Hope
We are a world adrift in chaos. Wars, starvation, racism, lying, cheating, verbal and physical abuse are rampant. A report came out about the life expectancy in the United States. For the first time since the early 1960s, life expectancy in the United States has declined for the second year in a row, according to a CDC report. American men can now expect to live 76.1 years, a decrease of two-tenths of a year from 2015. American women’s life expectancy remained at 81.1 years. The change was driven largely by a rising death rate among younger Americans. The death rate of people between the ages of 25 and 34 increased by 10 percent between 2015 and 2016, while the death rate continued to decrease for people over the age of 65.
The tragic part of that report is the dramatic increase in deaths of folks between 25 and 34. The major change is caused by drug overdose and suicide. Our younger adults are giving up. They are living in a world largely created by their parents and it has become unlivable for them. So they resort to taking drugs to deaden their despair or even worse; they end their lives because of the intense pain of living on Earth today. They are without hope.
What can we do? Here is a list of things I found on LifeHack that might help each of us.
- conduct a hope audit of your life. How are you doing? in health, work, relationships?
- take good care of your health.
- have a stress reduction strategy. Meditation, breathing exercises, physical exercise and favorite forms of recreation all reduce stress. Being in nature does as well.
- create hopeful relationships. Learn to forgive. Develop a daily journal writing habit if it helps you to let go of negative experiences and emotions.
- help others see the best in themselves, notice their desire to make meaningful contributions and help them find their path to becoming hope makers for themselves and others.
Look for ways to make hopefulness tangible. Don’t let it be just something for the future. Hope is all of the little things we do each day to make our lives better. Everything you do contributes to hopeful living or takes away from it. That may seem heavy. But hope is that important. It needs to be treasured. From my hopeful heart, Thomas