Tag: hopeless

FEELING HOPELESS OR HELPLESS TODAY?

by Mershon Niesner

If you can’t feed a hundred people, just feed one. Mother Teresa

The day after a national election is always difficult for a little less than half of the population. We may feel hopeless and helpless and asking ourselves, “What more could I have done to make a difference? What can I do in the future to make the world a better place?”

Yesterday I sat in the pouring rain (I forgot my jacket) campaigning for someone I believed in for city council. I had done other campaigning for her but yesterday  I wasn’t making much of a difference. Most people in the community had already voted and my sign waving was receiving little, if any, attention. I could have gotten out of the rain and gone home. And yet, I stayed. I did it more for myself than for my candidate. I did it because it was one thing I could do. I could “feed one” or possibly influence one person. Just one! I did it to feel less helpless. I needed to DO something. 

It’s like the story of the star fish. Hundreds were on the beach dying and a little boy was throwing one back into the ocean. When a man asked him what difference he was making when so many were dying, the little boy pointed toward the sea and said, “I made a difference to that one.”

Affirmation: I can feed one. 

Coaching question: How have you taken care of yourself in the past when you’ve felt hopeless or helpless? 

Photo by Pedro Lastra on Unsplash

On Being Hopeful

by Mershon Niesner

By showing up with hope to help others, I’m guaranteed that hope is present. Then my own hope increases. By creating hope for others, I end up awash in the stuff. Anne Lamott, author, quote taken from National Geographic magazine, October 2018

With all that’s going on in the world and under my nose, it is harder than ever to be filled with hope. And yet, I remain hopeful most of the time—-I hope this is true for you also. I’ve interviewed over fifty daughters who have lost mothers as children, been abandoned, their mothers murdered or lost to Alzheimer’s, yet each one spoke to me with the hope that their tearful story will make a difference in the life of another. If they had not yet recovered from their trauma or grief, they were all hopeful that eventually they would be joy-filled again.

We remain hopeful because even though most of us have been through devastating times before, we know our friends, family, faith, and the healing properties of time helped us to move forward. And, as Lamott says, “By showing up with hope to help others, hope is present.” As we reach out, hope flows in. 

Affirmation: I am hopeful.

Coaching question: If you’re feeling hopeless, what’s one thing you can do to regain your hopefulness? (visit an elderly neighbor, volunteer at a school or hospital, help register voters, write a thank you note to someone who has been kind, walk in nature)