“Having hope,” writes Daniel Goldman in his study of emotional intelligence, “means that one will not give in to overwhelming anxiety, a defeatist attitude, or depression in the face of difficult challenges or setbacks. Hope is more that the sunny view that everything will turn out all right. It is believing that you have the will and the way to accomplish your goals.”
Interesting, I found this and saved it here back on December 7, 2012. I picked up my journal now, today on April 15, 2013. My thought was to write about conscious or mindful maneuvering of my emotional self (body). Since I am feeling and observing more and more that task of shifting my emotional state to a more positive direction. It is becoming a little more easy. It’s still a challenge, but it does feel easier.
An example of the sensitivity would be that I feel the smallest sounds ripple right through me like a startle response that is not quite startling. It feels like a second skin that is a padding around me and yet connected to my nervous system. That’s why it feels like a startle response, slightly. I don’t jump out of my skin, but I could if I did not feel slightly detached. It is that slight detachment that seems to be the strength of “being the observer.”
My opening quote about “Having Hope” was a good introduction to this because it is an operational definition of the emotional state. That operation being the “not giving in” part. So if I cultivate the strength of being an observer, I empower myself to have that opportunity to choose. To choose, is the conscious and mindful act that replaces the “giving in” response to my perceived reality. Therefore in each and every moment I perceive, with that observational pause, I then respond to those perceptions and act. Because the response is a mindful one I am allowing a wider choice of actions to be present.
I “startle,” allowing the emotional feeling pass through me. I reflect, allowing a more positive interpretation of the perception to emerge. I act, in a more understanding or loving way. The loving way could, and often is, loving toward myself. That idea of being more loving to myself is where I started out this morning. More forgiveness of self, lead to more mindful actions, like picking up this journal again. Picking up this journal brought me back to this quote from December of last year. I have completed my circle, my thought.
So, that is the drawn out operational definition of “Hope.” It is so much easier to act with the will and the way that accomplishes my goals (to paraphrase) when I perceive “difficult challenges or setbacks” with mindfulness and this free will styled operational definition of “Hope.”
Thanks for listening.