Hope and the Brain

“I practice having experiences in which I sense glory in the middle of my brokenness. And it is not a thing that magically happens to me. It doesn’t drop out of the air. It happens in a room with embodied human beings in which my brain, this is what I’m saying, it has everything to do with physics. My brain is seeing your facial expression, hearing your tone of voice, all the things. And that creates a moment for me of joy and of repose in the middle of my awareness of my marriage that’s on the rocks or of my parents who continue to behave badly or of this rheumatoid arthritis that continues to create trouble for me over and over and over again.”

Listen to part two of the Allender Center podcast where Curt and Dan shift gears from shame to hope. Our cultural narratives often tell us to look within ourselves to find hope so we can make it through our suffering. Science—specifically brain science—tells a different story.

We need attuned faces of curiosity and kindness to bring us joy in the middle of our brokenness. Tragically few of us have relationships like that. But we can’t do it alone. Reach out to Good Shepherd Soul Care or someone else to cultivate hope in your suffering.