Welcome back. So glad to have you here at gather at the well, really excited about today's topic. We need more of this. And no, I'm not talking about millions of dollars, though all of us would appreciate it. I'm talking about something that is free to us, that actually cultivates abundance. I'm talking about critical hope. I've been told over and over in my life that I have an endless reserve of critical hope. I'm not just some naive idealist, though my critical hope is anchored in what I believe is an attainable truth, realities that aren't so far off. But what is critical hope exactly, and how does it fit into our work as human, centered, change leaders? If you've been tuning in recently, you know that we always end our podcast episodes with a critical hope, but today, that's all we're doing. It's the content. It's the focus. Let's figure this out, because, like I said, we all need more of it. When I think of education, for example, there are so many obstacles towards realizing a schooling system in this country that truly liberates young people, that equips them as critical thinkers, and empowers them to stay in their communities, to solve their own most pressing challenges, it can feel really daunting when you think of all we need to overcome. And I think that's not just the education system that's probably touching you somewhere in your heart space, no matter what your role is, we're hurting across sectors, across professional and personal domains. There's a lot of wounds happening, but also I can see so clearly that there are strategies that work, that there are models that are bringing about accelerated growth for young people. Capitalism fuels the me, the thought leader rushed to come up with the new shiny, magic bullet. Instead of focusing on fueling the we within our team, our school, our non profit, our company, we need more we let's double down on what's working. And that's where critical hope comes in. It's a mindset and a communication lever, but it's also a commitment to self and to others, and from an indigenous perspective, when we think about our responsibility to seven generations back and the seven generations ahead of us, that's what really connects me to the possibility, the paradigm shift of what's possible. Critical Hope is the nourishment of a change leader. It's like a banana bag in an intense moment of dehydration or depletion or weakness. It refuels us, pumping us with vitamins and minerals so that our Soma can recharge and re enter the marathon towards our mission. When we think of somatic practices, we think of any healing modality that enhances the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual state, critical hope activates across all four of those domains. So if you can't tell, I'm hell of excited to explore this with you all, but first, maybe we drop into a somatic I'd like to introduce a new one. I'm trying on something different. I'm calling this capacity clasps. My team is eye rolling because they know I love alliteration. It is like an addiction for me. But here we are, and I did it yet again, the idea with this is actually that as you take in a deep breath, you are opening your arms to increase your capacity for what's here, but also what's possible. And as you exhale, you're coming around and clasping yourself almost like a self hug. Let's try it on. You might adjust yourself in your seat, anchor your feet in the ground, and as we inhale through the nose, opening our arms, feeling the stretch in our chest, cinching the scapula together, then an exhale through the mouth, releasing the air from our lungs and caving the body forward to land in a self hug. Let's do two more like that. Again, intake with the chest opening and exhale and coming back towards yourself, reinforcing yourself, inhaling, reminding yourself that you have space. You can grow your capacity. Capacity, you can heal and manage and grow and exhale. You're safe, you're contained, you're making moves. Let's get back to this idea of critical hope when I was growing up, and this is a recent realization, I used to think that inspiration was not a necessary component of leadership. Frankly, I wasn't inspired as a child by most of the quote, unquote, leaders that I saw, and while I loved and had meaningful connections with teachers and coaches and they helped build a solid foundation of self esteem. They nurtured my skill sets. They encouraged me. I wasn't necessarily inspired. The folks that inspired me felt unattainable, out of reach, right? The Malcolm X's of the world where I was like, wow, he's just a hero, a super human hero, and he's inspiring so many people. But now, as I've been in this adulting game, and adulting is really ratchet, I'm just gonna say that we need to bring adulting classes into all high schools and maybe colleges and low key early entry positions. But I digress when I think about Malcolm X now and many of the other leaders who I really regarded with a ton of respect, I realized they were imperfect, whole Humans inherently flawed, because we all are and that inspiration to others was actually an outcome, but it wasn't the effort, it wasn't the objective, it maybe wasn't even a intentional action that he was taking. It's kind of the byproduct of who he was and what he did. And that's when I started to realize that critical hope, that powerful leaders that inspire change has nothing to do with charisma or dynamism. It's not about toxic positivity. It's actually about encouraging others through your consistent actions, through your validation celebrations, through your strategic leadership and your focus and your diligence and commitment to your people, that's how you actually motivate them to persist through the challenges that undoubtedly you'll face in the workforce. A good, steady leader reminds you of the reasons you're choosing the job during the hardest parts. That's a potent realization, because it's helping folks hold tight to the possibility and the impact of their sustained efforts. I was talking to my co leader, Marisol, and she said the distinctive factor between inspiration and good leadership is the degree to which it can be a skill developed over time. And critical hope is a skill set you can learn change leaders focus on this skill and they cultivate it and they grow it over time, it helps them to create the conditions for their team to weather parts of the role that are less satisfying. And let's be real, one of the lies they tell, and you know, I love to expose these lies, is that you can find the perfect job for you. And I think that in recent years and in recent generations, it's been fueling some of the quickness to leave an organization as if you would love every part of your job description. I think maybe that's in part, what's fueling so many folks leaving to be consultants and working for themselves. Yes, there's the flexibility and schedule. Yes, there's not having to deal with toxic workplace abusers, but also you're able to do more of what you love. There's nothing wrong with that, but I do think for the average human who's working inside of an organization, it's unrealistic, and we need to correct the misunderstanding or the inflated expectation that every part of your job will be fulfilling and fun because some of it's going to be soaked in discomfort, and the presence of undesirable duties doesn't mean there's a poor leader or a toxic workplace, or even that you need to leave necessarily. That's the part where we talk about choosing each other, choosing the company, choosing the mission. You need to cultivate critical hope with your colleagues, to persevere, and yes, you as the leader, you're critical, but also horizontally, with your peers, the health and cohesion of your. Team is a shared responsibility.