Hope is an interesting thing. It makes a difference when nothing else does. It also makes any other thing look meaningless or trivial as well, making us wonder if this is one of the most important ingredient.
When I talk to people, especially the ones who are struggling, not having hope defines the degree to which they struggle and suffer. In other words, the degree of not having hope makes us suffer. But how do we get to a state where we start to or completely lose hope?
We humans are interesting and funny creatures. We consider ourselves to be the most intelligent specie, at least on the earth based on how far we have come along from where we started. No other specie, in common knowledge, is able to accomplish as much. And, we attribute this to our ability to do things physically, but, more importantly, to our ability to think, process and use that information. While we thrive on the reasoning, logic and brilliance of our minds, yet we entangle ourselves with activities and habits that defy the very same logical and reasoning mind. In other words, we find ourselves doing things even though our minds says otherwise.
Is it because we consider ourselves to be emotional and thinking not from the minds but from the hearts? Let's put the logic of only mind can think aside because we clearly use more than our minds to make decisions in our day to day lives. So, do we having feelings and being emotional comes in the way of our logical minds? So, do we say that decisions made with emotions are not logical? It certainly is a topic that I will cover some other time. But for now, we are trying to understand why do we do things even if our minds says not to, and emotions seems to play a role in that. Even if we consider that emotions are against logic, how does that result in we loosing hope?
That brings us to further investigate where does the hope come from. Does it come from the mind (Read: Reasoning and Logic), or does it come from the heart (Read: Feelings and emotions)? Or, it is something else altogether? Spiritually, I can talk about energies, vibrations, frequencies as well as paradigm or explain you to help understand that there is mind and there is heart and both of them are different from the one experiencing or using them (we refer to the soul in this regard). But it may not make sense to everyone. Hence, for easy understanding, let's consider not having hope as a state of being that is a results of many aspects we do not pay attention to.
So how do we get into this state of hopelessness? Based on how much we are aware, use our minds, understand our feelings, and are in synchronization with the consciousness, the degree of hope starts to impact us. But for most of us, it is linked with our experiences and memories. We typically give attention to things of the past (memories) to carve out our paths ahead. This approach makes us less and less hopeful each time we fail. It also makes us ruminate more while we start to questions (not objectively or constructively) the very basis of our understanding. This constant questioning starts to shake the confidence. With less and less confidence, we get to a state where we start to convince ourselves that it is too late...too late to do anything, too late to recover, too late to change, too late to make anything happen. and even too late to for a miracle and redemption to take place.
With a great responsibility and with all sincerity, I can tell that it is never too late and it can never be too late in the truest sense. I would need to explain how this universe works, who we really are, and what is illusion vs. what is real to help understand that, which is not easy to cover in this blog. Without that experience or understanding, we have to rely on faith and trust, which is also subject to our experiences. On one side, I request you to try to find comfort in knowing that there are people who have seen and experienced life in the true sense and their experiences serve as validation of why it is never too late. Then on the other side, I will say that a path of recovery needs to begin no matter how late...the journey must start no matter what, because if (not when) the journey begin only then one can reach destination. Even when we don't do anything, we still are good enough.
Even a dead clock, shows the time correct twice a day.
We are definitely better than a dead clock. Even if we consider ourselves as dead clocks, we still are right (better than 'Zero'), have in it us to begin the redemption. We severely under estimate what we are capable of because if everyone knew that and if I then ask "is it ever to late?" everyone will resoundingly and unison will roar that it is never too late!
With blessing on your path to recovery!