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Featuring keynotes by Jane Goodall, author of The Book of Hope
The live summit has concluded, but you may still enjoy the program in its entirety from November 8–10, 2021.
This event has ended … but you still have time to own all of this content!
November 4–7, 2021
November 4–7, 2021
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Welcome to the Activating Hope Summit
A once-in-a-generation online gathering aimed at sparking hope around the globe
This event begins in:
Welcome to the Activating Hope Summit
A once-in-a-generation online gathering aimed at sparking hope around the globe
This event begins in:
The Power of Young People
Workshop
The Power of Young People
Workshop
Hope Rising: Nurturing and Restoring Hope Following Trauma and Adversity
Hope has emerged as one of the top protective factors leading to well-being across our life span. This workshop will present the science of hope as a psychological strength in our ability to cope with traumatic experiences. In particular, this presentation will summarize over a decade of research that shows (1) hope leads to adaptive outcomes, (2) hope buffers the effects of adversity, and (3) hope can be nurtured and restored following trauma and adversity.
Session Highlights
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Learn the science of hope and its core components that lead to goal attainment -
Learn how hope can help overcome adversity on the path to well-being
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Learn a simple research-based curriculum on strategies to nurture hope in children, adults, and families
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Discuss the theoretical foundations of hope and its application to personal and professional well-being
Chan Hellman
Chan Hellman, PhD, is a professor of social work at the University of Oklahoma and director of the Hope Research Center. He has written more than 150 scientific publications and has presented at numerous national and international conferences. His research focuses on hope as a psychological strength helping people overcome trauma and adversity. Chan is the coauthor of the award-winning book Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life.
Beacons of Hope #1
Fierce Fire: Listening to the Wisdom of the Next Generation
An inspiring discussion with two next-generation activists and Indigenous leaders who will share their innate wisdom, unique perspective, and determined spirit.
Session Highlights
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Holding on to hope amidst the trauma and challenges facing Indigenous communities
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Harnessing hope through generations
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The immense courage, wisdom, and action of today’s Indigenous youth
Rachel Neumann
Rachel Neumann (she/they) is a nationally published writer, editor, and meditation teacher whose work focuses on bringing more beauty, joy, and justice into the world. She is the author of four books and was the primary collaborative writer for Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Rachel is a partner, chief strategy officer, and senior literary agent at Idea Architects, focusing on developing culture-shifting narrative nonfiction. Rachel grew up on the Salmon River (Karuk territory) and currently lives in the Bay Area on Xučyun, the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo Ohlone.
Eryn Wise
Eryn Wise (they/them, she/her), Jicarilla Apache and Laguna Pueblo, is a two-spirit word weaver, lens changer, and most importantly, a fierce and devoted defender. As a samakuu (daughter) to many, she has found herself committed to amplifying issues across Turtle Island. She is the current Co-Director, Comms & Storytelling Director at Seeding Sovereignty and is the Founding mentor to the Int’l Indigenous Youth Council.
Kourtney Dunning
Kourtney Dunning (they/them), Tigua Pueblo, Xicanx, y German, have organized around police brutality, migrant justice, and mutual aid with the intent to build community power in place of carceral systems. They are a self-taught artist and work creatively through a variety of mediums. They practice navigating community organizing through a queer, abolitionist lens in the spirit of all their ancestors.
Beacons of Hope #2
The Biggest Mountain: Finding Our Innate Resilience and Capacity for Joy
Examining the creativity, grit, and spirit two women use to promote healing and hope across generations.
Session Highlights
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Finding hope amidst childhood trauma and adversity
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Summoning resilience, creativity, and resourcefulness in the face of hopelessness
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Channeling feelings of hope towards younger generations
Rachel Neumann
Rachel Neumann (she/they) is a nationally published writer, editor, and meditation teacher whose work focuses on bringing more beauty, joy, and justice into the world. She is the author of four books and was the primary collaborative writer for Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Rachel is a partner, chief strategy officer, and senior literary agent at Idea Architects, focusing on developing culture-shifting narrative nonfiction. Rachel grew up on the Salmon River (Karuk territory) and currently lives in the Bay Area on Xučyun, the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo Ohlone.
Silvia Vasquez-Lavado
Silvia Vasquez-Lavado (she/her) is a global explorer, social justice leader, humanitarian, and compassionate social entrepreneur. As an accomplished mountaineer (first Peruvian woman to summit Mount Everest), she became the first openly gay woman to complete the Seven Summits, the tallest mountain on each continent from both the Messner and Bass lists.
Carolina Rubio-MacWright
Carolina Rubio-MacWright (she/her/hers) is an artist, immigration lawyer, and activist fighting for immigrant and humanitarian rights. Carolina mixed legal rights empowerment and hands-on experimental arts mediums, such as clay and cooking, to develop Touching Land, a platform for mixing unlikely communities together.
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To be heard and valued is the most important. These two concepts should be applied to everyone regardless of age, wealth, or education.
Wé are one and age is an illusion
MORE??!! Loved it! I wept. I raged. I cried. I smiled. Thank you. Thank you!!!!
A lot of the talks are too esoteric and filled with big words and phrases. I like what Dr. Chan Hellman, PhD says though. Hope can be taught. Hope is a state of mind, a way of thinking. I like his simple way of talking and teaching.
Your life comes out of the stories you tell yourself inside. Imagine the highest, most beautiful story for your life, then take the actions to live into it. It is your vision of your life and your future that will become your life and your future, if you believe in it and act on it. This is how to use your mind to create what your heart longs for. Your heart has your truth, your inner knowing. Your mind has the imagination to see the paths you can take to live it. Your highest truth is the highest truth of all humanity and the planet. By connecting to our highest truth, we connect to each other, and we can feel that we ARE all one in our hearts. This is what always given me hope. That we are are connected inside, if we allow ourselves to know it.
Young people have the power to open the door to new thinking and discover and promote the evolution of mankind towards a new earth. They have the drive to live at a new level seeing that the old ways do not take us there.
Create hope through whatever gives you positive passion and freedom from trauma whether it is through movement, art, music, dance, poetry, writing, etc, and embrace the people who support it.
Your life unfolds the way you choose to think of it.
🙏🏽Blessings of the most high to you three & best my reply via poetry channel Mother Earth
Fierce g r a c e 🌹
& anger alchemy I see
like how raging flames eventually
burn as glowing embers mesmerising
then into most delicate ash where the Phoenix rising
transfiguration in the way a butterfly changes form completely
a process in the dark that can be done so gently
if in overwhelm fatigue ask that you receive with grace and ease
releasing guilt, shame resentment, vengeance, martyrdom and the need to please
ask for a gentle rain like divine nectar from your guides ancestors angels nature spirits and the rest
let that nectar rain wash away these habits, guilt and regrets
ground in nature if you can she is the best guided meditation you’ll find
you can ask permission from the land & its spirit seen and unseen to calm your mind
like a compass that requires stillness to find its pure north in time
carve out some space for your spirit and your soul will know its direction divine
out by the roots! ask where in your mind & life are these weeds?
this creates a fertile soil where you can plant your desire & dream seeds
ask that the guidance and clarity on this arrives gently for yourself
knowing this process of alchemy is for you me and everything else
your divine intentions & ritual emanate beyond time and space
let yourself dance under this full moon in freeing fierce grace
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#fullmoon #poetry #grace #ritual #mindfulness #meditationteacher #selfdevelopmenttools #astrology #mindfulliving #mindfulnessteacher #mindfulnesscoach #mentalhealth #holistic #poetsofinstagram #poetry #alchemy #practice #mystic #writersofinstagram #astropoets #whatgivesmehope
I feel the most important message is to let them know even one person can make a difference & that together they can work to better this world! I’m an empath & generally optimistic person & I’ve made a differences to many in my past careers. I have also had some help come from unlikely sources & taught my son to look out for those younger, weaker than himself & not to judge mentally handicapped. I was extremely proud of him sticking up for an autistic girl I was working with against a much bigger boy. I really needed this day to help me feel more Hopeful! I’ve always encouraged my son in the beauty of nature, mammals & aquatic species
Never stop believing in yourself…Don’t give up or let others take your joy away.
Just watched and really listened to the messages of Eryn Wise and Kourtney Dunning… totally blown away. In response to the question, I think their message is the most important for young people, and all people to hear. I learned so much from these two and just awestruck by their wisdom and brilliance. Go girls!! They are the very embodiment of hope and truth. Thank you so much.
I liked The Biggest Mountain. I thought both ladies were very creative and I liked their solutions.
Hope can be nurtured and learned. Imagination is the instrument of hope; it’s not just wishing but put into action, even in incremental steps. I totally feel uplifted by this clear presentation; thank you Dr. Hellman. This is relevant and useful in my work.
Eryn Wise and Kourtney Dunning are brilliant! I bow to their passion and wisdom. Eryn said something about how, at 31, she’s willing to put her life on the line for someone who is 21 to continue to carry on the work for justice. I hope that Eryn lives a long, long life because her work is so necessary, so important for not only Indigenous peoples, but also the planet.
Hope isn’t just something you have. It’s something you DO by living into your vision of the world as it can be in partnership with others. This is active, courageous, contagious hope!
The most hopeful message I think is important for young people to hear is that hope for whatever they want for themselves or for the world is kept alive with imagination, willpower, and connection with others and with a higher purpose. Life or the world can be difficult, but it never has to be hopeless.
Do it
If someone says that you can’t do something or should do something, go find someone else who will encourage you to do what you want and need to do.
If you don’t quite fit; live in between.
Everyone has challenges. Together, in unity, by being our best, we can grow to a more hopeful future.
Eryn and Kourtney such big courage. When I listen to you it gives me hope for humanity, thank you 🙏
Wonderful sessions – Chan Hellman’s presentation was one of the clearest, cross-culturally applicable/ neutral/ respectful I’ve had the privilege to experience. I teach at a German University in International Management, do work around the world and live in the Pacific Northwest — deep bow! I look forward to learning more of his Hope work, as the humility of his lessons learned through his personal experiences shines and inspires as much as his amazing message. Thank you, Chan, as well as all the presenters, producers of this gift to each of us and our communities and especially for our Youth carrying Hope forward!
Dr. Hellman’s lecture resonated with me the most. A decade ago I withdrew from my graduate degree program with only a year left to go. Over the years I’ve learned that I had been struggling with undiagnosed ADHD, depression, anxiety, Lyme disease and other health issues. I have spent the last decade feeling like a failure bc I always considered withdrawal from my program to be due to a flaw in my character. I have struggled ever since to commit myself to anything in life due to fear of failure. I now see that in addition to my other issues, I lost hope and have failed to thrive ever since. The idea that hope is a survival skill that can be learned gives me hope that what remains of my life can still be meaningful and impactful. Thank you.
You should fail as much as you can
(that’s directed to Joy… failure is good! never give up).
I think it is important for young people (as well as old) to hear the following:
The future can be better. You along with your community can change it. Find the pathway. Find the supports along the way. Stay focused and do not despair or quit when setbacks, disappointments and discouragement appear. Stay teachable, disciplined, learn the lessons and course-correct if you have to, but never lose sight of your imagined desired goal. Persevere.
Do your part. Give it all you’ve got. You are never alone. There is aways help.
Also, remember to be part of the solution not part of the problem to make this world a better place and for all your dreams to become reality..
But must importantly if I was to say this all in one sentence it would be:
Love your creator, love yourself, love others and love this beautiful world.
YE#S It Is Possible
YE#S It Is Possible
Thank you so much for these talks, inspiring, uplifting, bringing me to question what I can do, and how I can do more. It does give hope to listen to these many ways to help and connect. If anybody is in southern Wisconsin and doing something similar where I could join, tell us. Thanks Isabelle
Chan Hellman’s presentation was so powerful and inspiring, Thank you!
Just look how mother nature is managing to thrive after a fire or any other distructive looking event. Nettles can clean up poisoned soil. She is so powerful and generous and when we are working with her again, listening and understanding her, we can thrive too. Within caring self supporting communities.
YOU make a difference!!
As a (late-blooming) storyteller it occurred to me that in many stories there are three siblings and the youngest turns out to be the hero/heroine who saves the day. Luckily for those of us who are not literally the youngest this is not about age, but about being compassionate, respectfull, listening to the wisdom of the inner voice and about being willing to try new avenues. It is an attitude towards life and what it presents us with.
So what I would say to young people is: “Take your inner voice, however faint and odd it may be, very seriously and I quote Bob Dylan: May You Stay Forever Young.”
I have a friend who suffers from depression and has seemed to have given up hope. He catastrophises about the future and spends long hours ruminating and fearing the future. How to interrupt this is a difficult question!
Ive been ‘taught’ it is not a good idea to give advice; but how to help apart from just being there as a friend?
Hello Eric, i am a psychologist , retired. I believe your friend could recover with a program i am using myself. It is the Dynamic Neural Retraining System. It teaches you the principles of neuroplasticity and specific ways to retrain your brain and change the biochemicals that our brain is putting out. I am not advertising for them and i also don’t give advice very often. But i had to reach out and say, there is hope. This program allowed me to completely recover from other problems and i am so grateful to it. Perhaps your friend could check this out.
Thanks Carol but my friend dismisses any suggestions such as yours. Ive talked about CBT and ACT but he decides in advance that they won’t work for him! You can see, he is in the freeze position or apathy position Chan talks about.
You belong in the world, to the world, and your voice, vision, and contributions matter.
Hold fast to your dreams. Whatever you can dream, you can achieve. You have access to so much more wisdom now that the Indigenous Peoples are being allowed to take their rightful place in the world.
Best presentation thus far. Thank you for your clear, concise and direct teaching! Loved the examples of the car, especially as one of my grandchildren is very reluctant to learn to drive. I really learned a lot and will put some of this into action!
We can, we will. Always work to achieve your goals and everything really is possible if you hope, your dreams can come true.
It will be ok. You will find a way! We are all one and inseparable for our need to love and support one another to succeed in expressing and creating what we will have to enjoy our lives.
stay safe today, we do not know what tomorrow may bring
“NEVER GIVE UP
No matter what is going on
Never give up
Develop the heart
Too much energy in your country
Is spent developing the mind
Instead of the heart
Be compassionate
Not just to your friends
But to everyone
Be compassionate
Work for peace
In your heart and in the world
Work for peace
And I say again
Never give up
No matter what is going on around you
Never give up”
― Dalai Lama XIV.
This existence is so much more than we even know. Never give up. Love is large.
“Hope” is the thing with feathers – (314)
BY EMILY DICKINSON
“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –
I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:8
Believe in these things. Believe in yourself. Believe that you are the personification of your hope.
Be patient, be persistent, be perservering
God (your greater power) helps thse who help themselves. Practice with diligence and with great care.
The Creator has a master plan.
Be patient.
Beautiful, thanks for sharing
That the people close to you will stand up for you and support your growing into a loving and responsible human being whatever happens.
Young people need to hear, from us, adults, positive, caring, friend-loving words. Need to see on us, teachers, a constant smile, understanding, willingness to forgive, strong to help in a simple way… They want to look up at us and find the hope to move on using and abusing all nice things, we humans have within and follow that path. They need to feel guided in a simple, everyday natural calm joy. They need to have adults to look up to and trust them. Love, Isabel
True and from the heart.
Yes. Love, Isabel.
Blessings
I feel young people deserve to know the truth, negative truth too. They can handle it. We are in a time when we need our young people to be prepared and owe complete honesty to them.