Hope Only Floats

Back in November when we had our first Three Graces' retreat, my mother, Karen Dwelley, did a talk on living what you know.  She opened it with incredible statistics on how much money our nation spends in the wellness businesses and then how much our obesity, prescription drug & depression rates had also increased.  It would seem that with all this money exponentially being poured into our wellness that it would inversely be realized in our health.  Why is this the case? 

Karen says that "we" are buying HOPE.

Everyone had to sit with that one for a bit.  So is hope good for us?  What does this mean?  I always looked at hope as a positive.  She says that we tend to just keeping trying or hoping.  We aren't living what we know.  We just get stuck and don't change our bad habits. 

We watched an awesome TED talk by B.J. Fogg about how to change a habit.  He has found in his research that people who succeed in making a change in their life do two things.

1) The change has to be very easy at first.

2) The person has to be highly motivated.

That seems pretty simple and logical.  I think we all know that we fail at things because we set the bar way too high.  B.J. gives a funny example about flossing.  If you want to be a good flosser, then start out just flossing one tooth a day.  Eventually, it will graduate you to becoming a full fledge flosser of all your teeth.

Since our talk on this subject, I've been thinking about Hope.  I keep seeing little things here and there.  It's like when you first meet someone and then you keep running into them everywhere.  What am I supposed to be learning from this?

source via Pinterest

Come back to the place of safety,

all you prisoners of hope!

I promise this very day

that I will repay two blessings 

for each of your troubles. 

- Zechariah 9:12

I came across this Bible verse and then found several sermons and blog posts about it while researching this topic (there aren't many thoughts on this topic).  I feel that all the thoughts of this verse were interrupted all wrong.  All the sermons and writings claim that to seek salvation or the light you need to be a prisoner of hope and a prisoner of God.  I think that is just a literal view of what God was trying to teach us.  He doesn't want us to be or feel like a prisoner in any way.  He was saying to come back from that feeling of prison.  My God is a mighty one but I do not fear him like others do.  He says that once you get yourself out of being a prisoner of hope then you shall see abundance.

I look at it as if Hope were similar to adrenaline.  When you need it, hope gets you off the bathroom floor.  It gives you a reason to keep chugging when things are so so so awful.  But just like adrenaline, you can't live your best if you are in fight-or-flight mode. You'll tap out your adrenals and be very sick.  Living in a constant state of hope when all is well will get you nowhere.  You will be stuck in the perpetual trying instead of living whole-heartedly and doing.  It's the mentality of a victim or someone who feels that they can't obtain happiness like it's dangled just beyond their grasp.

Living is a Verb!

I was talking with a friend about this subject, and she saw the phrase "prisoner of hope" to be a figure of speech meaning eternal optimist.  I never looked at it in that way but I have always been an eternal optimist.  As a matter of fact, it was the two words that I used to describe me in my Facebook info about me.  But, I don't see myself being in a prison.  I don't like that word prison.  It is suffocating.  I broke free from that years ago.  Hope got me back on my feet just like God said it would, and I have definitely been repaid with so many blessings.  I asked Andy (my husband) what it meant to him.  He used the words "the opposite of doing".

"Hope is a buoy.....but...like any buoy, it only floats: it can't be steered nowhere." -Charles Dickens

Once your "Hope floats", you've got to swim and make your way.  I love that movie by the way.  It kinda hits home for me in a lot of ways.  SO, I guess my thoughts are Hope pulls you out of the mud but then you need to set it aside and pick a new word.  I know that life has a way of teaching you with painful lessons, and one day I will need my HOPE once again.  But remember, words are powerful tools so pick good ones.  

source via google

I'm choosing words like 

JOY, NOW, SHINE, CONFIDENT, WORTHY, BEAUTIFUL, FREE

*Note: Here's a great article that I found that pertains to this subject that applies to your business.