500 Words a Week - A Note of Hope Pt.2

In the past I’ve wrote about hope, and I think something that is important for us to regularly do is to return to this message of hope.

At times, life can feel like a daunting and overwhelming place to be. With many things for us to figure out and decide upon, we can become lost in a myriad of options. Combine that with a brain that has an inbuilt negativity bias, it can be hard at times to see the direction we should be going through all this fog.

Something that has helped me see through this fog, is looking at the people you surround yourself with. In the majority of cases, they are all good people. They all want the best for you, and all they want for you is to be happy.

This is a message that we don’t always pay attention to. We confuse ourselves, or we are just plain stubborn and don’t fully listen to what those around us are saying. We believe that we must hit self-derived external markers of success to be happy, and then and only then will we make others around us proud. This is how we are lost in the fog as so much of this pain and confusion is caused by us. By our inability to see that others just want the best for us, and they don’t care about the external accolades.

There’s a rule from Jordan Peterson, which I quite like. It goes something like “Treat yourself like someone you’re responsible for helping”. Linking this into the above, think to the people close to you. What do you want for them? I’d argue you just want to see them happy, regardless of what it is. You’re supportive of them pursuing endeavours that interest and excite them. You’re sympathetic to them when they might be feeling low, and you wrap a supportive hand around their shoulders to help them through it.

Do we give ourselves these same affordances? Do we admit to ourselves that we just want to be happy? Do we allow ourselves to pursue what interests and excites us? Are we supportive of ourselves when feeling low and understand this is just a moment, rather than adding fuel to the fire?

We are surrounded by good, by hope. Sometimes we might lose sight of this, and need to remind ourselves that it’s there.