Shifting from Dark to Light: 8 Beautiful Ways to Cultivate Hope

As I write, we are just days away from the winter solstice and the longest night of the year.  With the darkness approaching, and as I watch the world evolving, also having lived through a difficult year, I’ve been thinking a lot about hope and hopelessness.  It’s like the light and the dark.  

Hopelessness is truly dark times, fed by stress, loss, loneliness, worry, fear, feelings of helplessness. This may be our emotional response to personal trauma and/or world events.  Hopelessness can lead to a lack of energy, a loss of our sense of purpose, a loss of confidence in ourselves and the world around us.  It can also lead to anxiety and depression if we’re not careful.  And it can be really hard to find our way out of the dark and back to the light, to get back to a hopeful mindset.

When everything seems dark, dreary and depressing, hope is what allows us to see beyond the dark, it gives us the strength and courage to move towards the light.  Hope is a very powerful mindset.  To me, hope is the belief that everything is going to be okay, that the future will be better, no matter how bad things are today.  It’s the belief that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.  And this keeps me going.  Hope is an optimistic, positive mindset.  But it’s not passive - I think hope requires some action to rekindle it and to keep it alive.

Hope is something we can cultivate everyday. 

I think, to be able to move away from hopelessness, it helps to be clear on what you hope for.  You can hope for world peace (we all should!), but it might feel less daunting to hope for something closer, more personal and achievable.  Think about it for yourself - what do you hope for right now? To be more healthy?  To find a partner?  To be successful in your business or career?  To find your soul purpose?  To find serenity and joy?  Only you can answer that.  I invite you to really think about it.

Here are 8 beautiful ways to help you shift from dark to light, from despair to hope, from sadness to joy.  To cultivate hope everyday.

1. Meditate. There’s no denying it, meditation can help you to find your calm, to get grounded, and to be better able to focus in any situation.  Even 5 minutes a day can help you to build towards a daily meditation practice.  Find more ideas to kickstart your daily meditation practice HERE.
2. Chant a Sanskrit mantra.  Sanskrit mantras are very powerful.I’ve recently been introduced to the heart sutra (gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha - gate is pronounced “gah-tay”), a beautiful calming mantra that can help release any negative energy.  chant the heart sutra quietly to yourself.  I’ve been chanting this 9 times each morning and feel an uplifting shift in my energy and the energy around me.
3. Try the vajrapradama mudra. With fingers spread wide, interlaced and placed across your heart centre, thumbs pointing towards your collar bones, this is a wonderful mudra thought to build positive energy, trust and confidence, to ground your sense of hope. You can use this soothing mudra during your meditation or just sitting quietly for a few minutes. Try it right now, it feels really comforting.  
4. Call on your “light team”.  Call or visit a dear friend or family member to talk and listen, share a pot of tea, help them if you can, and learn how they keep hope in their hearts.
5. Use affirmations, in your meditation, as a mantra, or posted around your home and office.  Find one that resonates with your hopes and dreams.  Here are a few ideas to get you started finding your own:
1. Believe in yourself - you can do this!
2. Everything is going to be OK.
3. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel.
4. You are exactly where you need to be right now.
5. Anything I can imagine, I can do.
6. I choose joy, today and everyday.
7. Trust yourself, trust the journey, trust the universe.
6. Find something that brings you joy in each day.  Simply open your senses and your heart and you will surely find something joyful and beautiful.  Joy feeds hope!
7. Make something good with your hands.  I find that doing something with your hands (baking, cooking, crafting, gardening…) is a wonderful way to get grounded, to find peace and joy in the process, to know that everything is possible.  It’s especially lovely if you can share what you make with someone else.
8. Take care of yourself.  To help you out of the dark times, a little self-care and self-compassion is essential.  Find your way to take care of yourself, everyday.  Start HERE.