by Sister Jacqueline Russell of the Brahma Kumaris Centre for Spiritual Learning
Hope is to see purpose behind everything that happens – and that nothing happens without some benefit.
Our hope is strongest in ourselves; trusting we will be able to deal with anything that comes our way.
To build up this belief in our own resilience we need to understand what makes us lose that self-trust and therefore hope.
Research has found that those who have strong trust in a spiritual identity are less likely to have feelings of helplessness when there are difficult challenges.
Life has a flow and when we are not overcome with anxiety and fear our intellect works in a natural way and we can see the way through, or if not, how to deal with our own emotions in order to survive the situation.
Spirituality is like the river that makes its way to the ocean, always flowing towards the destination, which is of peace and happiness.
If we see the spiritual centre of ourselves as a natural centre of goodness we will end up in the unlimited, like the ocean, able to absorb anything and find a way to make it work for us.
This feeling of our own spiritual value is like a resource of wisdom gained from experiences over time.
Spiritual awareness is to shine a light on positive qualities like kindness, patience, even listening deeply to others and to ourselves.
We have all these qualities, we see and feel their existence when we are quiet, content, generous or compassionate.
However to give them power we need to emerge them and to work with them in our daily lives.
They are there within each one of us and applying them at the appropriate time, sustains a feeling of self-worth.
This feeling of self-worth brings hope.
These are human values that are common to us all and aligning with these and acting accordingly, gives us such a natural good feeling that we do not feel disturbed.
The sign of getting disturbed is when we feel sad, fearful, or even depressed.
When we feel like this, and lose hope, it is as though we have actually offended our belief in our own truth.
Our truth is that we are good people, and that hope in our own ability to ride the storm, is a truth that will bring us success.
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