What to Do When you Lose Hope

You were never meant to carry it all. Here’s how to find hope in a heavy world….Create You

There’s no denying that the world feels heavy right now.

With every scroll, click, and headline, it’s easy to believe that hopelessness is the only reasonable response. If you are a woman–especially a woman of color–this heaviness can feel even more intense. Our rights, our voices, our safety, our dreams… all seem to be under constant attack. And while awareness matters, what matters more is that you don’t drown in it.

Let me say this clearly: you were never meant to carry it all.

Yes, be informed. Yes, use your voice. But don’t confuse staying aware with sacrificing your mental health to the 24/7 news cycle. The world needs you whole. Not broken. Not burnt out. Whole.

We live in a time where chaos is loud and the truth is often buried beneath fear and noise. But your peace? Your hope? Your joy? That is revolutionary. That is where your power lives. They cannot break you.

Reclaiming your attention is reclaiming your power. This is a mindset skill you can and should work on. It is worth the investment and the time. In some ways the world wants you to lose hope because then you are easier to control. It is harder to fight back when you are hopeless.  It is harder to stand up for your boundaries when you are hopeless. The world wants your distracted and hopeless attention. It craves it. It feeds on it. But your attention is sacred. Where your focus goes, your energy flows. Gently, intentionally redirect your focus just a little each day, to something no one can take from you: your inner power.

Hope is not naivety. It’s a strategy.

Beauty is not frivolous. It’s fuel.

Community is not extra. It’s everything.

You create beauty by being you. We don’t have to change the world overnight. You change the world every time you choose joy when it is so easy to be bitter. Take a deep breath. Hold it. Unclench you jaw and your hands. Point your head to the sky. Exhale and affirm these words: I choose joy… I choose me… today I am taking care of me, my heart, my spirit, and my mind.

That is resistance. That is courage.

There is beauty in the way you support your sisters. In how you mother your children. In how you mentor someone else. There is beauty in how you show up as a kind soul in a cruel world. That quiet beauty is not only how we keep going, it’s also how we heal.

You are not alone. There are so many people just like you. There are millions of us. We may be tired, but we are far from defeated. We may be anxious, but we are still speaking up. We are here. And when we work together to create spaces of rest, creativity, and compassion we become unstoppable.

Find your people. Build that table. Cry together. Laugh louder. Dream bigger.

Here are some things you can do today:

  • Limit your news intake. Find one trusted news source and check in for an update one time a day.
  • Start your morning with you. Before your phone, before the world, just sit, breathe and listen to your own spirit.
  • Do one small beautiful thing. Write. Paint. Plant. Dance. Anything that reminds you you are alive and you are powerful.
  • Reach out. Text a friend who makes you feel good. Join a community. Start a book club. We were never meant to be here alone.

You were born with power. That power never left you. It is still here. That is how you hold on to hope.

The world may be loud and uncertain, but you don’t have to be.

You can be still.

You can be soft.

You can be strong.

You can be hope.

And in doing so, you become exactly what this world needs: a woman rooted in her power, refusing to let the chaos steal her light.

*If you are looking for more ideas on how you can reclaim your peace, power and hope please see more here.

 


About Deedee Cummings

Deedee Cummings is a professional dreamer. She is also an author, therapist, attorney, and mom from Louisville, Kentucky. Cummings founded Make A Way Media in 2014 after struggling to find books with characters who looked like her own children and an extreme lack of stories that reflected their life experiences. Books published by Make A Way focus on hope, diversity, social justice, and therapeutic skills for children and adults. Her work has been featured in HuffPost, Forbes, NPR, USA Today, Essence Magazine, Psych Central, Well+Good, and The EveryGirl, among other media outlets. In 2021, she was appointed to the Kentucky Early Childhood Advisory Council by Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, and reappointed to a second term in 2025 acknowledging her decades long service to the children and families of Kentucky. Deedee is also the founder of The Louisville Book Festival. She was inspired to work to highlight and celebrate a culture of reading in her community after working as an in-home therapist and visiting homes of children who had no books. Cummings believes literacy is a fundamental human right. Her work highlights inspiring messages that remind us all it is never too late to begin again.
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