this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2026
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Mental Health

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Do you agree? (piefed.cdn.blahaj.zone)
submitted 1 day ago by LadyButterfly@piefed.blahaj.zone to c/mentalhealth@lemmy.world
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[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude, Shelley describes hope and despair as torturers:

[...] Hope and despair,
The torturers, slept; no mortal pain or fear
Marred his repose;

This is the correct perspective. Hope and despair are the same thing, a feeling about the future. Regardless of whether your feelings are positive or negative, they are just as rational and just as worthwhile as praying about the future.

Hoping that the future will be better than the present is a waste of time, and emotional energy. Despairing that the future will not be better than the present is also a waste of time. Expending any effort on either has the same value as having a prayer meeting about the future with your local tribe of soccer moms.

Determining that you will make the future better, in any way that you can, for as many people as you can, and then making some practical plans to actually do that, is not a waste of time.

Don't hope. Don't despair. Do something useful.

[–] otacon239@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

It’s important to identify that prayer in the traditional sense is still useful. Giving in just a little bit to your universe, if only for a short while, to let your guard down and express your innermost thoughts to an outside entity is incredibly helpful to the brain in reframing the challenges in life. Even if you don’t believe in a “higher power”, expressing these thoughts to the universe can help process things in ways that pure action or meditation can’t.