291 Centering Reset: The Surprising Psychology of Hope

A warm welcome to Centering Reset. We're gonna spend time with tapping into the sense of hope, especially when hope feels distant. I wanna invite us to realize that hope is not a feeling, is not a thought. It's a state of being, and we can tap into that. So perhaps you're longing for hope, not as wishful thinking, not pretending that everything is okay, but just real hope. The kind of hope that helps you keep moving and wake you up in the morning really excited, that can help us to endure uncertainty and allows us to see possibilities when the circumstances feel unclear. And sometimes we may even feel stuck. Hope is one of the most powerful forces in human flourishing, and we can switch that. We, we can nourish that. We can really will ourselves into hope. And that is the invitation for today. And if you're a regular, I want to welcome you back. And if you're new, welcome to Thriving in Christ Show for Christian women professionals and servant leaders. And this is for you if you feel at times stressed, depleted, on a busy treadmill with Sunday night blues in spite of loving what you do. If you sense blocks in reaching your highest potential for the kingdom, although you're carrying significant responsibility and impact. If you wrestle to fully replenish yourself and access that peace that surpasses all understanding, no matter how many programs you've tried, and might worry that the self-care and deep renewal will add more to your mile-long to-do list, or wrestle to stay grounded and expansive in your impact, especially in high-stakes situations. If this is you, welcome! You are not lacking discipline. You are not lacking faith. More often, what's missing is sustainable and skillful renewal. See, many of the solutions available today, they act like a Band-Aid, placed on top of already burdened foundation, which is shaped for us by chronic stress, past events, cultural conditionings, misconceptions, without taking consideration the needed alignment and wholeness that is necessary to have a sustainable life in Christ. And I know this intimately because I burned out twice, not because of lack of knowledge, because I'm in the mental health field, and not because of lack of faith. In this show, we take a different approach through the integration of science, psychology, Christian faith, and spiritual care. In this show, I help you to return Turn to a place of inner renewal, accessing the living waters of Christ from within, aligning your body, mind, heart, and soul to reduce inner fragmentation and restore you to a grounded self. Simplify your daily habits from inside out—body, mind, heart, and soul—to build sustainable rhythms that support your life and leadership without adding pressure. Access clarity, peace, and joy, and grounded presence and purpose, especially in high-responsibility and high-stakes moments. So you can expand your capacity and keep leading and serving in Christ. This is not about doing more. It is about learning how to return skillfully again and again to God within, where your strength is renewed like the eagle's and your inner life is restored so that your leadership can flow from your soul. I am Dr. Ioanna Popako, founder of Team for the Soul Institute and host of the show. I'm a physician, psychiatrist, educator, spiritual care and executive coach, speaker and trainer, and you can find me on the web teamforsoul.com. And make make sure you sign up for Thriving in Christ resource to get our updates right in your inbox. And if you love what I bring on this episode, please leave us 5-star reviews and make sure you share with other Christian women, as we don't know who might need this. And when you're ready to learn how I can support you specifically through one-to-one spiritual care, life coaching, or executive coaching, you can set up a free consultation call, and the links are in the show notes. All right, are you ready to grow towards your highest potential? From a grounded, renewed foundation with Christ at the helm, then let's dive in. I mentioned earlier that hope is not a feeling or a thought, and you might say, well, what is, Ioana? When I say it's not a thought or an emotion, I hold in mind this realization, having worked in mental health field for 3+ decades: we don't control our emotions, we don't control our thoughts. Thoughts come and go. We produce thousands and thousands of thoughts every day. We cannot possibly believe all of them. We have to filter, we have to discern them. The same with emotions. They come and they go. And interestingly, emotions, some of them are not even ours. Some emotions, because they're contagious, are energies coming from other people, or either through direct contact or through reading things on the news, or watching shows or looking at social media. So thoughts and emotions are very much coming and going. We cannot rely on them, and it's good to remember that they are not the truth. Our— through our rational mind, through our studying of life, studying of God and our relationship with God, we can start discerning what is really important. And the decision we want to make today is that We have access to hope. We can will ourselves into hope by making a decision. Because many people think that hope is passive, but it's not. It's active. It comes through a decision. So we wake up in the morning and we can see the half empty side of the glass, or we can see the half full side of the glass. Now, it doesn't mean that we're gonna deny our reality. It doesn't mean that if we're feeling sad or frustrated or anxious that we're gonna deny these feelings. Many times these feelings surface because they might be an underlying need, or there might be injustice or something that needs to be shifted. So I encourage us to talk with someone about our feelings. But beyond that, we wanna realize that it's not that we're gonna analyze all the time our feelings. There's a time and a season for sitting with our feelings and our thoughts and processing our experiences. And yes, please find your trusted person. This might be a counselor, this could be a coach, it could be a mentor, a good friend, a family member, your spouse. And nonetheless, we also need to have the ability to shift and decide for hope, which means to see the half full part of the glass. And it doesn't mean that we're just going to be naive, but there's always something in the unknown that can unfold. And this allows also for God to come in. So as we trust God more, we can choose hope, we can choose to see the invisible, and that can bring us courage. It can shift our nervous system, and we can show up into a room full of people full with confidence, and resilience. Interestingly, in psychology, research is showing constantly that hope is a strong predictor of resilience because hopeful people are more likely to persevere through challenges, adapt to setbacks, recover from stress, maintain motivation. And psychologists describe hope as a combination of believing in meaningful future that is possible. And also number 2, believing there's a path forward. So I'm gonna say it again, believing that there is a future that is meaningful and that it's possible to have that future, that destination, whatever that is. And number 2, believing that there's a path forward. So hear this, it's about believing, which is what faith is. Faith, it's a belief, and we can jump into by making that decision. So we hear also in the gospel that Christ is inviting us that whatever we ask, we're going to receive. Whatever doors we're going to knock, they're going to be open. And also Christ is inviting us to already send gratitude to God that our prayers are answered. So this is hope. It's a decision. We're believing in that meaningful future that is possible. And we're believing that there is a path forward. So this is so important for in our, in your leadership skills. As that allows for that presence to happen, and it'll shift your thoughts, it'll shift your emotions, it'll shift your body physiology, the way you show up. And that can be so inspiring. And I'm going to share with you a few Bible verses to inspire us as we wrap up this episode. This is Romans 15:13, NIV version: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him. See, trust, it's a decision. Coming back to this word decision, we decide to trust, we decide to be hopeful, and we choose to believe that there is that future and a path forward. All right, so here's Jeremiah 29:11, New King James Version. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. And the last Bible verse, this is Hebrews 10:23, New King James Version: Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. Now I want to make again the note about our thoughts and emotions. Without wavering doesn't mean that our emotions are not going to be doubtful sometimes, or we have all sorts of thoughts that are, oh, I don't know what's happening, or we might get worried. It means we make that decision. The decision is without wavering, right? And that we can do. Our thoughts and emotions, they come and go. We might not keep them steady, but the decision, that is in our control, and we can keep that without wavering. All right, and with that, I'm sending you many blessings and prayers. I would love to hear from you. How this episode impacted you. You can send us a note through teamforsoul.com. There is a place to send us a message, or you can, if you're on YouTube, you can comment there. And now I'm going to close with a prayer. Thank you, God, for renewing our hope this week. Help us to see the possibilities where we've seen other times obstacles. Help us to see that path and moving forward and our goal. So that our heart can become lighter, our faith stronger, and we can stay unwavering in our decision to hold hope each and every morning as we wake up, throughout the day, and also as we wrap up our day. Thank you, God, and may you give the listener confidence that you're at work every single day, every single moment. Amen. And with that, thank you for all you do. May you be blessed. I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful week. And if you want to reach out to us, teamforsoul.com, there's a way to send us the message. As I mentioned before, when you're ready for me to support you, either through spiritual care, life and leadership coaching, or executive coaching, you can set up a free consultation. I would love your support as you're listening this on the podcast to leave us a 5-star review and share with to someone else, as we might not know who might need this message today. And with that, thank you for all you do. God bless you. I will connect with you next time. Take good care.