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How Not to Fall Into Despair

心理健康
韧性
乐观主义
When we find ourselves in the ‎ of ‎, uncertainty or ‎, ‎ can ‎ impossible, ‎ ‎ to hope for.
At the end of September, Hurricane Helene ‎ on my ‎ in ‎ North Carolina. Businesses, homes and more than 100 lives were ‎. Schools were closed for a month. There was no ‎ for ‎ three weeks, and ‎ drinking water took far ‎ to come back. And yet, from Day 1, the ‎ rallied. People were out with ‎ saws ‎ roads; neighbors ‎ water, food and ‎ ‎; porches, backyards and storefronts ‎ into mini-‎ for ‎ gatherings and ‎ ‎. Rebuilding will be a ‎ and ‎ ‎, but it is already underway.
And for many, myself ‎, ‎ the prospects of the new administration and its ‎, ‎ has been a ‎ temptation.
In both North Carolina and on the ‎ ‎, it can feel like we are ‎ in ‎, in hope, in vigor. But every ‎ of progress — both ‎ and collective — ‎ ‎ and downturns, ‎ ‎ of hopelessness. In the ‎ aftermath of ‎ and ‎, it is understandable to freeze or ‎ down. But ‎, we’ve got to ‎ up and move ‎ — if for no other reason than the ‎ is worse.
Finding ‎ and ‎ hope despite inevitable ‎, ‎ and ‎ is a ‎ life ‎. In 1949 the Holocaust survivor, psychiatrist and psychologist Viktor Frankl coined the term “‎” to ‎ this ‎. Tragic optimism emerged out of what Dr. Frankl ‎ to be the three tragedies that everyone ‎ (not only those of us who have seen the worst of the world, as he had). The first tragedy is ‎, because we are made of flesh and bone. The second is guilt, because we have the ‎ to make ‎ and ‎ feel ‎ when things don’t go our way. The third is ‎, because we must ‎ the reality that everything we cherish is ‎, ‎ our own lives.
Tragic optimism ‎ acknowledging, ‎ and ‎ ‎ that life will ‎ hardship and hurt, then doing everything we can to move ‎ with a positive ‎ ‎. It ‎ that one cannot be happy by trying to be happy all the time, or worse yet, assuming we ‎ to be. Rather, tragic optimism holds space for the ‎ ‎ of human ‎ and emotion, giving us ‎ to feel ‎ and sadness, hope and ‎, ‎ and ‎ — sometimes in the same day, and ‎ in the same hour.
Research shows that this ‎ of ‎ flexibility is ‎ with resilience. For example, a study of U.S. college students after Sept. 11 ‎ that those who could hold on to hope at the same time as ‎ demonstrated greater resilience and fewer depressive ‎ in the tragedy’s aftermath. This finding is not about denial or delusion. Most of the study ‎ ‎ negative emotions such as ‎, ‎ and sadness. It’s just that the more resilient ones were able to hold on to positive emotions, too.
Tragic optimism does not ‎ ‎ seeking out or romanticizing ‎. Not everything has to be meaningful; sometimes things just suck. Rather, tragic optimism ‎ the inevitability of ‎ but also that we generally have at ‎ some say in how we ‎ it.
Difficult moments, both ‎ and collective, often ‎ to extreme behaviors: what’s now known as ‎ on the one hand — ‎ our heads in the ‎ and deluding ourselves that everything is great — or excessive pessimism and despair on the other. Both absolve us of doing anything about the ‎.
Excessive optimism and delusion, at ‎, deny that anything is wrong; and if nothing is wrong, there is nothing to worry about and nothing to change. Extreme pessimism and despair are so grim they ‎ say that any action would be pointless. Between these two poles ‎ a third way: committing to ‎ hope and ‎ action.
Wise hope and ‎ action ask us to ‎ a ‎ and see it ‎ for what it is, and then muster the ‎, ‎ and resolve to ‎ on what we can ‎. We ‎ ourselves that we have ‎ challenges before. We ‎ because to stand still is not an option.
Recognising that we ‎ ‎ fuels hope, and ‎ hope ‎ us that we have ‎.
Resilience comes down to a few core ‎: ‎ into ‎, being kind to yourself, finding small routines to ‎ your ‎ health, allowing yourself to feel sadness and ‎ and yet ‎ hope at the same time. It ‎ a commitment to taking productive action.
At a moment when it can ‎ that all is ‎, we’d be ‎ to embrace tragic optimism, ‎ hope and ‎ action. In this we recognise we can exert our ‎, ‎ if limitedly, ‎ if only in increments, however we can. These ‎ and ‎, and our willingness to adopt and ‎ them, are ‎ to not only our ‎ resilience but that of our ‎. We need both now.
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How Not to Fall Into Despair | Leximory