Fear says, “There is no way, I will fail.” Hope says, “I will find a way, and I will get through this.”

For so long, I viewed “hope” as a glimmer not a guarantee. But then I read Meditation Magazine’s Hope Issue and it reminded me that hope is both personal and collective. It’s something we carry, but also something we create together.

Hope, as framed in this issue, is not blind optimism. It is grounded, gritty, and deeply felt. It is the courage to keep going even when we can’t yet see the path ahead. It’s found in meditation, in music, in movement, in community. And perhaps most importantly, it’s found in the commitment to healing not just ourselves, but our world.

Hope is a lighthouse. And in times that feel so dark and heavy and unjust, hope can be a reminding force of what can be. What we can create. What we can strive for. What we can believe in and see through to fruition.

Hope is not passive wishing, but a living, breathing force that must be nurtured through presence, connection, and conscious action.

As Dr. Sará King said in the Hope Issue,

“Hope is a somatic practice. It lives in the body before it becomes a thought.”

Hope can be a shape shifter because it can transform energy. Hope can transmute fear, it can amplify confidence, and it can empower your intention. In this sense, hope becomes a powerful force that we as conscious creators can activate in order to amplify the results that we seek in our meditation, mindfulness, and movement practices.

Hope, then, is not passive. It’s a presence. A practice. A way of being. It transforms energy by transmuting fear, amplifying confidence, and empowering intention. In this way, hope becomes a force of activation in our meditation, movement, and mindfulness practices.

When we infuse intention into anything we do, whether we’re showing up in service, moving our bodies, or sitting in stillness … we amplify its effect. Hope becomes an alchemizing tool. A magnetizing force.

There’s a profound difference between asking for something and affirming that it’s already on its way. That subtle shift is fueled by our hope and belief in the becoming.

And because everything is energy, what we emit is what we attract.

The hope that we emit is the result that we attract.

If you’ve been feeling heavy, uncertain, or alone, this is a reminder: you are not alone. There is hope. And it lives in you.

Take care,
Ashton, Founder of YouAligned and YA Classes