1240: How To Stay Hopeful When The World Feels Uncertain

Erin Moon (0:00): Are you the type of person who when I say in conclusion, no one knows or be suspicious of your certainty, you just take a little breath of fresh air? Or maybe you feel like this describes your faith journey. I'm Erin Moon, one of the hosts and resident bible scholar over at Faith Adjacent, the podcast that is unwavering in its pursuit to have spiritually abutting conversations that straddle the line between sacred and sacrilege. New Faith Adjacent episodes drop every Thursday, and you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

Unknown Host (0:41): Welcome to the anxiety coaches podcast, a relaxing and informative show where we explore anxiety, panic, and PTSD, sharing how you can overcome them for life.

Gina Ryan (0:57): Aloha. Welcome back to the Anxiety Coaches Podcast. I'm your host and coach, Gina Ryan, and I am so happy to be with you again today as together we can consider the many ways to bring your mind and body back to its natural peace and calm. In today's episode, I wanna talk about how to stay hopeful when the whole world feels uncertain. And we wanna be able to stay hopeful without denying reality.

Gina Ryan (1:34): Right? So today we're gonna go a little bit deeper emotionally. And I wanna be able to help you hold both truth and hope at the same time. And I want you to be able to avoid toxic positivity and to also be able to cultivate grounded optimism. Now in our last episode, we talked about staying grounded in a heavy world, a really heavy world, right, without shutting down.

Gina Ryan (2:10): And in today's episode, we're going talk about something that can feel a little bit more delicate, and that is hope. Because when things feel uncertain, hope can feel hard to access or even unrealistic. So hope is often misunderstood. It's not pretending that everything is okay. It's not ignoring reality.

Gina Ryan (2:41): It's not forcing positivity. No. True hope says, this is hard and something is still possible. Holding that possibility. Now, I want to talk here about why losing hope increases your anxiety.

Gina Ryan (3:05): Because when hope fades, we all know that feeling, the mind begins to move toward the worst case scenarios. It also moves into helplessness and the whole idea of what's the point kind of thinking. And this feeds our anxiety in a very deep way because our system begins to feel that there is no way out. Talk about despair, right? But that's what the system is feeling when the mind is moving into those worst case scenarios.

Gina Ryan (3:47): We really want to avoid the what's the point kind of thinking and feeling really helpless. So we wanna learn how to hold two truths at once. Now there's a wonderful book I wanna bring to your attention called Joy on Demand by Chead Ming Tan. And he delves into the great importance of holding both truths at once. There will be a link to that book in the show notes.

Gina Ryan (4:22): And he really helped me to understand that I could hold both truths at once. We get to this on our own in a lot of different ways, but really being able to understand it and know that we are okay even through difficult times is extremely helpful. We can experience difficulty and still access our well-being. In his book, he talks about how joy in particular is not something that we wait for. It's something we can allow and cultivate even in imperfect conditions.

Gina Ryan (5:09): This is essentially your two truths. This is hard and there is still something okay here. Can you hear that? And more importantly, can you feel that? This is hard and there's still something okay here.

Gina Ryan (5:32): Those are your two truths I want you to hold on to as you are moving through anxiety and this very difficult world that we live in. There's a beautiful idea shared by Tan in Joy On Demand, and that is even in the middle of difficulty, we can still access moments of ease. Not because everything is okay, but because not everything is lost. Can you feel that? Things are not okay, but still everything is not lost.

Gina Ryan (6:18): So sometimes when we think we have to choose, right, we think we do have to choose. Either everything is okay or everything is falling apart. Again, it's that black and white thinking. But what if that's not true? What if we can hold two truths at once?

Gina Ryan (6:39): This is difficult and I am still here. Feel that one. This is difficult and I am still here. How about this one? The world feels uncertain, and there are still moments of goodness.

Gina Ryan (7:02): And here's another one for you. I feel anxious, and I can still find a breath of calm. So here's a small practice for you. When you notice your mind moving toward all or nothing, gently add the word and. So for example, this is hard and I'm okay right now.

Gina Ryan (7:34): Or I feel overwhelmed and I can take one small step. That one word can create space, and that space is where calm begins to return. So this is the practice. You can hold, this is difficult and I am still here. The world is uncertain and there is still goodness.

Gina Ryan (8:09): This is emotional flexibility and it creates stability. Before we begin, let's hear from the sponsors that support the show. Thanks, Shopify, for sponsoring today's episode. When I first started in podcasting and my coaching business, it felt overwhelming. I was wearing all the hats, tech, scheduling, branding, and doing it mostly on my own.

Gina Ryan (8:37): Looking back, I really wish I had Shopify because Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses, including brands like Allbirds and Gymshark, and so many just getting started. You can build a beautiful online store with ready to use templates, and their AI tools help you write product descriptions, headlines, and even improve your images. Plus, they make marketing simple with email and social tools built right in. And everything lives in one place, inventory, payments, analytics, so you're not juggling platforms. It just makes things easier.

Gina Ryan (9:15): And when it all starts to flow, you know it's working. Start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify, and start hearing. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com/coaches. Go to shopify.com/coaches. That's shopify.com/coaches.

Gina Ryan (9:41): Let's pause now for a word from one of our sponsors. If you've ever wanted to learn a new language but felt overwhelmed, you're not alone. Most people give up before they really get going. That's why I've been loving Babbel. I've been using it to learn Spanish as a kind of self improvement practice, if you will, and learning real conversation skills feels incredibly rewarding.

Gina Ryan (10:05): I know I'll use this eventually in my life going forward. What I love is how flexible it is. Some days, I do a quick lesson. Other days, I listen or practice speaking, and it's all right in the app. Babbel adapts to how you learn best with personalized plans, real time feedback, and progress tracking that keeps you gently moving forward.

Gina Ryan (10:29): With over 25,000,000 subscriptions sold and 14 languages to choose from, Babbel is a science backed app that actually works. Plus, there's a fourteen day money back guarantee. Here's a limited time deal for our listeners. Right now, get up to 60% off your Babel subscription at babble.com/acp. Thank you, Air Doctor, for sponsoring today's episode.

Gina Ryan (10:58): If you've been listening to me for a while, you know how much I talk about creating a space where your body can actually relax. And for me, after moving into a new home, air quality became a part of that conversation. Thankfully, I found Air Doctor online. Air Doctor's three stage filtration system captures particles that are about 100 times smaller than what most air purifiers can handle. Things like dust, pollen, mold, pet dander, wildfire smoke, bacteria, even viruses and VOCs.

Gina Ryan (11:32): Over ninety three percent of customers report fewer allergy symptoms and more than ninety seven percent trust it because it's science backed and third party tested. And it's even won Newsweek's Reader's Choice Award for Best Air Purifier. Head to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code ACP to get up to $300 off today. Air Doctor comes with a thirty day money back guarantee plus a three year warranty and $84 value free. Get this exclusive podcast only offer now at airdoctorpro.com, airdoctorpro.com using promo code ACP.

Gina Ryan (12:15): Thanks AquaTru for sponsoring today's episode. Here's something surprising. Three out of four homes in The US have toxic chemicals in their tap water. Even if it looks clean, can still contain things like lead, chlorine, and microplastics. And most fridge or pitcher filters don't remove much of it.

Gina Ryan (12:35): Aqua Tru is a countertop water purifier that removes 84 contaminants using a powerful four stage reverse osmosis system. It goes far beyond ordinary filters, and there's no installation. You just plug it in and use it. It's been featured in Business Insider and Popular Science and named best countertop water filter by Good Housekeeping, and 98% of customers say their water is cleaner, safer, and healthier. Head to aquatrue.com now and get 20% off your purifier using promo code a c p.

Gina Ryan (13:10): Aqua true even comes with a thirty day best tasting water guarantee or your money back. Take the guesswork out of pure, great tasting water with this exclusive podcast only offer now at aquatru.com, aquatru.com using promo code a c p. So let's now look at some practical ways to stay hopeful. Look for what is still working. Even in difficult times, there are always things that are still okay.

Gina Ryan (13:46): They're not perfect, but okay. Train your mind to notice them. This is the aim of your gratitude lists, right? What I'm hoping to have you do with those gratitude lists is to train your mind, to train your mind to be on the lookout for what is good, what is right, or what is beautiful. Another thing you can do is to limit the all or nothing thinking.

Gina Ryan (14:18): Right? That really gets us in trouble. That old all or nothing thinking. Black and white thinking is what I call it. I want you to be able to catch thoughts like this.

Gina Ryan (14:30): Everything is terrible. Another one is nothing is getting better. I want you to learn how to gently soften those. Some things are hard and some things are still okay. Right?

Gina Ryan (14:46): We can soften that. Not everything is terrible. Believe me, I fall into this probably as much as you do. It is tough, but we can really begin to steer ourselves to more peace and calm and being able to stay more clear and present in this world by catching our thoughts and gently softening them. Remember, some things are hard and some things are still okay.

Gina Ryan (15:21): Now if you need more help with all or nothing thinking, you can go and listen to episode one zero zero three. That's emotional reasoning examples and solutions for self defeating beliefs. I'll put the link in the show notes, and I know that there's a big section in there on black and white thinking. And again, that is all or nothing thinking. We don't have to go there.

Gina Ryan (15:53): We can learn to get into the more gray areas of life. That's where most of our life is lived anyway. Another thing you can do is to stay connected to people. It's important to stay connected with people because we are not in this alone, and we can not only be helping ourselves by staying connected with others, others will stay connected and feel good with us also. So what are we gonna do to stay connected to people?

Gina Ryan (16:28): And the reason I want you to do this is because hope grows in connection. So reach out, talk, share some space with people. You can do that in real life and you can do that online. I know a lot of us have loved ones that are not right here next to us. We can't go out for a walk with them just because we want to, but you can still reach out.

Gina Ryan (16:55): You can text. You can talk. You can do video calls with them. You can reach out to a neighbor, maybe somebody nearby. You can connect with people who are just in your regular life, meaning someone you run into at the grocery store.

Gina Ryan (17:10): We are checking out still occasionally anyway with a cashier. Maybe you could give them a smile. Ask them how they're doing. Sometimes they wanna talk. Sometimes they don't.

Gina Ryan (17:24): I get it. But you can reach out. You can be the one to initiate. It feels good, and you don't know whose life you have touched by giving a smile to the mailman as they drop some mail in your box. You don't have to do this whole thing alone.

Gina Ryan (17:43): Sometimes just knowing that you have a person or a group, either in real life or online, like I said, that you can connect with can keep you from taking a trip down the wormhole with anxiety. Places like our anxiety coaches podcast Facebook group can remind you that you are not alone. Like I said, our loved ones are not always with us, and they're not always available to us. That's where we can use the Internet and all of this technology to our advantage. So use it.

Gina Ryan (18:20): Come join us. Reach out to your loved ones. Like I said, even a text can make a difference. I want you to stay connected because the world sometimes makes us feel like there's no reason to stay connected. Everything is horrible.

Gina Ryan (18:41): We can stick our heads in the sand, or we can feel like all of the world is awful, but we can also come into the middle, and we can reach out to another as big or small as you can do in your own world. Another thing that you can do is to create small moments of meaning. Hope doesn't always come from big change. It often comes from a quiet moment. It can come from a passage that you read or something you heard someone say on a podcast.

Gina Ryan (19:24): You can have a kind interaction, like I said earlier, with reaching out. And you can also experience a small act of care. Maybe it is something you do for another or having gratitude for something that someone did for you, even a very small act, such as passing by someone with their walking their dog and they smile. Take that in. Don't blow these small moments of meaning off.

Gina Ryan (20:00): This is what life is made of. Noticing that bird on the branch. That means something. There is life, and it is still good. These moments matter more than you think, so I want you to be able to create them for yourself and for others.

Gina Ryan (20:24): This is where you can make a difference. I'd like you now with me to take a slow breath. Let's not let this moment go by without being together with some breath, something we have with us always, something we all share. Take that slow breath in. Let it pause at the top.

Gina Ryan (20:53): And then as you exhale, let it be longer and slower as your shoulders begin to slide down a little bit and put on a little bit of a smile. And ask yourself, where is there even a small thread of hope in my life right now? Not big, just small. That's enough. Where is there even a small thread of hope in my life right now?

Gina Ryan (21:32): Keep that one in your back pocket. It'll serve you well. Hope is not something that you have to force. You can't. It is something that you allow, and you can allow it in small ways, in quiet ways, and in those small moments.

Gina Ryan (21:57): And what happens then is that they all begin to add up. So take one loving breath with you into the rest of your day. If what we talked about today feels close to home and you want a little more support, I do one on one work with people who are learning to relate differently to anxiety and stress. It's slow, it's steady, and very human. You can always find the details on my website, anxietycoachespodcast.com, if and when it feels right for you.

Gina Ryan (22:38): Thanks so much for being here with me today. I know these are heavy times and I know that you join me in holding the light of hope. And now for today's quote. Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness. And that's from Desmond Tutu.

Gina Ryan (23:08): I'll be back in a few more days with another podcast. Until then, be well and aloha.

Unknown Host (23:17): Thanks so much for joining us for today's episode of the anxiety coaches podcast. Find more information at the anxietycoachespodcast.com.

Unknown Speaker (23:35): At Glacier Hills in Ann Arbor, senior living means living fully with friendly neighbors, meaningful connections, and the comfort of knowing support is here. For some, assisted living is about making daily life a little easier, having help with routines, medication, and care close by. For others, it's about helping a loved one live safely, confidently, and dignity in a place that feels like home. Learn more about assisted living at Glacier Hills in Ann Arbor or visit glacierhills.org. Glacier Hills, we see all of

Unknown Speaker (24:03): you.