Pt. 1 How to be challenged AND empowered in a troubled world

“Be hope free!”

Something that I’m learning about recently from my patients is the importance of asking for what we want and making decisions when we need something or want something to be different. Moreover, how tremendously impactful these matters are to our health. I’ve been spending a lot of (virtual) time with the work of Stephen Jenkinson lately. My appreciation for his wisdom started how a lot of my deeper inquiries start: by being deeply challenged by something he said.

For instance:
Stephen Jenkinson says hope isn’t necessary or even helpful to us. That we spend time and energy waiting for things to be different when proceeding forward in life doesn’t necessitate hope. Hope, he says, is the demand that something have a positive outcome before we invest in it. What is it exactly that we hope for? What do we exactly give our hope to? What exactly is our hope in? It’s a challenging concept, to be hope free. But a very empowering idea to embrace that by leaving hope behind, we can invest in our lives, in each other, in a world that is very troubled, knowing we have a part to play, decisions to make… not opting out of investment in our lives by the hope that our circumstances will change by some other dubious source. We really take ourselves out of the equation when we hope.

Something I’ve been pondering lately is faith. What do I have faith in? What do I value? What do I wish to give my life force and energy to? We have tremendous power to heal ourselves and we may even be here to help the world heal from what I will lovingly call its “nowness.” Maybe it’s no coincidence that I am born in this era of crises and troubles that seem to constantly erupt. Faith says - I play a part here, I belong, I’m part of what’s happening. In faith, I can be accountable, responsible, willful, decisive, surrendering, considerate- I have agency.

Notice over the next week when you start a sentence with “I hope…” what does it feel like to say that? Is there another way to convey something that leaves hope out of it? What does it feel like to use other words?