Dear College of Education Community,
An important feeling linked to self-care is a sense of hope. Hope is defined as the expectation that one will have positive experiences or that a potentially threatening or negative situation will ultimately result in a favorable state of affairs. Hope is needed for positive experiences in life, including greater happiness, better academic achievement, and better health. It’s especially important when faced with challenges but also important for functioning in our everyday world. Dr. Frank C. Worrell, PhD, is the 2022 APA president and director of the School Psychology Program in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley. He has written a recent column entitled, Lessons from the past can help us approach difficult periods with hope. In his article, he identifies another factor to be aware of when understanding our ability to have hope. Dr. Worrell states, “There is also a growing recognition that research needs to pay attention to both the present and the past to fully understand human functioning…. In the past two and a half years, we have had a series of momentous events…. Some of these events inspire hope; others are cause for despair…. I continue to be hopeful about what we can achieve if we can work together and put the good of society and the planet at the forefront.”
To read this column, please go to
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/09/president-perspectives-on-time
And here are three suggestions to achieve hopeful thinking:
Goals – Approaching life in a goal-oriented way.
Pathways – Finding different ways to achieve your goals.
Agency – Believing that you can instigate change and achieve these goals.
For a list of other self-care options, you can also go to our COE self-care website for resources for faculty, staff, students, and the community at
https://www.csun.edu/eisner-education/self-care/articles-information-self-care
May we all find reasons to have hope in our lives!
Warmly,
Shari