hope is in your horoscope

Hope is in Your Horoscope 
           Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear.                        If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.       
          Thich Nhat Hanh 
     Hope is a learned response and a bigger determinant of success than intelligence, skill or previous success. It is your work as parent, grandparent, or caregiver to help your children stay hopeful. If your children have a higher “hope score,” they will be more successful at achieving academic and athletic goals. They will be able to recognize and make the best use of opportunities. With your children and yourself, if you make the choice to hope, you put yourselves in control of how you react to circumstances, knowing that you can draw on hope to see things in a new or different way. Hope strengthens us and expands our capacity to believe in our dreams and what is possible for us. 
      How do you develop hope?  First of all, you need to be optimistic, to believe that things will get better. You need to set goals for yourselves and help your children to do so. What are you good at? What are your strengths? Look at yourself and see what you have to share with your children now. Not all learning is done in school or on the internet and you know things you can teach your children. It may be how to cook or sew, or how to kick or throw a football. It may be how to sing or play an instrument. It may be how to read a book out loud or tell a joke. There definitely needs to be something to work toward. Having goals to work towards in one of the best ways to have hope. 
      Hopes are the strands that run through our lives—our struggles, our successes and setbacks, our strengths and shortcomings. Realistic and reasonable hope can move us forward toward achieving goals and lift us up as we accomplish each step in attaining them  You and your children need to “high five” or pat yourselves on the back each time you move a step closer to your goals. If each one of you is setting and accomplishing a goal, you encourage and help each other. (www.wikihow.com). Hope breeds hope.  
    You can even schedule hope according to Noami Drew. You can create a daily 5-minute silence ritual and curtail your intake of the news.  Develop a mantra such as "I am the key to hope."    "I am the key to peace in my family."  
     Using this time to make a difference in your lives gives you the opportunity to live your greatest promises and to develop your highest and best selves. Hope is energy, fuel for living. Hope is a necessity, an emotional engine and basis for engaging in life. 
          Hopeful thinkers achieve more and are physically and psychologically healthier than                  less hopeful people. Charles Richard Snyder 
     Treat your family to a healthy, hopeful life in spite of COVID 19. ​