Hello,
My name is Heather Dean.
Thank you for being here today and for taking the time to listen to this.
I've been creating meditations for Insight Timer since 2022 and it's honestly such a joy and an honour to share those with you.
But this is something new for me and the reason I'm creating this talk now is because my six-year-old son woke me up at 5am this morning when he crawled into bed and as I was drifting back off to sleep I had a dream that I shared this with you and I never ignore signs like that.
So I want to start by acknowledging how easy it is for all of us to feel hopeless in this day and age.
To feel like there is so much wrong with the world we live in today that perhaps there is no hope.
It's tough and yet for our health and well-being both as individuals and for the human collective it is so incredibly important that we do feel hope.
When we have hope we feel motivated to take action even if those actions are only tiny baby steps to begin with.
Small ways we can find to help bring more peace and joy into our own lives and then into the lives of the people we interact with every day.
What we need desperately in order to feel more hopeful is more awareness of the good news.
The progress happening in the world this very minute.
Progress in education,
Healthcare,
Social justice,
Environmental protection,
Science.
There is so much progress happening every day and so many reasons to feel hopeful.
It's just that the good news doesn't get anywhere near the coverage it deserves.
Those in power and the people making money by grabbing your attention are only interested in sharing the bad news because it's in their interest.
But the good news is out there when we seek it.
So let me share this with you for a start.
According to the most recent life evaluation survey from Gallup,
The independent world polling organization,
Global well-being is continuing to rise despite the challenges we continue to face globally.
So in this survey people were asked to rate the quality of their current and estimated future lives on a scale of 0 to 10 where 0 is worst and 10 is best.
Those scoring 7 or more for the present and 8 or more for 5 years ahead are classed as thriving and those rating both present and future at 4 or below are classed as suffering.
Everyone in between is classed as struggling.
Based on 2024 data from over 100,
000 people across 142 countries,
More people are feeling optimistic about their lives than at any point since measurements began.
The report shows that 33 percent of people globally are thriving which is something we can be proud of and the increase in that number is consistent across all demographics.
Men and women young and old all now rate their lives better than they did in the past and at the same time global rates of suffering have fallen to just 7 percent which is the lowest level since 2007 and significantly lower than a decade ago when that number was 12 percent.
The bottom line is that the numbers show that more people are feeling optimistic and more people globally are living better lives and of course this positive news doesn't take away from the fact that we're still facing a large number of significant global challenges.
For sure we still have a very long way to go but we're all far more likely to get there to get to a place where as many people as possible are thriving if we allow ourselves to feel hopeful.
There will always be contrast in our worlds.
We can't eliminate suffering but the truth is that thousands of years ago,
Hundreds of years ago even,
You wouldn't even have been aware of what was happening on the other side of the world.
Wars would have been raging and epidemics and fires running wild and you wouldn't even have known about them and so in many ways it was easier to be happy.
As long as everything was okay in your own life and in the lives of your closest community you would probably have felt pretty content and grateful and feeling content and grateful would have helped keep you healthy mentally physically and spiritually.
An awareness of course is a good thing on the whole.
It's super important to know what's happening in the world but not to the point that it disempowers us.
Not to the point that we can no longer see the good in the world because we're focusing so much on the bad news.
I truly believe that in many ways we almost know too much of what's happening down here on our physical plane and at the same time we've forgotten so much about our true nature.
Forgotten about the importance of our connection to the earth and to spirit and that can be extremely detrimental to our mental and even physical health.
So my message here is please focus on taking care of you.
There is only one of you and that automatically makes you extremely important.
You taking care of you of your physical and mental wellness is all that matters to begin with.
You taking care of you is enough because when you're feeling well and peaceful and content and hopeful you'll be in such a powerful position to make a positive contribution to the world in whatever way that presents itself for you.
No one else on the planet can contribute in the unique way that you can.
And let's all focus our attention on what we want more of.
More peace,
More ease,
More joy,
More acceptance,
Tolerance,
Compassion,
More love,
More thriving.
This talk has been an invitation to feel hope.
To feel hopeful even.
Full of hope.
Because there are reasons to feel hopeful.
I promise you there are.
The good news is out there and more of it is coming.
We just have to look really hard to find it at the moment.
Thank you for listening to this today.
My name is Heather Dean and if this connected with you I'd love for you to help me spread this message of hope by sharing this track with any friends or family that might benefit from hearing it today.
I'm sending you love and peace and I look forward to connecting with you again very soon.
Keep meditating and know that by doing so you're already helping to make the world a better place for all of us.
Namaste.
