Uncommon H.o.p.e.: A Powerful Guide to Creating an Extraordinary Life

by Hall, Kathleen

• ISBN13: 9781402236068
• ISBN10: 1402236069
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-03-01
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Inc

Summary

Every day, the little constant stresses and anxieties leave us feeling unfulfilled, not living the best life possible. But what if the life we want to live is with in our grasp and we don't even know it? Kathleen Hall had a powerful career on Wall Street, a beautiful home, and a physician husband. But under the surface she was miserable, sad, anxious, and hollow. She knew there had to be more meaning to life, and she set out to find it, studying with the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Desmond Tutu, and others. What she found was that the answers lie in something so simple, we all already have them in our possession. That path is H.O.P.E.: a simple way to live an inspired life in a stress-driven world. Un common H.O.P.E. takes the reader through each element of this path to free living: HONESTY OPTIMISM PERSEVERANCE EN-JOY Un common H.O.P.E. is not about giving up our wealth, quitting our jobs, or moving to the mountains. It is a movement to bring the wisdom of conquering stress to our everyday lives, from a person just like us who changed her life and found a way to personal freedom. Discover the power of Un common H.O.P.E. today, and live the life you were meant to live.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Foreword: Mindful Living at Oak Haven	p. xi
The Introduction	p. xv
The River	p. 1
The Invitation of the River	p. 3
Living in the River	p. 19
Navigating the River	p. 25
Stops on the River	p. 31
The River Leads Home	p. 39
The Spring	p. 43
The Energy of Hope	p. 45
Honesty: The First Commitment	p. 55
Honesty with My Self	p. 61
Honesty with the Divine	p. 67
Honesty with My Partner	p. 73
Honesty with My Family	p. 79
Honesty with Work	p. 85
Honesty with My Community	p. 91
Optimism: The Second Commitment	p. 95
Optimism with My Self	p. 105
Optimism with the Divine	p. 113
Optimism with My Partner	p. 121
Optimism with My Family	p. 127
Optimism with My Work	p. 133
Optimism with My Community	p. 137
Perseverance: The Third Commitment	p. 143
Perseverance with My Self	p. 151
Perseverance with the Divine	p. 157
Perseverance with My Partner	p. 163
Perseverance with My Family	p. 169
Perseverance with My Work	p. 177
Perseverance with My Community	p. 181
En-Joy! The Fourth Commitment	p. 185
En-Joy My Self	p. 189
En-Joy the Divine	p. 195
En-Joy My Partner	p. 199
En-Joy My Family	p. 203
En-Joy My Work	p. 209
En-Joy My Community	p. 215
The Ocean	p. 219
The Ripple Effect	p. 223
Epilogue	p. 225
About the Author	p. 227
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

<p>The word <em>hope </em>conjures up various images in my life's experience. Hope has been an anchor in the midst of the violent, turbulent seas in my ever-changing life. Hope has been a bright, lifesaving lighthouse beacon in the many times I have lost my way in the darkness of my own losses and challenges. Hope is the altar of my life on which I have entrusted my most sacred intentions and adventures. Hope matters. Hope is real, palpable energy. Each day we experience natural laws of physics that we don't actually recognize, such as wind, light, gravity, and hope. Hope is a natural law of physics and spirituality.</p><p>A study examined the relationships between positive emotions and health. Two positive emotions were considered, hope and curiosity, in conjunction with three physician-diagnosed disease outcomes: hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and respiratory tract infections. Across those three disease outcomes, higher levels of hope were associated with a decreased likelihood of having or developing a disease. Higher levels of curiosity were also associated with decreased likelihood of hypertension and diabetes mellitus. These results suggest that positive emotions may play a protective role in the development of disease. As the large body of scientific research continues to grow on mind-body medicine, we will continue to prove the health benefits of this miracle energy called hope.</p><p>Hope is the antidote for our confusing world. Hope is evidence of the Divine. Hope is freedom. You can't be in bondage to fear, anger, shame, or uncertainty if you live hope. Anything is possible if you have hope.</p><p>I learned about the power of hope from many wells of knowledge and experience.</p><p><em>• My Ancestors. </em>My Hall family is a long line of entrepreneurs who were born with the uncanny ability to flourish in any situation. Poverty, world wars, epidemics, illnesses, and death were obstacles that created opportunities for my Hall family. My mother's family, the Clennans, were a culturally rich Irish Catholic family who struggled to make a life on the plains of Kansas against all odds. The constant challenges of brutal prairie life emboldened their strong sense of faith, spirituality, virtue, and love for one another and their community. My DNA is rooted in the precious balm of hope.</p><p><em>• Nature. </em>My childhood was rooted in the farmland of Ohio. The cattle that survived the frigid winters birthed the signs of hope as they calved in early spring. The birds seeking out every morsel of food in the snowdrifts of winter chattered in spring as they excitedly created nests and tended to their newborns. The first signs of green grass taunting us through the spring snow brought giggles and expectation as seeds of hope for spring were born. My grandmother's cherry tree was a place of hope eternal as we anticipated the delicious, red, plump cherries each year and spent rich, memorable hours picking and canning these ruby gifts for a later winter feast. Lying on our backs in the deep grass of summer, we enjoyed lazy afternoons cloud gazing. Each cloud was pregnant with the hope of an animal emerging in the formation. Children naturally know hope is one of the essential elements of our DNA.</p><p><em>• The Church. </em>Growing up Roman Catholic was like being a fish in the ocean of hope. (I eventually grew away from my Catholic foundations, but will always be grateful for the many gifts of this religion of hope.) The saints embodied a life of hope. The saints were challenged with torture, sometimes humiliation, and even death, but hope radiated from their souls. Christ became the symbol of hope. He was born of a simple carpenter, became the teacher of love and hope, and eventually his body was killed, but his infectious eternal message of hope lives on. The Mother Mary, a pregnant unwed teen in a conservative Jewish culture, lived hope each day and is still a symbol of love and hope in our world. The seven sacraments of the Church become symbols of hope in every stage of a person's life. The early Church knew how difficult human life was, and I believe they created the sacraments as guideposts of hope to help us navigate our lives. During daily mass I received the sacrament of Holy Communion as incarnational hope in a physical form into my body. The liturgical seasons of the Church taught me that life goes on. To each season of life there are necessary losses, and there is also a celebration of hope in each cycle of life. Advent prepared us for the hope of the coming of Christ at Christmas, and Lent prepared us for the hope of Easter.</p><p><em>• Storytelling. </em>Sitting at Clinton's grocery store in Marshallville as a little girl, I was captivated by the stories of hope told by farmers, milkmen, cookie salesmen, and drifters. Some man was pulled out of a burning car at the scene of an accident, a woman got to the hospital just in time to have a C-section and save the baby, or a horrible winter storm just missed us and saved the spring crops. Walt Disney gave the world the gift of hope through his many jewels. Cinderella was joyful and loving as she survived awful stepsisters and a cruel stepmother. Daniel Boone continually saved the lives of the innocent while fighting off bad people and redeeming dark circumstances, giving each of us a sense of hope and goodness in our world.</p><p><em>• People of Hope. </em>There were the people who were the physical presence of hope. My aunt Pat had five children and was the night nursing supervisor in our local Dunlap hospital. She worked all night long and would get home in the morning to make us breakfast. She told us stories of what had happened at the hospital that night in the emergency room and in the ICU, and they were always adventures of loss and hope. I wanted to grow up and be just like her. I babysat for Mr. Katz. I would confide in him about the problems in our home, and he would always sit me down and fortify me with hope before he took me home. Dr. Bill Mallard was my professor at Emory who was Dr. Hope. Every time I wanted to throw in the towel, he would literally grab me and take me for a cup of hope. We would sit for hours as he told stories of saints, ancients, professors, and students overcoming tremendous odds with the antidote of hope.</p><p>One of my favorite humans, who recently died, Dr. Paul Pearsall, was a neuropsychologist. Dr. Pearsall lived through many cancers, his son's cerebral palsy and eventual death, several near-death experiences himself, and more suffering than most of us will ever know. He has authored many amazing books, and one of my favorite quotes of his is "In the absence of certainty, there is always hope."</p>