the simple care of a hopeful heart: mentoring yourself in difficult times

In the end, it is not the amount of darkness in the world, our country, family or even within ourselves that matters-It is how we stand in that darkness that is crucial.

In light of this, the overall question addressed in this book is simple and challenging: How can we best mentor ourselves with the knowledge that already surrounds us so we learn and grow from the changes, stress, and even trauma, that we must face in today’s uncertain times?

Underlying the book’s overall message is the signature strength of humility because as the author emphasizes: When we take knowledge and add humility, we get wisdom, and when we then add this very wisdom to compassion, we get love... and love is at the heart of a rich, compassionate, and resilient life.

The book presents a series of 50 brief lessons on such topics as:

- Developing a renewed and deeper interest in creative approaches to self-care
- Overcoming resistance to change
- Ways to gain, maintain, and regain a healthy perspective
- Appreciating the advantages of the ＂psychological detours＂ forced on us in life
- How spending only 2 minutes each day in silence, solitude, and wrapped in gratitude can be transformative
- Understanding how we can best apply the principles of posttraumatic growth (PTG) to our own life situation
- Dealing effectively with necessary change and unexpected loss
- Recognizing the importance of pacing and timing in our interactions with others

Robert J. Wicks received his doctorate in psychology from Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital and is Professor Emeritus, Loyola University Maryland. Dr. Wicks has lectured on the importance of resilience, self-care, the prevention of secondary stress, and maintaining a healthy perspective in 20 different countries around the world as well as at the Mayo Clinic, Yale School of Nursing, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Divinity School, the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and on Capitol Hill to Members of Congress. and their Chiefs of Staff. He has written and edited dozens of books, most recently The Tao of Ordinariness (Oxford University Press, 2019) and Night Call: Embracing Compassion and Hope in a Troubled World (Oxford University Press, 2018).