What Makes Us Human - Use Hope to Build a Fulfilling Life - E4

Show Notes


What Makes Us Human - Use Hope to Build a Fulfilling Life - E4

Ego Lab Podcast - Episode 4


Overview

In this episode, Anthony and Brian discuss how hope is one of the fundamental emotions giving us purpose in life, how to cultivate hope through positivity, Brian’s experience with hope and cancer, tools to build positivity and hope, and how to live a long and fulfilling life, and many other gems throughout the episode.

Highlights

Hope is a deep core part of what makes people want to continue to live in times of struggle. You can be optimistic moment to moment, but hope is at the core of human existence.


Hope is something you can cultivate. Sometimes life brings opportunities to make you more hopeful, and sometimes you can believe yourself to be more hopeful.


There is a major community piece to hope because as human beings it’s a shared experience.


Brian talks about his experience of finding hope through his cancer battle. Finding hope and the will to live is more than an intellectual experience.


Tony shares his experience on finding hope and the fragility of life.


Reading books, joining activities, and finding positive influences can help cultivate hope


There’s a difference between being alone and feeling lonely. Being grateful is a great way to move away from loneliness and cultivate a feeling of connection.


Gratitude journaling is a profound tool for cultivating hope. Finding apps and journals that help you practice gratitude daily can be very helpful with this.


The more grateful you are for those around you, the more it creates positive relationships. The more positive the relationships you have, the more you have to be grateful for.


Asking yourself reflective questions can be a tremendous tool for increasing your hopefulness.


Everyone has the potential to increase their levels of hopefulness and optimism in life. It may be different for everyone, but there is something everyone can do to improve.


There are two components to living a long life. One is actually living longer, the other is having a high quality of life while living long. Community is one of the most important factors in longevity both living longer and having a high quality of life.

When trying to cultivate hope, a good strategy is to appreciate how far you’ve come in life. All the growth and all the learning we’ve experienced matter and pave the way for a hopeful future.





Timestamps

0:00 Intro

0:42 Hope and Finding Your Why

3:43 The Placebo Effect and Hope

6:30 Hope and Communities, Fighting Cancer, Finding The Will to Live, Friendship, and Impermanence

16:33 How to Use Positivity to Cultivate Hope

20:48 Creating a community of Hope within yourself

25:02 Tools for developing Hope, Gratitude, and Optimism

27:30 Is Being Optimistic an Inherent Trait or Can We Develop it?

31:37 Ikigai and Hope - Do Optimistic People Live Longer?

34:13 What If I don’t Want To Be Hopeful?



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