Trying not to hope is hard

[workinghardguy]

Hey SP... Of course the standard response here is that you need to detach And you know that and I know that, but dang if isn't hard right?

It almost makes you feel crazy... like you swear you're not hoping, that you're playing it cool as a cucumber. Then something happens and you feel this huge letdown inside yourself and feel crushed. But you could swear you weren't being hopeful.

So don't beat yourself up... because partly I think every one of us is hopeful. How can we not be? How could we do this every day if we didn't think there was some glimmer of hope?

I mean... I know it's really about self-exploration, self-improvement, and taking your own journey to a better you. At the same time that's a lot of hard work and while certainly worthy of being done it isn't the only reason we're doing it. And certainly not the only reason we're on this board.

So yeah... I'm struggling with the same thing too. I think I've got it handled and then bam! something happens I feel hopeless. Regulating that hopelessness and not letting it consume you is important.

Someone posted in one of the threads today that when they get really down or it gets really hard they imagine a funny picture. I started doing that today and by gosh if it didn't work! I imagined this picture i have of my five year old S in my Air Force flight cap while he's saluting. It's pretty darn cute. I can't help but smile and chuckle every time I see it.

So every time I started getting down today I thought of that. And it did help.