I was first exposed to the idea of ‘Radical Hope’ while listening to John Green’s podcast The Anthropocene Reviewed as I cooked dinner in my kitchen during the Covid-19 pandemic. I can’t remember which episode it was, but this concept that he introduced has stayed with me for years after. ‘Radical Hope’ means that even in situations that seem hopeless, you choose to have hope anyway. Green argues that in a world with a global pandemic, climate change, war, and injustice all around us, it is a natural response to feel hopeless. So, choosing to have hope, despite all of this, is indeed a radical act. And it is by choosing to have hope that we can continue to live in this world.

As a depressive, a lot of my hopelessness comes from within, and it has been there for as long as I can remember. This is compounded by whatever external factors are also making me feel hopeless. If I’m not careful, I can find myself drowning in hopelessness to the point that I am completely immobilized. And often, I have found myself in a place where it seems like it would be less effort to just succumb to the hopelessness and give up on life entirely. That is where Radical Hope comes in, and why it resonated with me so much when I first heard that podcast episode.

Hope is necessary to my survival. Hope is what keeps me here at my lowest points. Hope is suicide prevention. But how do you have Hope when a major symptom of your mental illness is hopelessness? You make a radical choice – you choose to have hope anyway.

I’m making it sound too easy. It’s a practice, and it’s hard work. I post reminders for myself everywhere. There’s a note posted on my dresser, so I see it first thing when I wake up and last thing when I go to sleep. There’s a note with my toothbrush and toothpaste, so I see the reminder again as I get ready for the day and as I wind down for the night. This last year was difficult for me, so having that visual reminder every day helped. To purposefully make space and take a few seconds every day to choose hope on days when I could not feel it, made a difference. It’s a reminder to be mindful and intentional about how I live each day.

In a life that is often plagued by hopelessness, I’ve found power in knowing that I can choose to have hope anyway. And so can you.