Cultivating Hope to Survive (Thrive!) & Serve in Turbulent Times
Schedule
Sun Oct 12 2025 at 01:00 pm to 04:00 pm
UTC-04:00Location
The Well: A Gathering Place (3 Louisiana Avenue, Asheville, NC) | Asheville, NC
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Cultivating Hope to Survive (Thrive!) & Serve in Turbulent Times1-time in-person inspirational workshop
(Please see registration details at bottom of description.)
Our community was recently and heartbreakingly bereaved by the loss of a beautiful, very young woman who chose to end her own life. As I tended to the grief felt by the loved ones of this bright light of a young woman, so full of potential, I knew I had to do everything that I could to prevent another precious soul from feeling so lost and hopeless that they, too, might choose to give up. I offer this workshop on Cultivating Hope in honor of the life of this cherished young woman.
The concept of HOPE has been much discussed. It’s been used in political slogan, been disparaged as an antidote to taking action, and has been used as a platitude to placate when active change is crucially necessary. HOPE, however, is necessary to our fruitful survival. Hope is vital to human healing and well-being. Hope is also an essential ingredient in the process of successful changemaking.
When people lose hope, they lose motivation and succumb to despair. In the painful depths of despair, people suffer depression and become unable to show up for life's responsibilities, including taking care of self and family. For that same reason unfettered despair also becomes a significant barrier to creating positive change on the cultural level.
It can feel difficult to feel hopeful when it seems like everything is going wrong. When it’s not clear what the next helpful step is, how to move towards a solution, hopelessness can creep in. We are living in times in which, if one does not have an active practice to cultivate hope, we will easily become drained of hope, dispirited, and depleted. Yet, we need hope, perhaps more now than ever. We need to feel hope in our hearts, as individuals, to strengthen and motivate us, to help us know there is good reason for all of our hard work and efforts. And as a society, we must maintain hope for the future, so that we can build that future we long to see.
If you have been feeling hopeless, or seeing others in your life succumb to hopelessness, let me give you good news… HOPE CAN BE CULTIVATED! There are real life practical actions and changes to how we behave that can help us maintain and even build hope, and can help us spread hope to others who have lost grasp of this most essential life saver.
Join me for an afternoon in which we will bravely acknowledge the true challenges we face amidst massive environmental, social, economic, and political upheaval, while we will also choose and learn how to stay strong, stalwart, and hopeful in the face of these troubles.
In this workshop we will learn:
*Practical, doable, daily strategies to protect our hearts & minds from hopelessness
*Active practices that actually build & strengthen HOPE
*To understand HOPE as an EMOTION as well as an ACTION
*The differences between GRIEF & DESPAIR + how grief work can actually help us to feel HOPE
*The science & felt sense of GRATITUDE & its role in traditional culture
*How to incorporate GRATITUDE without dismissing the importance of big problems or falling into cliché
*The science on the relationship among hope, a sense of agency, and suicidality
*The important legacy that Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl offered with the world
*Doable strategies for creating a more beautiful world NOW
*How to support loved ones in staying connected to HOPE, especially those who you worry about the most
If you long to be an agent of positive change, to live a healthy and meaningful life, to achieve your goals, whether personal or planetary, you need to protect and cultivate hope in all your ways of being. Let’s work on this together and heal our world, starting with the one person you have the most power to impact - YOURSELF.
Plus, I will provide tea and snacks. ❤︎
To register for this afternoon workshop, please send payment via Venmo to @Justina-Prenatt or PayPal: paypal.me/justinaprenatt (choose "friends and family" payment option)
Choose your rate on the sliding scale: $40 - $90. Please pay the highest rate if you are financially secure, or choose a lower amount, as needed, if you need financial assistance.
PLEASE INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING INFO WITH YOUR PAYMENT:
"Registration fee for Cultivating Hope
YOUR NAME
YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
YOUR PHONE NUMBER"
Please contact Justina [email protected] for more information. I look forward to doing this meaningful work with you.
(art cred - Great Blue Heron at Sunrise by Kelly Wolske
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Where is it happening?
The Well: A Gathering Place (3 Louisiana Avenue, Asheville, NC), United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
