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Intrinsic Hope

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Maintaining hope is difficult in a world falling apart. Intrinsic Hope offers a powerful antidote to despair, showing how to free ourselves from the false hope that the world will conform to our ex...
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"After many decades of working on the climate crisis, I'm someone who hope do... Read More
  • Format:
  • Publication Date: 01 May 2018
  • ISBN: 9780865718678
  • Pages: 208
  • Imprint: New Society Publishers

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A different kind of hope for living in these turbulent times

Climate disruption. Growing social inequality. Pollution. We are living in an era of unprecedented crises, resulting in widespread feelings of fear, despair, and grief. Now, more than ever, maintaining hope for the future is a monumental task.

Intrinsic Hope offers a powerful antidote to these feelings. It shows how conventional ideas of hope are rooted in the belief that life will conform to our wishes and how this leads to disappointment, despair, and a dismal view of the future. As an alternative, it offers "intrinsic hope," a powerful, liberating, and positive approach to life based on having a deep trust in whatever happens. The author, a hopeful survivor, shows how to cultivate intrinsic hope through practical tips and six mindful habits for living a positive, courageous life in these troubled times.

Whether working directly on ecological or social issues or worried about children and grandchildren, this book is for everyone concerned about the future and looking for a deeper source of hope for a better world.

AWARDS

  • GOLD | 2018 Nautilus Book Awards: Social Grand Prize Overall Winner
  • GOLD | 2018 Nautilus Book Awards: Personal Growth

"After many decades of working on the climate crisis, I'm someone who hope does not come naturally to every day. That makes the insights in these pages all the more valuable to me, and I suspect to others."
— Bill McKibben, author of Radio Free Vermont, co-founder and Senior Advisor of 350.org

"There is no healing or transformation without hope, yet we are in times of global crisis that breed denial, hopelessness and despair. This deeply wise book guides us in nurturing the "intrinsic hope" that evolves our consciousness and frees our heart to act on behalf of this world we love."
— Tara Brach, Author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge

"If you feel despair for our endangered world, read this remarkable book and then act. Saving ourselves and much of life on Earth requires us to take brave and visionary action, but doing that requires hope - the kind that arises from the depths of our own human psyches, from our souls, and from Earth herself. Assisting us to tap this crucial resource is what Kate Davies accomplishes with her love-offering of Intrinsic Hope. This wise, adeptly crafted, inspiring, and practical book deepens and amplifies our capacities as agents of cultural renaissance and executors of ecological regeneration."
— Bill Plotkin, Ph.D., author of Soulcraft and Wild Mind

"Kate Davies' book Intrinsic Hope: Living Courageously in Troubled Times is a fresh and inspirational guide for practicing deep ecology. Her ideas about hope and the tools she offers to nurture it ground us in the Earth's inherent goodness and provide a path forwards when everything seems to be falling apart. That inherent goodness – intrinsic hope - lives within each one of us, as well as in all life. In this book, Kate shows us how to access it and how to take action based on it. I cannot recommend Intrinsic Hope highly enough."
— John Seed, founder and director of the Rainforest Information Centre and co-author of Thinking Like a Mountain: Towards a Council of All Beings.

"We are becoming aware that the eco-social crisis is not only an external reality, but also an internal psychological, spiritual and moral crisis. In order to survive the increasing devastation, hope is essential. Kate Davies explores the psychological and spiritual dimensions of "intrinsic hope" and how it can be a light to guide us in these darkening times. Her book contains valuable insights into our inner landscapes and describes the qualities we need if we are to survive and live together on this Earth, full of wonder, beauty and love."
— Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Ph.D., Sufi teacher and author: Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth.

"Kate Davies' whole working life and career has led to this distillation of 'intrinsic hope.' Her experience as scientist, as Quaker, as mother and activist forged a commitment to reject despair and forge a new, more resilient type of hope. This is a prescription in a book we all need."
— Elizabeth May, OC, Leader of the Green Party of Canada and Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands.

"To be an activist you have to be an optimist. Intrinsic Hope: Living Courageously in Troubled Times confirms this conviction. In her inspiring book, Kate Davies explores the state of our planet and the way we can transform our present predicament into positive possibilities. This beautifully written book weaves together the practical with the political, the social with the spiritual and economical with the ecological. It is a remarkable achievement."
— Satish Kumar, Editor Emeritus, Resurgence - Ecologist Magazine.

"Have you ever read a book that is so wise and so important that you immediately recommend it to your friends? Have you ever read a book so full of transformative insights and brilliant aphorisms that you underline and dog-ear and exclaim YES in ink all over the margins? Intrinsic Hope: Living Courageously in Troubled Times is such a book. In a time of terrible peril, and so a time of deep and debilitating despair, Kate Davies powerfully, convincingly re-invents hope, just when we need it the most."
— Kathleen Dean Moore, author of Great Tide Rising and Piano Tide, winner of the 2017 Willa Cather Award for contemporary fiction.

"Being mindful of hope may be our most urgent challenge in the face of growing eco-social problems. Kate Davies points toward multiple ways to activate hope. May her book be read by many who are seeking a path forward into the arena of transformative change."
— Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology

Kate Davies MA, DPhil, has worked on environmental and social issues for her entire career. She set up and managed the City of Toronto's Environmental Protection Office and established and directed a successful environmental policy consulting company. Davies is currently clinical associate professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington, emeritus faculty at Antioch University, and senior fellow at the Whidbey Institute. Her written work has been published in newspapers, magazines and journals across North America and internationally. Her first book, The Rise of the U.S. Environmental Health Movement,was selected by Booklist as one of the top ten books on sustainability published in 2013. Davies lives in Langley, WA.

Foreword by Vicki Robbin

Introduction: Where On Earth Are We Going?
The Global Eco-social Crisis and Its Impacts
Psychological Impacts
The Psychological Context
Where On Earth Are We Going?
Uncovering and Nurturing Hope

Part I: Uncovering Intrinsic Hope

1. Naming Our Feelings about the Global Eco-social Crisis
Fear
Disappointment
Self-Righteous Anger and Frustration
Shame and Guilt
Sadness and Despair
Grief
Denial and Apathy
Concluding Thoughts

2. Reasons for Hope
Life Is Inherently Hopeful
We Know More Than Ever Before
The Future Is Uncertain
We May Be Able to Resolve This Crisis Because We Caused It
Humankind Is Beginning to Think Globally
History Tells Us Positive Social Change Is Possible
The Growing Global Citizens' Movement
Hope Can Be Learned
It Is Our Responsibility To Be Hopeful
Just Because. . .What Else Would We Do?

3. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Hope
Extrinsic Hope
Intrinsic Hope
Extrinsic and Intrinsic Hope Compared
The Relationship Between Intrinsic and Extrinsic Hope

Part II: Habits of Hope

4. Being Present
Mindfulness
Distraction
Selective Attention
Meditation
Using Our Senses
Wonder
Bearing Witness
Being Present to the Universe

5. Expressing Gratitude
Choosing to Feel Grateful
Things To Be Grateful For
Expressing Gratitude
Appreciation and Problems
Joy
Gratitude and Consumerism

6. Loving the World
Love and Compassion
Community
Loving Places
Loving the Earth
Loving Future Generations

7. Accepting What Is
Opening Up to Painful Emotions
Forgiveness
Reframing
Expressing Feelings

8. Taking Action
Scientific Information
Results, Responsibility, and Virtue
Purpose and Commitment
Do No Harm
Small Steps

9. Persevering for the Long Haul
Self-Discipline
Resilience
Long-Term Thinking
Curiosity
Looking After Ourselves
Celebrating Good News

Conclusion: Pandora's Gift
Invitation
Acknowledgments
Endnotes
About the Author
About New Society Publishers