Tag: depression

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60 Second Wisdom – 5 Ways to Increase Your Enthusiasm

5 Ways to Increase Your Enthusiasm – Matthew Kelly

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Video Transcript:

“When was the last time you felt amazing? Trauma, sickness, anxiety, depression, loss—so many things rob us of our enthusiasm for life. And after difficult seasons in our lives, it is natural to wonder if we will ever feel amazing again.

Here are five concrete things you can do to infuse your daily life with enthusiasm:

1. Prioritize your legitimate needs. Diet, exercise, sleep, and prayer all increase your capacity for enthusiasm. Take a walk today, make a healthy meal, get to bed early, and watch your enthusiasm begin to grow!

2. Schedule 15 minutes every day to do something you love doing. Why are children so consistently enthusiastic? Because they do so many things every day just for the joy of it. You don’t have to spend all day doing something you love, start small, fifteen minutes a day.

3. Say “no” to people, activities, and things that drain your energy and enthusiasm. Develop an awareness of who and what drains your enthusiasm. Protect your enthusiasm by learning to say, “no.”

4. Spend time with enthusiastic people. We rise or fall to the level of our friends in most things. Who are the most enthusiastic people you know? Are you spending enough time with those people? Your enthusiasm is probably the average of the five people you spend the most time with. If you wish to raise your level of enthusiasm in life, surround yourself with enthusiastic people.

5. Dream. Your dreams are your dreams for a reason. Our dreams animate us, they literally breathe new life into us. So, what are your dreams and what are you doing about them? Start pursuing your dreams and they will fill you with new passion, energy, enthusiasm, and vitality.

It’s time to rediscover your enthusiasm and flourish. And just remember, everyone who really cares about you wants you to flourish.”

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Minute Meditation – The Thread of Hope

“The same God who called Abraham and made him come down from his land without knowing where he should go is the same God who goes to the Cross in order to fulfill the promise that he made. He is the same God who in the fullness of time will make that promise a reality for all of us. What joins that first instance to this last moment is the thread of hope. Therefore, what joins my Christian life to our Christian life, from one moment to another, in order to always go forward— sinners, but forward—is hope. Yet, what gives us peace in the dark moments, in life’s darkest moments, is always hope. Hope does not disappoint: it is always there, silent, humble, but strong.”—Pope Francis

These powerful words from Pope Francis remind us that hope is one of three “theological virtues,” along with faith and love. With St. Paul, we believe that the greatest of these is love, but hope is the virtue that keeps us going when even love seems to fail. Sometimes our ordinary use of the word hope can reduce it to something like wishful thinking: I hope I pass this exam. I hope my test results are good. I hope my children will be happy and successful. We use the word for things that are out of our control. We use it for times when perhaps our efforts have fallen short. We use it for all the uncertainties in our daily lives. Pope Francis reminds us that the real source of our hope is always in God’s faithfulness and mercy. Abraham has always been the prime example of this kind of hope. He left everything to follow God’s call. We all have times in our lives when we, too, find ourselves going forth into the unknown darkness. In those times, hope in God’s promise is all we have to cling to—and cling we must, sometimes with only our fingertips. The image of hope keeping us from drowning can seem all too real at times when we are overwhelmed by life’s struggles: addiction, despair, depression, death. The theme of our Lenten reflections is hope. The hope of Lent is clearly Easter and the resurrection. But there’s a deeper hope that is with us each and every day, that knows no times or seasons. It’s the ground on which we stand, the bedrock of our foundation. That thread of hope runs strong and resilient through our lives, caught at each end by the grace of God’s merciful love. 

— from the book The Hope of Lent: Daily Reflections from Pope Francis

by Diane M. Houdek

//Franciscan Media//