Hope Rising Quotes

“One of the best books on nurturing hope is Dr. Seuss’ “Oh the Places You’ll Go!” It is filled with positive encouragement for a journey that is filled with ups and downs.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“Hope is not just an idea. Hope is not simply an emotion. It is far more than a feeling. It is not a wish or even an expectation. Hope is about goals, willpower, and pathways. A person with high hope has goals, the motivation to pursue them, and the determination to overcome obstacles and find pathways to achieve them.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“Rising hope is, at its core, about the choices people make and the relationships they form. Whether you are a person of faith or not, what outlives you will be your investment in the lives of children, family, and friends who will live their lives differently because of you.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“Living a hope-centered life is not simple or easy. It takes work. It takes honesty too. Each of us grew up with trauma and abuse. We have each chosen poor coping mechanisms in our lives at times. But we are moving beyond the shame and blame we could swim in every day, and choosing hope. Once you choose hope, then we must keep choosing it every day.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“Living in fear can suck hope right out of our lives. Author Max Lucado describes it this way: “[Fear] sucks the life out of the soul, curls us into an embryonic state, and drains us dry of contentment. We become abandoned barns, rickety and tilting from the winds, a place where humanity used to eat, thrive, and find warmth. No longer. When fear shapes our lives, safety becomes our god. When safety becomes our god, we worship the risk-free life. Can the safety lover do anything great? Can the risk averse accomplish noble deeds? For God? For others? No. The fear-filled cannot love deeply. Love is risky. They cannot give to the poor. Benevolence has no guarantee of return. The fear-filled cannot dream wildly. What if their dreams sputter and fall from the sky? The worship of safety emasculates greatness.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“A growing body of research is also showing that children who are exposed to domestic violence are also more likely to experience physical abuse themselves. The result of these traumatic experiences for children is an increased level of aggression and violence. These children are more likely to enter the juvenile justice system and have an increased propensity to perpetuate the cycle of domestic violence as survivors or perpetrators.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“Childhood trauma is not an excuse for the unhealthy decisions that Bill Gwinn and many others, including us, have made. But it is an explanation and helps us think deeply about the need for honesty and transparency and the courage to share what many of us keep “behind the door.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“64% of all suicide attempts by adults and 80% of suicide attempts by adolescents have been connected to ACEs.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“This truth means we must invest in trauma-exposed children to prevent the next generation of mass murderers.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“Fact: Most of the mass murderers/shooters, homegrown terrorists, prison inmates, rapists, and violent criminals in this country grew up in homes with some mix of child abuse, domestic violence, neglect, verbal and emotional abuse, and drug and/or alcohol abuse. The ACEs of childhood produce the rage and criminality of adulthood.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“Devon Patrick Kelley is not the only mass murderer where it became too late for hope. Every day the news is filled with stories of those where rage, despair, resentment, and low hope produce life-ending tragedy. His story illustrates the relationship between mass shootings in this country, high ACE scores, and domestic violence. Domestic violence and childhood trauma form the “why” of America’s mass murder problem.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“Hope is measurable. Hope is malleable. Hope can rise. Spread the word.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“Shame is that intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed, broken, and unworthy. Sometimes it comes from something we have done or failed to do but it also often comes from things others have done to us.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“If you need professional support from a counselor or a therapist, do it. Don’t view asking for some professional help as a weakness or a crutch.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“Author Samuel Coleridge in Work Without Hope says, “Hope, without an object, cannot live.” We each need to find an object—a goal—to focus our hope on if we are to be people of high hope.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“What do you need to let go of so that you can become the person that you want to be? What would your attitude be like if you started believing that your future will be brighter than your past?”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“She needed to be able to see her life in the future as different than it was in the present. She needed to believe that her dreams could come true.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“Children and adults exposed to trauma often have difficulty focusing or paying attention. This inability to focus connects directly to difficulties in goal-setting and goal pursuit required in the science of hope.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“Choosing to pursue hope is likely a better path to happiness and contentment than choosing to pursue happiness in and of itself.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“But we must be aware of anxiety as well. Anxiety doesn’t come from the fight-flight-freeze response. Anxiety comes from uneasiness with our circumstances or discouragement from our inability to see positive pathways forward in life.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“Now, imagine your life in five years. Pick a goal you want to pursue, think about the pathways to get there, and then envision yourself there.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“Hope is a miracle of the human mind. Humans, alone, can be hopeful and future-oriented. Animals cannot.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“The American Psychological Association has said for years that you need 11 positive messages to overcome one negative message delivered to a child. It is true for adults as well.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“Hope is the belief that a thriving future is possible and you have the power to make it so.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“If a miracle happened, and you could have your life be exactly the way you want it, what would it be like? Your journey to higher hope begins with an honest appraisal of who you are, how you think about your life, what you want for yourself, and how you can get what you want. —Psychologist Rick Snyder”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“Hope is the idea that you have goals you desire to achieve, you can identify pathways toward the goals, and you can direct and sustain your willpower toward the goal and pathways necessary to reach those goals.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“You are optimistic if you think the future will be better than the past. You are hopeful if you believe the future will be better than the past and you believe you have a role in making it so.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“Agency is the motivational aspect of hope. It is often associated with cheerleaders, close friends, or mentors in our lives that spur us on to pursue our goals. Agency is a complex term used to describe your ability to dedicate mental energy (willpower) to begin and sustain the journey toward your goals.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“Pathways are the roadmaps you have in your mind that allow you to begin the journey to the future.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life

“Hope is the belief that your future can be brighter and better than your past and that you actually have a role to play in making it better.”
― Casey Gwinn, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life