Don’t you just find it so promising to be hopeful?  Isn’t hope a kind of optimistically good feeling that is bound to improve your life?

We have blogged on optimism in the past.  ( see:  http://choose.ws/2009/10/01/what-is-reality/positive-realistic/the-glass-is-half-full/yucel/ )

Hope can be another kind of optimism. 

We have also blogged on Presence and Gratitude.  ( see:  http://choose.ws/2009/09/09/what-is-reality/presence/presence-and-gratitude/yucel/ )

As we have discussed, happiness and therefore inner peace always occur in the present.

Being positive is a good way of looking at any situation,  as is being grateful.

So what then can it be to look at something with hope?

Isn’t it present or grateful to be hopeful?

Twice no.

First, when we are hoping, we may be giving up responsibility.  When so doing, we may in fact manifest a worse outcome than had we been less than hopeful.  In this mode, hope is used as a kind of crutch.  As with any crutch, we are handicapped when using one properly.  Examples:

We just hope to win the lottery.  Regardless of the handicap of not buying a ticket.   

We just hope the paint job will be a good one.  Regardless of the handicap of not having thought it through, hired professional help, or of giving our best to the project.

We just hope we will find a fabulous partner.  Regardless of being handicapped by refusing to do the work of making ourselves worthy.

Second, and I believe more to the point, hope is generally an expectation for and often an attachment to things being better than they currently are.  Examples of this context are:

We are being ungrateful by being hopeful.    By wanting, which is feeling lack, things to be better through being hopeful, we are in fact being less than grateful for and appreciative of how things are. 

If we were being grateful, we would be pleased with and thankful for how things are as opposed to being hopeful for them being different.

By looking for things to change in the future, we are in fact divorcing ourselves from being present.  

Since happiness can only occur in the present we, by being hopeful things will get better, are not being present.

How can we, while not present, ever be truly peaceful or happy?   I cannot imagine.

While gratitude can create happiness, we may also be creating want by being hopeful.  

Want is a lack.  ( for more on want, see also:  http://choose.ws/2009/10/30/positive-pivots/choosing/how-else-to-fill-the-lack-which-is-want/yucel/ )

As gratitude magnifies our blessings and happiness, hopefulness will magnify any current lacks we acknowledge through hoping.  

We are, when being hopeful, painfully aware of what is missing.  ( for more on missing, see also:  http://choose.ws/2009/05/01/positive-pivots/hello-world/yucel/ )

When things are missing, we feel pained.

Hoping when failing to be present always feels discordant.

Reaping what we sow by planting thoughts of hope, we will eventually harvest hope’s fruits, which must also of necessity be bitter, if we plant lack.

So you might ask, why then do we believe so strongly that hope feels good?  

When one is in great pain, alleviating the pain somewhat feels better.  There are many emotions and thoughts more painful than hope. 

Being negative or pessimistic for instance feels worse than hope.  

If we are feeling very negative about our prospects, going from negative to hopeful will generally feel better.

What we need to take care to keep in mind however is that hope is, at best, a way point; not a safe peaceful haven in its own right then quickly move forward from being hopeful into the present. 

How do we accomplish this?

We move into the present by being present. 

We may be present by being grateful, accepting and allowing of what is, while perhaps looking forward to more of the blessings we already have in abundance and for which are already grateful.

This is how we can feel happier and more peaceful now, while also manifesting the futures of our choice.

Gratefully yours,

Yucel