Hope Booster – Good News

Lindsay Recknell Hope Booster, Hope Booster - Pathways Leave a Comment

Can you believe it’s already April 1st of 2020?! I can’t believe how fast this year is flying by.

This is a very important day for me. It is  the 1st  anniversary of the  launch of my website, Expert in Hope, and I share this news with you, not because I want to brag, but because I’m very proud of the work that we have all done over the last year. I am very pleased to have shared some of the research that I’ve learned and the stories that I’ve heard and the action that I know you guys have all taken to increase the opportunity for a more hopeful future for you all.

That means a lot to me.

That makes me feel really happy, inspired and motivated to keep doing this work. I know that, on a personal level, being hopeful has helped me a great deal in my life and I’m really extra happy to hear when it’s helping you as well.

So that leads us to the topic of today’s Daily Hope Booster. What I want to talk about today is “good news” and why “good news” matters. Not just right now when “good news” will combat the negativity thrown at us but throughout our lives going forward.

There is a scientific basis as to why “good news” matters. There was a study done by the University of California, Irvine, where they interviewed students who had completed a test and had received their test scores. The researchers spoke to these students right after receiving their scores and then again the next day, making note of how happy they felt by their scores and how they were feeling the day after.

Those students who went home and shared good news with others reported feeling happier longer about their test scores. It also meant that they spent time thinking about their happiness and their test scores and how proud they were for a longer period of time, especially when they felt supported and celebrated. When they told people in their life about their test scores – when those people responded in a real positive, encouraging way – that helped to increase their happiness even longer.

As discussed in a previous video, you can hardwire your happiness.

The longer we think about happy feelings, the longer our brains are processing that happiness, the more we are actually building neural pathways in our brain that will allow us to almost bottle that happiness and pull it out later when we need it. We are hardwiring happiness based on hearing good news.

Does the opposite hold true as well? That if you share bad news, it prolongs our feelings of sadness and depression? As it turns out, that is not true. Sharing bad news with other people and especially when that bad news is received and felt in a real positive, motivating, supportive way, it actually reduces the negative emotions associated with fear and anxiety and sadness.

I’ve talked about how fears are louder in the dark. When we share our stories and talk out loud, not only do we get to hardwire happiness, but we also get to decrease sadness.

If those aren’t compelling reasons to look for good news and to share good news and also to share bad news, I don’t know what is! So today, April 1st, I feel like this is a great opportunity to share “Good news.”

I have scoured the internet.

I’ve looked in my world and I have some great news to share with you and the first of which is that I saw a robin today. I know that seems ridiculous. I told my husband, he was like, ah huh. We see robins all the time, but I haven’t seen one all winter and I feel like on April 1st in this super snowy, ridiculous day that we have outside that seeing a robin is the sign that spring is on the way.

Even amid this global pandemic I can be confident that the world is still turning and the seasons will still happen and spring will still arrive. That made me feel very happy.

I’ve also seen some positive developments as far as the pandemic goes. Italy is slowing the spread of the contagion. If you’ve been not living in a cave or under a rock, you know how horrific the coronavirus impact has been on Italy and the citizens there. The fact that they are slowing the spread and less people are dying every day, I can’t imagine more hopeful news for that country and for the world. I can also to see how the measures they’re taking, the things they are doing, can be implemented in places that haven’t yet been so hard hit.

That’s a very hopeful news for me. In Spain, the pace of increase is also slowing so the social distancing and isolation activities that are going on there seem to be working. It’s very early days, but the curve seems to be flattening in the Spain as well as Italy.

Further good news is that in the Chinese province where the virus originated, they’ve lifted the lockdown. They are sending millions of residents back out into the community. The pandemic has slowed enough that the risk seems to be much, much, much lower there and there are signs that life is returning to some normalcy in that province, which is incredible. I can’t imagine how it must feel for those people to come out of lockdown.

There are other stories of good news around the world and especially in Vancouver, BC, I have heard of daily, public cheering for caregivers.
Every evening at 7:00 PM, the whole city gets out on their balconies, out in their streets and starts banging pots and pans in celebration of those caregivers that are on the front lines, helping and supporting, those that are sick with this disease. How hopeful is that?

How supportive and compassionate is that for our caregivers? Rallying an entire city, an entire province in support of the caregivers.

So hopeful when your work matters.

I love that people are being intentional about supporting and offering that kind of motivation and inspiration to those of you doing this very important work for us.

Over the weekend I saw people on bicycles, again signaling to me that spring is on the way. I can’t wait to get my bike out, back in the fresh air, appropriately distanced of course, at least six feet away. On my bike, I just feel so free and hopeful and physically joyful. So that was a very hopeful moment for me.

Yesterday, one of my colleagues shared photos of a picnic that she and her family were having, out enjoying the weather, getting outside and celebrating their time together and the coming of spring and the knowledge that the future that is going to be better than today, where we won’t be all stuck in our homes and we will be able to associate and be with other people. These are very hopeful moments and I hope that today you can look for hopeful moments.

Look for good news.

Share good news.

Think about things you’ve done over the last three weeks that you’re proud of, challenges that you’ve managed to overcome, occasions where you felt awful and did something to change your mood. Look for the positives.

Think about when your kids come home with great news and how you respond in a motivating, inspiring way and how their faces light up and how that motivates them to continue to do good things. It’s cyclical.

Continue to look for good news today and share it with others. It’s not about pride. It’s about that positive expectation of future result. We all have it in us and we will continue to show the world that we’ve got this, that we will continue to be a hopeful group.

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