Human culture and language has always driven by stories. Powerful, tragic, metaphorical or even hopeful tales are interwoven in our everyday lives, worldview and actions; so what makes a good story and drives a character’s growth? What pushes a protagonist to their limits and allows them to push through the harshest conditions? Perhaps diving into the world of hope, mentally, socially and biologically might give us some insight.
Let’s start with defining 4 key words:
Adversity:
A necessary driving force for growth. A situation, object or mentality that provides challenge and difficulty. We can find adversity or challenges in our everyday life from school, work or even making breakfast; here are some examples. Although we consider many things an opposition in our life, this doesn’t mean our overcoming will become a story of “hope”.
Resilience:
A survival tactic born out of adversary that can be learned.
The result of a highly interactive process between an individual’s trait’s and the environment they are raised in.
Resilience is like a scale. It is a balance of both negative and positive outcomes. Our genes are like the position of fulcrum.
I also found a study involving incorporating and applying resilience in our everyday life. One interesting I found was the connection between learning resilience and the scale of adversity which relates to our study of the dynamics resilience and its ever changing state.
Survival:
A process involving overcoming adversity and resilience. Survival requires resilience but being a survivor does not.
In speech, we often use “survival” as a term to describe the basic concept of living vs dying but my view of survival has changed a lot from these in class discussion and my new found thoughts. Survival has no longer just the act of living through harsh conditions but a concept that that builds on resilience and human instinct. I also learnt of the difference between being a survivor and survival; as being a survivor may only require luck.
Hope:
A driving force that allows a person to build resilience and help persevere. It’s a mentality or belief that things will get better in the future.
Now we know the 3 other driving forces of hope, what is a “story of hope”?
A story of hope, at a very literal level, is a story involving “hope”. However, we would not call a story involving overcoming adversity a “story of hope” but instead a tale that deeply requires a “hopeful” aspect driving motivation and actions of people.
In my eyes, the idea of hope is a constant concept and feeling intertwined in human life yet I have never though about the deeper meaning of such a force. Hope is not only a driving force to stay resilient but a survival method that we can use to conquer adversity.
One thing I also personally researched researched is the effects of a positive mindset in our lives both physically and mentally as hope at its core, is literally a positive outlook at your own situation. Many studies show that positive thinking reduces stress which has good effects on our body and mind while it can be argued that positivity helps one socially as well.
There was a ted talk I watched in the past about what success and happiness stem from and it was said that “good relationships” and “positive outlooks” are the most important thing in determining a person’s happiness in later stages of life and I couldn’t help but think how hope could drive this. Being hopeful and appreciative of your own situation will not only increase success but will at the very least, make you happy. Isn’t that what we go through adversity for, happiness?
To be able to understand and develop a train of thought behind such a key feeling and recognize past stories has only just begun in this project and I look forward to learning more.
Regarding my recent mPOL and learning experience of the “smart brevity”, I really wanted to focus on content and quality or over volume and quantity. I intentionally made this post as short as possible while including my entire learning journey throughout the beginning of this project. I hope this thought reflects on my writing and please comment or communicate so I can continue to build my repertoire of concise communication.
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Finally this is only the first keystone in our “Stories of Hope” project so I look forward to seeing you in the continuation.
Thanks
My Notes with Investigations: https://www.craft.do/s/zTtZSux7leWYnN