How to Stay Upbeat in a Beat Down World: The Art of Cultivating Enduring Hope (Practices for Enjoying Life, Meaningful Advice for Positive Change, Rediscovering Peace of Mind)

by Sue Patton Thoele, Donna Ashworth (Foreword by)

Overview

(hfour)Your Reminder for Enjoying Life(/hfour)

Practice these recommendations by Sue Patton Thoele on loving yourself first to live your best life.

Don’t let self-doubt keep you down. Recovering from negativity can require a lot of effort. Whether from sudden changes or constant feelings of hopelessness, you’ll need practices that are effective and meaningful for you. That’s why bestselling author Sue Patton Thoele offers How to Stay Upbeat in a Beat Down World, a positive-thinking book that reevaluates self-doubt into the motivation you need to achieve happiness. With insightful advice for finding and practicing positive change, you too can rediscover peace of mind during difficult times.

Find your balance again with transformative thinking. Changing hopelessness into gratitude doesn’t only take emotional work, it requires being practical. By exploring the importance of love and acceptance in your life through a new, logical perspective, you can combat those strong negative feelings no matter what. That way, you can get back to enjoying life and the beautiful moments that come with it.

Inside How to Stay Upbeat in a Beat Down World, you’ll find:

• The power of transforming your pain into enduring hope
• Why you should trust and appreciate yourself
• Self-care affirmations to refuel your positivity
• How to share your empowering journey with others

If you liked Build the Life You Want, Donna Ashworth’s Wild Hope, or The Mindful Woman, then you will love How to Stay Upbeat in a Beat Down World.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684815401
Publisher:	Mango Media
Publication date:	06/11/2024
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	1,006,149
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 6.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Sue Patton Theole is a bestselling author and psychotherapist specializing in practical self-help strategies. After moving to Northern California, she received an MA in counseling psychology from Santa Clara Universityand helped improve the lives of many patients over the years. Sue later started writing to provide women with pragmatic solutions to rediscover self-acceptance, compassion, and honesty. Her first book, The Courage to Be Yourself, was published in 1996. Today, Sue lives in Colorado with her husband and visits their adult children and grandchildren.

Known for her inspirational poems and prose, Sunday Times bestselling author Donna Ashworth has carved out a significant space in contemporary literature. Her work is celebrated for its earnest exploration of themes such as womanhood, resilience, and the myriad facets of the human condition. Her evocative collections encapsulate topics ranging from marriage and parenting to self-love, aging, body image, grief, and loss; they offer a haven of solace and a spark of inspiration during every bump on life's road. Nothing is overlooked or muted; her writing candidly delves into all corners of the human experience.

Her words have echoed far and wide, resonating with audiences, gaining traction on social media, and reaching households through television broadcasts. Garnering close to a million followers on social media and a celebrity readership, Ashworth actively engages with her audience, reminding each other that thriving, not just surviving, is an essential aspect of our shared journey.

Ashworth’s impact stretches further through Ladies Pass It On, a blog she founded to empower women. The platform magnifies her messages of love, strength, and resilience by fostering a community of women who draw positivity and strength from shared experiences.

Read an Excerpt

(hfour)Chapter 4: Harvesting Hope(/hfour)

A little bit of heaven

Can be gleaned from every day.
—author

There are days when hope seems hidden in a bramble bush, its fruits invisible to our harried hearts. At such times it’s important that we turn our faces to the light, stay in the present moment, and look for outer and inner glimmers of grace and hope. Recently, a friend and I found hope in the guise of a six inch pine sapling growing in the crevasse of a beautiful Colorado boulder. Obviously, the seed had fallen in a rocky, hard place, taken root in spite of its environment, and was sweetly (and, it seemed to me, a bit cockily) basking in the sun for us to enjoy and learn from. I hope I can remember this tiny tree the next time I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place and wonder how on earth I can bloom there.

Noticing that little tree growing in the boulder is one way of harvesting hope. Some days will yield only a tiny basket of positives, while others will present fields of daisies in which to dance. No matter what the yield, focusing on recognizing and cherishing each little hope as it is offered lightens our hearts.

(hfour)Empowering the Present (/hfour)

I’ve always had two or more tracks running in my head. The pleasurable one was thinking forward to some future scene. Imagining what should be, planning on the edge of fantasy. The other played underneath with all too realistic fragments of what I should have done. There it was in perfect microcosm, the past and the future coming together to squeeze out the present—which is the only time in which we can be fully alive.
—Gloria Steinem

I was talking to a young friend who was terrified that her newly purchased business was going to fail and her future would be in ruins. Her concerns are well founded, and, after listening for a while, I asked, “Honey, can you manage only what needs to be done right now?” After some hesitation, she answered, “Yesss. . . .” My friend had fallen into what I call the Future Hole. Her fear of a possible future was paralyzing her ability to be positive now. The enormity of possible future losses was also causing her to panic. How well I recognize the Future Hole/ Panic scenario from my own life. Do you?

When we’re feeling confused, chaotic, or discouraged, focusing on something that is orderly right now helps us regain equilibrium. By finding order in the present moment—and in close proximity—our minds can realign to accept the possibility of order being available elsewhere.

Closely examining the center of a flower and noticing the incredible order and beauty in it gives us hope. Even looking for the orderly progression of words on this page, or observing how predictably your fingers flow from the palms of your hands, can bring solace when you are assailed by chaos and hopelessness. Allow yourself to be calmed by the order and do-ability inherent in the present moment.

By consciously working with the feelings and patterns active in the present, we also heal wounds and misconceptions from the past. Freed from the limits of the past, we can choose new, self-loving, and affirming ways to live and love in the world. Now is truly the only moment in which we are fully alive. To paraphrase a popular aphorism, “The present moment: use it or lose it.”

While we can heal the past and influence the future, we are only fully alive and empowered in the present.

Right now, this minute, is all we are required to handle. More than likely we can make it through what needs doing, being, or feeling when we stay out of the impotency of the Future Hole or Past Regrets and concentrate on the moment at hand. On the bright side, when we tune our hearts and minds to our abundant blessings, the present minute also overflows with much to appreciate, enjoy, be grateful for, and find hope in. Right here, right now, all that is good, true, and beautiful, all that is hopeful lives in our hearts.

Simply remembering to empower the present helps us find soothing order and structure in our bodies and our environments each and every minute.

One word of caution: Because most of us are so accustomed to squandering the present by rummaging around in our past and projecting our thoughts into imagined future scenarios, it’s essential that we be gentle with ourselves as we focus on the new habit of empowering the present. It won’t help to chastise yourself for falling into a Future Hole or for traipsing into the Realm of Regret; it will simply make you more clever at hiding your future and past forays from yourself. Go gently.

Given time, effort, and intention, you will be able to live in the empowered moment, just as Gloria Steinem has learned to do: “These past and future tracks have gradually dimmed until they are rarely heard. More and more, there is only the full, glorious, alive- in-the-moment, don’t-give-a-damn yet caring-for-every-thing sense of the right now.”

Changing any pattern is more easily done in a climate of caring support than it is in the glare of criticism.

(hfour)Pausing to Appreciate (/hfour)

Pausing is one gentle way to train ourselves to lean more and more into this day, this hour, this moment. Remembering the adage, “We don’t remember days, we remember moments. Life is made up of moments,” can help us pause and appreciate what’s going on right now.

Table of Contents

(hfour)Contents(/hfour)

Opening Thoughts

• Dear Reader
• Preview of Fundamental Concepts
• A Caveat

Chapter 1: Growing Hope

• Why the Erosion of Hope?
• Consciously Courting Hope

Chapter 2: Sowing Hope

• Regaining Inherent Hope
• Embracing and Transforming Pain
• Repairing and Preparing the Ground of Our Being
• Relaxing into Receiving and Recovering

Chapter 3: Cultivating Hope

• Weeding Our Minds
• Enriching Attitude and Intention
• Accessing Self through Quiet and Solitude

Chapter 4: Harvesting Hope

• Empowering the Present
• Welcoming Heralds of Hope
• Gleaning Glimmers of Grace
• Letting our Light Shine

Chapter 5: Spreading Hope

• Sharing the Fruits
• Expanding the Circle

Chapter 6: Watering Seeds of Hope

• Thoughts on Love and Inspiration
• Thoughts on Self-Care and Creativity
• Thoughts on Surrender and Trust
• Thoughts on Acceptance and Forgiveness
• Thoughts on Gratitude and Joy
• Thought on Hope and the Here and Now

Concluding Thoughts

Dear Reader
Acknowledgments
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

This book is the medicine we need! We are living in a time where we can easily become overwhelmed by planetary pain and unrest. The hope and joy that permeate Sue's wisdom is truly inspiring. If you want to reconnect with authentic positivity as you find your way in this uncertain world, this book is for you.”
—Harmony Kwiker, MA, LPC, author of Align: Living and Loving from the True Self and Reveal: Embody the True Self Beyond Trauma and Conditioning

“I have been reading the wisdom of the one-and-only Sue Patton Thoele for years, and her soulful practicality has definitely bolstered my self-esteem and helped me to have the courage to be myself. Now, exactly when it is so needed, Sue encourage us to remain upbeat, hopeful, and focused on the positive during these oh-so-crazy times. Sue Patton Thoele has her own special magic!”
—Cerridwen Greenleaf, author of The Herbal Healing Handbook

“Sue Patton Thoele has written a book to warm the heart and give it hope. With authenticity, compassion, and a playful sense of humor (hope is more like a potato than tomato), Sue shares stories—her own and others—of the struggles and inner commitment needed to court the quiet beauty and resilience that hope offers. There is no sugarcoating or pretense that this is easy. Rather, there is an offering of light and an invitation into a more upbeat way of life that is not a mask or a strategy, but a gentle organic cultivation of soft, yet strongly uplifting, energy from within. Upbeat speaks to the very pulse of what is possible right now in our lives and in our world.”
—Cynthia Reber Maman, author (with Fabien Maman) of the From Star to Cell series, including The Body as a Harp: Sound and Acupuncture and Raising Human Frequencies: The Way of Chi and the Subtle Bodies and her work-in-progress is a hybrid-historical novel entitled Resurrection: Return of Earth’s Beloved Witches, Weavers, Priestesses and other Holy Heretics

“‘It’s very difficult to grow hope in depleted soil.’ Starting with this simple metaphor, Sue offers encouraging suggestions to readers to help them replenish their souls, which, of course, are the soil of Hope. She provides hope tucked into tender stories and backed up by scientific and spiritually proven exercises. Sue’s gift is to hold your hand, walking with you through changing small habits of thought and action. If you but follow a handful of these examples, you will grow in confidence and become more loving toward yourself as well as others. Hope blossoms in love.”
—Cynthia Wall, LCSW, author of The Courage to Trust and therapist who believes in searching for an ever-happier ending, right up to our last breath, www.cynthiawall.com

“Sue Thoele’s new book, How to Stay Upbeat in a Beat Down World, is much needed medicine for the collective heartache so many of us share these days. With her characteristic blend of growth psychology, spiritual wisdom, grounded practicality, and vulnerable self-disclosure, Sue offers us a broad range of skillful perspectives and practices that will bolster our resilience, lift our spirits, and remind us of the greatness of heart that we also share.”
—David Chernikoff, author of LIFE, PART TWO: Seven Keys to Awakening with Purpose and Joy as You Age

“How to Stay Upbeat in a Beat Down World is a magnificent seed, a world of accessible treasures grown from a lifetime of soul-gardening. Grounded in the humus of a decades-long path of fierce self-compassion, the world receives an immense gift of wisdom through Sue Patton Thoele’s elegant example of sacred eldering. In her much-loved and characteristic style, Sue delivers her message with much needed humor and sacred practicality to feed a world hungry for hope.”
—Jahanara Laura Mangus, author of Becoming Honey: Embodying the Grace and Intimacy of the Aramaic Hail Mary Prayer

“If you’re looking for a pick-me-up, you’ve come to the right place. Sue Thoele never fails to deliver feel-good wisdom that we can instantly put into action—with long-lasting impact. How to Stay Upbeat in a Beat Down World is written with the caring compassionate voice we know and love from Thoele’s other books. It’s like having a compassionate therapist and trusted girlfriend in our back seat all the time! I’m here to tell you this is not some Pollyanna, ‘find the silver lining’ book. Thoele understands the necessity of feeling our feelings, facing our fears, and finding freedom through our emotions, not by bypassing them. This book is the real deal. It is filled with wisdom, actions, and anecdotes that fuel your heart, your mind, your body, your breath, and your emotions. Thoele says, ‘Each of us carries within our hearts the seeds of enduring hope.’ The chapters in this book are the water, fertilizer, sun, and song that nurture those seeds and help them grow and blossom!”
—Sherry Richert Belul, author of Say It Now and founder of Simply Celebrate

“Sue’s wisdom and insights bring Solace to the Soul and a Healing Salve to the Heart. With feet-on-the-ground practices, pithy prose, and graceful guidance, this book is a beacon of hope that will help support the consciousness we need to birth a New Earth.”
—Colleen Patrice, MA spiritual psychology, author of EMDR Journal: A Companion for Healing, Courage, and Clarity and Lighten Your Toxic Load

“HOW DOES SHE DO IT? From the first time Thoele offered comfort and enCOURAGEment to women in her daily life, her first book and all the volumes that followed, to this latest offering...Sue captures the zeitgeist of prevailing cultural challenges and addresses them with wisdom, humor and clarity. This offering incorporates her decades of professional experience with a genuine tenderness and savvy cultural and psychological understanding. Reading this is like having a meaningful and helpful conversation with a kind mentor in the comfort of your home. Let it become a go-to in your reference library of courage and self-care.”

—Mary Anne Em Radmacher, artist and author of She: A Celebration of Greatness in Every Woman

“Sue Patton Thoele’s informative work, How to Stay Upbeat in a Beat Down World, provides an inspired, pragmatic message of the beauty and power of hope in our lives. Sue is a spiritually practiced optimist with a message that humankind is ‘becoming the kindest, most accepting, and compassionate versions of ourselves,’ and she gives us a blueprint for how we can get there together.”

—Scott Awbrey, ordained minister and founder of Spiritual Passages, a database of spiritual resources

From the Publisher