands to bring some change about then I am powerless was twisting my understanding of hope and not letting me see its power
Maybe the feeling of hope flows from knowing deep down that the Universe tends towards wellbeing and things are shifting and changing for the better
Hope is focusing on a desired reality until you begin to have feelings that correspond to that reality more than the current one you’re experiencing . The stronger the hope the stronger the feeling
Is hope like a window to another reality?
Is hope a specific feeling itself or is it what happens when you imagine and believe you can reach a possibility that serves you better than the possibility you’re currently experiencing
Can you be generally hopeful without a specific desire? I think so
hope <–> dread
I have spent far more time in dread
How does the feeling you get when you on a reality they were being without expansion for you. So perhaps the feeling of hope is how we interpret the feeling of energy expanding
Hope is expansion. Dread is contraction
So “Don’t get your hopes up” is actually terrible advice
But then what is happening when we hope for something and it doesn’t come about? Does it mean we still have some tweaking to do in our beliefs and energy?
I asked earlier, when does wishing become hoping and hoping become knowing. I think it depends on me, my views and beliefs about the Universe and my relationship to it. If I believe that this is a mechanistic, dead universe where random things just happen, hope is a pipe dream. If I believe life happens to me and that the gears of the universe continue to turn in the same way regardless of whether I am here or not, if my presence makes no difference, hoping is an absolute waste of time
So I think that pipe dream –> wish –> hope –> know might actually be the same thing but a spectrum. And where I am, how I react to the idea of hope, shows my beliefs about my self determination and my power. Or my lack of them
