Wellbeing

Hope in difficult times.

There is no question that finding hope and maintaining it in difficult, traumatic or tragic times can seem impossible. We are bombarded with a relentless amount of sad and bad news. We may be experiencing personal struggles, relationship issues or breakdown, financial hardship, health challenges, grief or loss, which leave us feeling hopeless, overwhelmed and drained. As parents, carers, teachers and adults we sometimes put extra pressure on ourselves to "put on a brave face", "keep it together", believing we are protecting the children we care for.  

Yesterdays dreadful accident at Auburn South Primary School, again reminded me how quickly tragedy can strike. As I listened to Principal Marcus Wicher speak, he spoke about courage, support for one another, support from the community and offered hope, stating, "together we will get through this". I know that our BPS community will join me in sending our deepest sympathies to the Auburn South Primary Community. 

Being hopeful doesn't mean that you don't acknowledge and experience the feelings you're going through, it will be painful, it will take time, it's not wishful thinking, rather, it is taking small (sometimes very small) steps forward each day and building belief in yourself that things will gradually get easier, get better. Hope may not come straight away, it takes time and practise. It can look different for different people, however, what I know for sure is that building hope can be harder in isolation. Like Mr Wicher said, together we will get through this. 

There are loads of different ways we can try and build and sustain hope, for me it is through my faith, for others it may be in nature, through gratitude, connecting with friends or family, journaling, exercise, serving others, counselling. Whatever helps you take steps forward is positive, but it does require a choice. Psychologist Shilagh Mirgain, PhD suggests that rediscovering a sense of hope is like climbing a mountain. If we focus our attention at how far away from the top we are, it will always feel out of reach. But if we focus on each step – something that is actually in our control – we can work our way up and over that mountain top.

Please feel free to reach out to me at BPS if this is an area you would like support with. This term I am actually at school 3 days a week, Monday, Tuesday's and Thursday's :)

Lisa.Osborne@education.vic.gov.