Exercise 12

Giving Hope

Helping others and giving back is a very important part of staying hopeful.  It feels good to support other people, reminds us that we are not alone, and allows us to feel compassion and empathy.

We are going to start giving back today by writing a message of hope for someone else.   

By reaching into our hope toolbox and gathering what we need, we are taking care of our emotional health and well-being and are equipped to thrive and succeed in our lives and in our world.  In turn, we can encourage and support others in finding and maintaining their hope.

Remember, practicing these skills daily will allow your hope to grow and to be shared with others. 

• Meditating, Deep Breathing and Being Grateful 
• Staying in Your Upstairs Brain where Hope Lives
• Discovering Your Passion and Purpose
• Setting Goals and Creating Action Steps
• Anticipating and Overcoming Obstacles, Failure and Rumination
• Finding and Reaching Out to Your Hope Supporter
• Giving Back to Others

“Walk on with hope in your heart and you’ll never walk alone.”  Shah Rukh Khan

Hope Exercise

Answer to the best of your ability the following questions on Giving Hope.  When you have completed correctly, CONGRATULATIONS…YOU WILL HAVE EARNED YOUR HOPE BADGE!

1. A very important part of being hopeful is:

a. Giving back and helping others.

b. Using our hope tools to take care of our emotional health and well-being.

c. Practicing our hope skills daily.

d. All the above.

2. Which of the following skills is not a hope tool?

a. Asking for help and support.

b. Identifying your distress level and using a self-regulation exercise.

c. Rumination.

d. Celebrating each action step met along the journey toward your goals.

Hope Activity

Share hope!

1. Write an encouraging note to someone.  Tell them how to have hope and why to have hope.  Remind them how they can use their hope tools and spread the word. 

By giving your message, you are helping someone else have hope and sending a reminder that there is another person who cares.  Helping others makes us feel good about ourselves.

• Giving to someone makes us feel happy.
• Giving connects us with other people.
• Giving often brings feelings of gratitude. 

 

Your message will bring joy, comfort, and HOPE to someone else.

 

2. Plant Sunflowers!

Yard Sign

Sunflowers are a symbol for hope.  By planting sunflowers, you share and give others a vision of hope.  They are an important positive reminder of our own hope and to practice the skills we’ve learned.  Spread hope by posting a sign with your sunflowers to share the Hopeful Minds program with family, friends and your community.

The Importance of Planting and Harvesting Sunflowers

Messages of hope and planting sunflowers allow us to share hope with others who may need a visual reminder to never give up and that there are people out there who care.  Hope and help is available.

After you plant a sunflower seed, what does it need in order to grow? Sunlight and water allow the sunflower to get the nutrients it needs.

In order to get these things, sunflowers must stretch their roots deep into the ground and grow wide leaves. Roots and leaves allow the flower to collect more water and continue growing toward the sunshine.

A sunflower seed is like your own hope.

Growing roots and leaves are like our tools for creating hope. Our tools allow our hope to grow the same way the roots and leaves allow the flower to grow.

a) Think about the hope tools we learned.  Meditating, being grateful, discovering our passion, setting goals and creating action steps, anticipating and overcoming obstacles, finding a hope supporter, and giving back all allow our hope to grow just like the sunflower.

b) The flowers purpose is to provide food to humans and birds and bring joy to those that see it.  One of the sunflowers goals is to grow toward the sunshine.

In order to do this, the flower must grow a strong stem. This stem supports the flower when it gets very tall and can reach all the sunlight it wants. The flower stem is similar to what happens for us when we rely on supporters to help us remain hopeful.

c) The sunflower will have to overcome obstacles.  Obstacles such as rocky soil, not enough sunlight, not enough rain, or not enough space can inhibit its growth and full potential.

d) After the sunflower grows, it gives back by turning into other products.  Sunflowers provide sunflower oil, sunflower seed butter, sunflower seeds for eating, and other sunflowers.

This is how we can live our lives too. Now that we have learned all of these hope tools, we can encourage and support others to have hope.

 

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have just completed the Hope Self Help Guide and earned your hope badge. We have covered quite a bit in this course. It will be important for you to hold on to your new insights and practice them regularly.

If you have any questions on the materials or want to bring the curriculum to your school, visit www.ifred.org or e-mail hopefulminds@ifred.org. You may also sign up to our newsletter here.  Thanks so much for helping to spread Hope!

 

Download Lesson #12: Giving Hope.

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