Reimagine Resilience: Building a Foundation of Hope for the Hard Times

Note for the host, Juli Reynolds: 

We missed a week, I know. I was in a hospital waiting room while my husband underwent an emergency cardiac bypass. This episode may sound different - recorded it on my phone and no editing this time. :-) Because... priorites, right! 
Welcome to the Default to Yes Podcast - I'm gladd to be on the journey with you! 

Here's what we are talkin about this week:

In this episode, Juli talks about personal challenges faced, including her husband's recovery from open-heart surgery. She shares her journey of maintaining hope, anchored in faith, personal development, and the use of tools like aromatherapy and mindfulness. The episode explores the concept of hope through both scriptural and scientific lenses, highlighting its significance in mental, emotional, and physical well-being. The host emphasizes goal-setting, resilience, and gratitude as ways to foster hope and navigate life's hardships. Viewers are encouraged to define their personal meaning of hope and to reach out for support.

00:00 Introduction: An Extraordinary Week
00:19 Perspective and Personal Growth
01:22 Future Self and Personal Development
01:47 Embracing Life's Challenges
02:42 The Power of Hope
04:31 Hope in Scripture
06:22 Scientific Perspective on Hope
11:21 Creating a Personal Framework of Hope
13:15 Gratitude and Hope
14:30 Conclusion: Defining Hope for Yourself

Transcript

0:59

Welcome to another Extraordinary Week. It's really hard to say that, actually. For me, this is not a week that I would call extraordinary. Not in a good way, anyway. And we'll see how that plays out, because how I'm processing that is that I'm believing that all things work together for good. As far as perspective, it's really interesting going into this week. I had been really talking about perspective with my coach and was challenged to challenge myself when I'm facing challenges. And then I heard I, And then I heard my coach talking about it in a talk as well. And what would my future self appreciate me doing right now? So this is where personal development and personal growth are so important. I'm so grateful that I have the tools of aromatherapy and breath work and mindfulness, all the things that aromacognition to be able to really feel in my body, that something emotional is happening and that I can trace the thought and see what thought I might. Rather have what would serve me in that moment and I think that is a really sometimes. It's a hard thing to just stop and ask yourself in this time even with even if it's maybe it's a hardship that hits that maybe isn't quick going to pass really quickly. We can ask our future self what we need. What she will appreciate you doing right now. What kind of things, skills, what kind of things can you learn? What kind of lessons can you learn? What kind of person will you become? And we can face it and make a plan and learn ask for help and choose the things of What we want to become and what we're becoming and stay on that a lot of times. I think in times of crisis, we veer off the trajectory and we put a pause on the, all the things that we're working on to become the person that we want to be and to live the life that we want to, because we're going to go handle this crisis. Then we'll come back. And I don't, I think it's all part of it. I think. The beauty of life is in, in the good times and the bad times and the painful processes. All of those things work together and I think that's also what it means that all things work together for good. And so if you have a hard time getting a hold of what your future self is, create an avatar and that's a really a fun exercise to create the avatar of your future self and look at, look. forward to see what does she want, what does she need from you right now? And really that's, I think we can pull from the best of us when we do, when we ask those good questions. Now I want to talk about hope a little bit because it's been very meaningful to me this week. So in my life, my husband is in the hospital right now recovering from open heart surgery and it's been a weekend. And this is my second visit home to pick up some things and just re Hit the reset button a little bit and then I will go back up and take care of some things here at the house, and then i'll go back he's doing great But it isn't easy and if you've been through it or know somebody has been, he's got, we've got a ways to go before we're back to normal and back out hiking on the trail. But we'll get there. Regardless that's where hope comes in. I saw this quote, our mission is to plant ourselves at the gate of hope, and that's really what I'm choosing to do is just plant myself there and see what happens. One of the definitions of hope that I saw was it's It was God has, whatever happens, ultimately all will be well. There's a plan where God is making all things right and new. And I love that. And I would share with you who I stole that from if I knew, but I can't remember. So there's that. All right. But hope is a profound and powerful concept. It's a lot of times mentioned in religious and psychological and philosophical contexts. And for many, it's a guiding light. In times of uncertainty and harm to hardship, it certainly is for me right now. However, defining what hope means on a personal level can be very complex. The Bible offers wisdom on hope while science gives insight into its psychological benefits. Understanding your personal definition of hope is essential for navigating these challenges that come up in our lives with that sense of purpose and resilience. Now, I am a Christian and I love the scriptures. I love the Bible and I use it as my, as a guide and hope is represented strongly in scripture. The Bible provides us a really rich foundation for understanding hope and scripture. Hope is not merely wishful thinking, but it's an assured expectation grounded in God's promises. Romans 15 13 says, may the God of hope fill you with all the joy and peace as you trust in him so that you trust You may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's pretty powerful. This verse speaks to that divine origin of hope and suggests that hope is a gift from God and it's deeply connected to that faith and trust in Him. Now similarly, Hebrews 11, 1 is another scripture verse that offers a profound definition of hope and mentioning that now says now faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen. And that's where we are with all of this, right? Hope is in the biblical sense is intertwined with faith and it's a confident expectation and things that are not yet visible and rooted in God's faithfulness. And that is, again, so powerful to hang on to. And when you don't know what else to do. This spiritual perspective encourages believers to view hope as something enduring, an anchor in life's storms. And Hebrews 6, 19 says, we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. But what if you don't, aren't a Christian, and you don't know what you think about the Bible and the scripture and how much you can trust that. There's a scientific perspective that I want to present to you as well. Hope plays a significant role in mental and emotional well being. Psychologist C. R. Snyder developed what is known as the hope theory, And I think you'll see some of these things intertwining where we take action on the things that we believe are true when we read scripture, when we hold on to those things of hope and things that we can't see. One, goals, having clear and achievable goals. I've said for the last day and a half that for the next 12 weeks or whatever, however long it takes to get back to a normal life where We're moving forward again. I think having a plan is going to is really helpful. It starts to clear the mind and begin to get to see the light at the end of the tunnel. You can see that it's going to end when you have a plan that's different than just taking it day by day and taking things as they come and reacting to everything. I love to be proactive and you probably do too. So setting some goals and having mind. milestones. I know that as we're in the hospital, I keep asking for what are the benchmarks that we're going to meet today? What are the milestones that we need to hit today? And our surgeon gives us those every morning and we, Follow them until the next day. He gives us the others. Now. I had that. I also had to ask him like okay over the week what are we doing? So both long term and short term goals are very helpful Because then once those of our met you can relax and know that you've done what you can and then eat tomorrow's a new day Two pathways. One, goals. Three key elements to the process of hope, and that's goals. Pathways, that ability to identify various strategies and achieve those goals. And having the tools and maybe reaching out for help and finding a coach and learning the skills. Creating that pathway towards the goal. That would be a way of breaking the steps down to meeting the goal. What is it going to require to get there? It's going to require some tools, maybe learn some skills, maybe set some other things aside, but creating that pathway. And number three is agency. That motivation or belief in your ability to achieve those goals and motivation is generated. You create the motivation. We can't wait for motivation to come our way. at all times. I can tell you for sure that my husband does, would not be using that incentive spirometer if there weren't some motivation and some, that wasn't part of the tool, the pathway, or a goal. And, because, That motivation is never going to come for that it's going to have to be generated by him by the belief in the ability to achieve the goal and get on the other side of this. So that is the framework that views hope as an active process and it's Again, it involves goal setting and problem solving rather than passive emotion, and I think we can do both at the same time. I think this is a way to put action on those deeply meaningful concepts of hope and that is seated in your soul. You know it's there. It's something to hang onto, but how do you take action to stay on that path? Research shows that hopeful individuals are more resilient and experience lower levels of stress and are more likely to overcome challenges. Hope fosters a mindset that sees the obstacles as opportunities for growth rather than insurmountable barriers. That's huge. I know a lot of people get taken down by big events like this, and we also in the process, in the, we're in the hospital room, we noticed that our bank account has been hacked. And this is pretty significant. There's a pretty significant possible damage done there. And the things that we're looking at, but if we didn't, If we were just going to react to them and we didn't believe and we didn't hope those all of those obstacles would be seem insurmountable. Now all of that studies indicate that hope can significantly improve physical health as well. So it's really good for if you're sick to recover it to stay well. This is, hope is really important. A 2019 study published in the Journal of Behavioral Research and Therapy found that individuals with higher levels of hope tend to recover more quickly from illness and have better immune function. Hope, therefore, has Both mental and physiological benefits, and that makes it a critical factor in overall well being. So creating that personal framework of hope is really important. So while scripture and science provide that broad definition of hope, it's crucial to just define what hope means to you personally. And this can be done by, again, reflecting on your values, your spiritual beliefs, and goals. And a little framework that I would offer you as far as developing your own definition would be just to reflect on your beliefs and start there what do you believe and why or why not, and looking at some of those different scripture verses and what you think of those, and then defining your goals. Again, hope is tied to future aspirations, so what are the things that you are hoping for in life? And that might be, actually, that might be a good way to start as well. In those personal achievements, relationships, or spiritual growth, just align your hope with realistic, meaningful goals that resonate with your sense of purpose. And again, identify those pathways, cultivate resilience and faith, Understand that setbacks are just part of life is key to sustaining hope and faith, especially in the context of scripture teaches resilience. When you encounter obstacles, remember that you, we can, Always get past them and through them and these are all things that just we can find beauty in the hard stuff And I'm not saying that if they're all gonna turn out the way we hope they do or we want them to not always sometimes it goes all really wrong, but Knowing that there's a greater purpose and I think that's really key because if something does go wrong You want to know that you did the right things you did the next right thing we are becoming who we're meant to be, and we are living the life we're created for. We don't know the outcome of that, but we can hold on to the beauty and we can look for that beauty. I'm going to wrap this up with just talking about how important it is, gratitude, and I really had to reach on some of the days to find where, What I'm really grateful for. Now, of course, I'm grateful that we, that this played out the way it did. I'm grateful that my husband has come through this. He's doing great. So I have, nothing but gratitude for the way this has played out. But gratefulness, gratitude is just closely of, related to hope. And so when you focus on what you have and express that gratitude, it becomes easier to cultivate a hopeful out. Look, when we were looking at our bank's our bank statement today, and after I had called and You know locked everything up and all of that I looked at my husband and I said, I don't really even know how bad this is. Is it bad? Bad, and he said I don't know i'm alive and that's some time where we have to go and Just take it one thing at a time take time to daily to reflect on things that you are thankful for And the ways you've grown which can just you know Fortify that sense of hope for the future. Alright, so define hope for yourself. That's an empowering process and it's a really good thing to have when things go all awry to have that already in place so that you can just begin to really tap into that and really live and lean into that reflecting on your beliefs and setting those goals and cultivating that resilience really can help us respond instead of react and. Find out what is possible. There's always something beautiful in everything. So as I wrap up today, I'm just going to encourage you to find that definition of hope for yourself. It's an empowering process, and reflect on your beliefs, setting those meaningful goals and finding that hopeful mindset that will guide you through any challenge that comes your way. If you enjoyed this episode or if you're going through something hard and you want me to pray for you or you want to unpack it and see what how you can come up with your own definition of hope don't hesitate to reach out there's several ways you can do this there's a voice recorder you can leave me a voice message in the show notes in the notes below the episode Schedule a chat with me I'm probably going to have availability in the coming weeks but for now get yourself on the, maybe get yourself on the list and get those emails coming. I'll send every episode directly to you and just be on this journey together. as you build that definition of hope, you find yourself more apt to being able to lean in and to find the beauty and to look in to see what is possible. As you get up every day and default. to yes your extraordinary self.