Being aware of crises and maintaining hope

In times of serious crises, hope can feel naïve. But without hope, it’s difficult to find the motivation to work for a better future, to maintain good health or in general, to keep going. Hope is essential to our satisfaction, motivation and health. Sustaining hope requires some self-management, especially in times of crisis. One has to accept the realities of the world but at the same time, nourish and cherish those areas of life that help keep up hope. In this course, we have suggested self-care as one ingredient for maintaining hope and creating safer environments for young people to meet without fear of discrimination as another ingredient. There are more ingredients for building and sustaining hope. We all need to test and find what we need in order to remain hopeful. Some people need social interaction and active work that lessen the influences of crises or counteract them. Others might need breaks from following the news or a possibility to concentrate on something else than the crises at times. Taking a small break from thinking or reading about the crises does not mean that one does not care, it can be a necessary measurement taken to gather energy that keeps one going in the long run.

With the ongoing war in Ukraine, the evidence of climate disaster and other crises that we face, actively sustaining hope has become more important than ever. We need it in our professional lives as well as in our personal lives. Sustaining hope does not mean that we have to remain hopeful by using willpower or pretending that we feel hopeful at all times. Active cultivation of hope means that we can be interested and turn our focus to activities, habits and thoughts that help us see and feel hope and be aware of those elements of our lives that diminish our hope. And once we are familiar with what makes us feel hopeful and hopeless, we can work towards balance. We need to remain hopeful so that we have the energy to work, but we need to follow and be aware of what happens in the world as well, in order that we can make informed choices in our professional and private lives. Shutting our eyes and hearts from the world and news could help us feel hopeful in the short run, but that hope would be blind and would be ripped away from reality. Hope and hopelessness can be seen as two ends of the spectrum. We can find ourselves in a shifting place on this spectrum of hope.

Different crises feel important for different people. We all live in the same shared world but due to our identity, background, experiences and social surroundings, we do not experience the world the same way. On top of that, we react to crises in various manners.