“He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything.” –Proverb

We all go through phases when we feel hopeless. When everything gets overwhelming. Your bills, your responsibilities, your relationships, the dreams you put on hold—sometimes it all seems like too much.

In those moments the last thing you want to hear is that you’re lucky you can still walk or use all your senses. Those are things we all take for granted. Things that just are.

Except none of them are a given. The legs that allow you to practice yoga may one day be strained, sprained, broken, or even paralyzed. The hands and wrists that allow you to write may one day have carpel tunnel. The body that never seems strong or lean enough may one day be incapacitated in ways you can’t even fathom.

If you have your health, you have the freedom to change a lot of the things that dissatisfy you in life. You just have to take responsibility for doing it.

If you have the physical and mental capacity, odds are your biggest restrictions are your own limiting thoughts about what’s possible for you.

Hope is the belief that tomorrow could be better. Wisdom is realizing you have to make it better yourself. How can you use your capabilities to create new possibilities for today and tomorrow?

Photo by Alice Popkorn