How do we find hope? And how do we hold onto it?
This kind and compassionate book leads the way.
How to Be Hopeful
Your Toolkit to Rediscover Hope and Help Create a Kinder World
By Bernadette Russell
Elliott & Thompson / £12.99 / 10 September 2020
How to be Hopeful is a celebration of hope: an essential and courageous thing to envisage, create and connect with in our everyday lives. It shows us the places we can look for hope – in ourselves, nature, art, the kindness of strangers, communities, science, technology, innovation, as well as our individual and collective actions – and ways to keep it alive through all the challenges life throws at us. It invites us to act on our hopes towards positive and real change and includes stories of seemingly impossible odds overcome by individuals and groups of people who dared to do so, and triumphed. Starting with how we find hope in ourselves, this book also offers practical and creative exercises and tips on how we can embrace and develop hope in our communities, the wider world and in our future, as we face the very real and complex challenges of our times.
Exploring scientific, philosophical and spiritual perspectives on hope throughout the centuries and today, How to Be Hopeful is the essential book for our times.
TALKING POINTS
Why we should try and find hope and how acting with hope can help us create positive change. How hope is different from wishful thinking or blind optimism, how hope can provide us with the fuel to transform our lives, our communities and the world.
How hope is connected with compassion - how compassionate practise - to ourselves, each other and to the whole world, can restore hope and increase happiness.
The ‘positivity bias’ of children - how understanding and being inspired by children and our younger selves can help us find and maintain hope as adults – bringing us joy and giving us courage to try things.
Why adults are prone to pessimism and how we can counter this? How cynicism and negativity can diminish our lives and how nurturing hope can help us live our lives more fully.
How hope can help us even when we’re faced with life’s big challenges, such as illness, grief, death and dying.
How to remain hopeful in the face of huge global problems such as the climate crisis, and how to stay informed yet not drift to despair. How to become an active part of the solution, and how to enjoy yourself whilst doing so! (activism for beginners!)
The neurological benefits of acts of kindness and self-care, and how they fortify hope - how being kind to yourself and others can and should co-exist and how compassionate practise makes you more resilient, hopeful and more able to recover from setbacks and disappointment.
How to grow your hope by connecting with your communities and your neighbours, and improve your own life and the area in which you live.
How science, tech and art can all provide us with hope for the future - and how we can support and join in with those who are working towards a brighter tomorrow.
How to find hope in the midst of a barrage of online negativity and relentless bad news - how to stay informed and engaged with the world whilst increasing your happiness and hope.
How sharing stories can help us regain hope when it is lost, those of triumph over adversity, succeeding despite the odds, and happy endings. Understanding the way we tell our own stories can affect how our hope and our happiness, and how to take charge of our own stories and our lives, to help us realise our dreams.
‘This book is an invitation to start your own journey towards hope. I believe that active hope increases the chances that our future can be better and our present lives happier.’
Bernadette Russell
ABOUT Bernadette Russell
Bernadette Russell is an expert on hope and kindness, as well as a writer, performer and activist who plants a lot of trees – and helps others do the same. She is author of The Little Book of Kindness and The Little Book of Wonder, both published by Orion and in multiple foreign editions around the world. Since 2012, she has toured the US and UK speaking about the importance and life-changing experience of practicing kindness, including for BBC Radio 4 Saturday Live, Action for Happiness, Birmingham School of Philosophy, People United’s Kindness Symposium, The Roundhouse, Tate Britain, Turner Contemporary, Sunday Assembly and the Southbank Centre, where she was nominated as one of sixty-seven change makers for her project 366 Days of Kindness. Since 2018 she has worked with the Royal Albert Hall, producing performances with kindness and creativity at their heart.
Bernadette presents the ‘How to be Hopeful’ podcast.
More information at: https://www.bernadetterussell.com/ Instagram: @bernadetterussell / Twitter: @betterussell / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bernadetterussellwrites /
Bernadette is available for interviews, features and events.