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STAY HOPEFUL
It’s not the end of the World
LOCKDOWNS OFTEN GIVE people that feverish feeling that it seems likely the end of the world is near. I won’t be surprised if you’ve heard diverse theories to support this assertion. People go all length to look for clues from the Bible, Koran, magazines, music, novels, ancient writings or the sermons of any renowned religious clergy.
It may seem true the things you hear and they always seem true. But your duty isn’t to test their veracity. Yours is to stay hopeful through your own personal challenge because no matter what you know about this situation, nothing changes.
Everything that has a beginning certainly has an end. Life runs on cycles of ups and downs, so that when you find yourself on the down side, you ought to know there is up coming soon. This lockdown is only a challenge on the down side; soon it’s going to take a new face up.
Why many persons fail to survive through the harrowing experiences that lockdowns provide is often because of their lack of hope. They conclude they are dead already and they soon die certainly. You should not expect to live when you are talking too much about dying. Those who end up in the suicide statistic got thinking about it first.
Guess what? Whatever drear situation this lockdown provides for you, people have faced worse situations and are alive to share their stories. Some person’s lives are no different even when economic conditions are great for majority of the people, their experiences are often harrowing. They find themselves always on the hash end of even the best of economic realities so that when it’s great for others, it’s still bad with them. If such persons survive, a onetime lockdown won’t kill you.
Hope is reassuring. It gives you a clean slate to envision the possibilities of a better life afterwards because there certainly will be a better life afterwards. But how that life turns out will depend on what positive picture you can paint despite your ordeal.
You may be tempted to question yourself, how you arrived at this point in the first place. You may swear and curse at those you think caused the reasons for the lockdown. This won’t matter anyway, you are in already. What will matter is your willingness to look ahead of the present into the future to see the possibilities in it despite what seems in the present a herculean ordeal.
You might have come across this story of Samaria and Syria in the Bible. They were in a lockdown. The Syrians had placed a siege on Samaria so that conditions were terrible. People ate dove’s dung and at some point, people killed their children to survive. Everyone inside Samaria were afraid of the Syrians, no one dared live the city. But four lepers were hopeful. Things were worse already but they decided that they’d take a chance. They got out of the city, not only survived but they opened the door for the whole city to survive too.
Everyone may be in a lockdown, but you should think differently, out of the lockdown. True, possibilities abound for those who will poke their hopeful heads and launch into what seems an unknown world after the lockdown.
It is true that the economic realities that result from lockdowns aren’t always great. It won’t be better after the lockdown if you aren’t seeing the better after it. Maybe it is just time for you to catch a new picture, a new reality, a new glimpse.
You might be stocked in your house, the streets are full with policemen telling people to get back in, and there’s fear in your mind that things may get worse. In reality, you want to be free, but the rules are tying you down. You might be in lockdown but you don’t have to be put down.
One of the many negatives of this lockdown is that it puts you at the middle of nowhere. You are filled with too many thoughts about the state of things. You are thinking about what to eat, the next meal, how to keep up with your health. But thinking too inward won’t solve the problem.
Hope helps you think outward. You may have the challenges, but you aren’t looking at how big they are but you are looking for solutions. You should be thinking about what you can do even in the face of a negative predicament to better your lot. You should get that feeling that there is something better on the line beyond now and that’s refreshing.
The truth is, every lockdown comes with its positives. But because we are outweighed by the negative circumstances that poke their heads, we fail to benefit from the positives that also reveal themselves. Hope lets you factor the positives. You get the picture that you are about to enter another season of plenty by the opportunities that the lockdown offers because certainly opportunities abound around it.
Those who survive are those who think they should survive. You may think it’s a mind game, but it isn’t. It’s however a function of the mind. Better arrives with expecting better.
No one loves the regimented life that lockdowns offer. I know because I’ve found myself in quite a good number. I do understand the dynamics of lockdowns, its either someone is looking out for your next step or you are scared of making the move.
Hope is your bridge between what seems a herculean life during the lockdown and the bliss of a future life. This bliss only reveals itself in the eye of hope because in reality, things aren’t looking like something’s great is going to happen real soon.
You develop the willingness to keep pushing because you can see what others can’t see and you are able to develop ideas others won’t because of how far your hope has taken you to.
Hope can take us far beyond our present realities even when we are in the eye of the storm. No one may see how things are going to turn around but being hopeful gives you the edge, a narrow escape into the better possibilities of life beyond this lockdown.
Fear is certainly a major factor during lockdowns. People are scared about the things that may or may not befall them. Worry a twin of fear leads to anxiety. Nothing good happens in an atmosphere of anxiety or fear. You’d just keep circling around cycles of doubts and depression. Guess what? You don’t need them.
Even if things aren’t great, and lockdowns don’t supply many great moments anyway, you have a place to hide in hope acknowledging that though situations may seem beyond your capacity presently, you’d soon be in charge certainly.
There is always a glimmer of hope for those who will choose to see it. Hope is a choice. I can’t force you to see what you don’t want to see. All I can do is guide you into what I can see by asking you to look. But looking depends on you. Don’t be the kind of person who has concluded that nothing will work as it did before now.
In hope, there is always chance for better to happen. There is often that generic feeling amongst people that what they go through in their lockdown is only the beginning of the worse. When you think this way, you will end that way, while others who see the light of possibilities will head on with the opportunities that will certainly reveal themselves after this lockdown.
Life has always continued after every lockdown that has happened through history. This one won’t be different. You will certainly hear stories about people who knocked off or got down during the lock down. Some people have been shot by the police, people have lost fortunes, and people are committing suicide.
You don’t allow what you hear define what you do with your life. While your ears are open to hear quite a lot, most of the information won’t arrive as truth. You’d better check what you listen to before you believe false tales.
It’s time to get your mind to function beyond the plain of your present predicament. Develop a survival, futuristic and a reassuring mentality. Stay woke.
This lockdown situation may seem hopeless now, but it’s not about how hopeless it is, it’s about the possibilities that I am certain will be arriving for those who will open their eyes to see.
While many person are crying foul about government policy to impose a lockdown, those hopeful heads are at work thinking about how to use the lockdown and make huge benefits. Hope lets you see that there is something out of nothing.
This lockdown does not shut your mind down. Refuse to stay down. It’s time to get your mind to work. Be hopeful. Get hopeful, get light, hope puts you at the position to fight for the possibilities that staying alive offers. You are at a natural advantage when you are as hopeful as hopeful can be.
It’s time to pick up your tools and fight. It’s not the end, it never was. It’s only a phase you have to go through. With hope you’d certainly come out better than you assumed.