Hope and resilience amidst the pandemic!
Dr Alicia Coutinho
School Health Programs like Student Health checkups , school nurse , infirmary services , awareness school wellness sessions , school psychologist counsellor
“Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it and to work for it and to fight for it.â€
What is it to be hopeful?
How many times in total have you felt like it will not just workout and may not ever work out? May be a million times? Or may be more! But have you ever wondered what is it that gets you back on your toes again every time? What is it that keeps you going?
It is resilience that brings you back on your toes and hope that keeps you going. Simply explained resilience is knowing how to cope in spite of setbacks or barriers and limitation.
During this pandemic so much has been on stake that it seems almost impossible to remain hopeful. The spread of a single virus had the ability to lock people in their houses for months without any physical interaction with the outside world. So many people suffered health consequences and many even lost their lives. However, one thing that this pandemic still couldn’t change is the power we as human beings have to bounce back from setbacks.
The hope of everything getting better, the willpower to make everything better is something that keeps us going and is still pushing us to do better.
Is it possible every time, what keeps the wheel rotating?
Think of the people who have lost their loved ones to the pandemic, those who had plans to begin with a new career, those who lost their jobs. These are the people worst affected but yet they managed to get back on their feet. This is the power of resilience and the result of being hopeful.
The zest for life and its purpose!
Being hopeful helps you look up to your future from a growth perspective and helps you believe that better things are yet to happen no matter how bad the storm might seem. Resilience on the other hand is followed by hope and the loop continues. What keeps energy flowing through this loop is the zest for life, the purpose of a man’s life that he lives for. It is this purpose and meaning of our lives that helps us keep moving every day. Life’s meaning and purpose keep changing as we grow, but there cannot be a time when they are completely absent. Some loses may seem like an end to our life but it is upon us how we deal and cope up with them. It is not about ignoring these experiences but treating them as experiences and learning from them. It is also your attitude that is of help when looking for this purpose, a change in perspective might be able to give birth to an unseen opportunity!
It is an endless loop, indeed!
When we feel like giving up is when we should look into ourselves and look for this purpose. Being hopeful and bouncing back from the setbacks is what helps us find this purpose and the these in turn help us reach the purpose, it is hence indeed an eternal loop!
Ways to get there
·Have faith in your abilities
·Have an open mindset and look for solutions
·Find a sense of purpose instead of following a blind rat race
·Drive yourself towards the purpose or meaning of your life
·Have an optimistic attitude and encourage change
·Build strong relationships
·Trust yourself to be able to do better every day.
“Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again!†- Nelson Mandela
An article by our consultant Psychologist, Shaili Mehta at Plan My Health and Educure.