“While I breathe, I hope.”

This year has brought enormous challenge and change. From the COVID-19 pandemic and the uprooting of our relative normalcy, to nationwide unrest and grief over yet another killing of a black man at the hand of law enforcement, 2020 will be a year to REALLY remember. It is easy to get swept up emotionally in all that is going on, to lose hope and to be consumed by thoughts of ‘what the hell is going on?’

But it is in times like these, a year like THIS, where hope is critical for survival not just individually, but as a collective. By consciously and intentionally shifting your mindset from one of despair to one of hope, you immediately set yourself on a path of healing. Even in the worst of times, hope has life, and can grow. Take the spate of police involved violence towards people of color. Did George Floyd deserve to die under the knee of a police officer? Of course not. Did Breonna Taylor deserve to get shot eight times in her own home by officers who kicked in the wrong door? Of course not. But look what has come out of those tragedies, and too many others to count–a movement that has not only sparked conversations of reform, but actual reform. The #blacklivesmatter wave that is sweeping our country is borne of intrinsic hope that change can occur. Hopelessness does not spark change, hopefulness does.

And hope isn’t just found in something as public as a change in our collective consciousness. Hope is found every single day in the simplest of forms. From the moment you awaken in the morning, you are hopeful. Hopeful for a day of health. Hopeful for a day of prosperity. Hopeful that your friends and loved ones are well. Even hopeful that you will make it to the end of the day! Nearly everything we do has a seed of hope planted inside. Being conscious of that seed is life changing.

So go ahead and water that seed. Nothing is too trivial to establish the habit of hopefulness. You’ve heard of gratitude journals? How about starting a hope journal? And by the very decision to begin, you are watering that seed of hope.