As 2024 draws to a close, many people feel it has been an unsettling year.
It may be an improvement on the years of the pandemic, but many people still seem to be feeling negative and looking for hope.
But what gives people hope? Is it important? Are people’s hopes ever fulfilled?
What gives people hope?
If a particular situation makes people feel fearful, taking action can bring them hope. For example, if you feel anxious about climate change or politics generally, joining an action group will most likely help you feel more hopeful.
But if your sense of unease is more general, or based on factors out of your control (e.g. due to life situation or illness), you may find hope in:
- Family & friends: someone you trust to share your thoughts with, someone who will listen.
- Spirituality: even if people have no clear belief in God, they will still find hope through prayer and faith.
- Nature: being in nature, or even watching a nature video, can help people forget their problems and find calm, peace and comfort.
- Inside: some people cannot find hope in any of these sources, and can only look to themselves.
What is hope?
Hope can be seen as a way of looking at the future with optimism. It is thinking that the future can be better than the present, and you (or someone else) can bring this about.
Why is hope important?
It turns out that hope is very helpful for our wellbeing in many different:
- Hopeful people are likely to:
- sleep better, have fewer chronic health conditions, be at lower risk of cancer and have lower mortality;
- have lower levels of psychological distress and better social wellbeing;
- have a greater sense of purpose and satisfaction in life;
- be less likely to be depressed or suicidal;
- be more able to cope with chronic illness, and more likely to engage in healthier behaviours;
Hope is a powerful catalyst for resilience, healing, growth and change. It is worthwhile learning how to foster greater hope!
Become more hopeful
There is plenty of advice on this.
Cultivate a positive attitude
- Show gratitude. Reflect on the positives, even small ones, and be thankful for them.
- Practice kindness. Listen to others and respond in practical ways.
- Reflect on past successes to build self esteem and maintain drive towards a positive future.
- Reinforce positive thoughts through speaking them out (“positive self talk“).
Take deliberate steps
- Surround yourself with supportive, positive people.
- Write down specific, attainable goals, then plan out ways to achieve each goal, and imagine how you’ll feel when you achieve it.
- Take things one step at a time, be patient and persist.
- Gain strength from others – e.g. inspiring or humourous movies or stories – laughter can help us be hopeful.
- Get out into nature, do a hobby that you are enthusiastic about and/or spend time with supportive friends.
Hope therapy can be helpful in developing a positive attitude and achieving goals.
But …. there’s always a “but”
Taking positive steps to build hope may not work for everyone.
We can change our attitudes via mindfulness, therapy or positive thinking. But these may do nothing to take away the actual circumstances which are making us feel hope-less.
If our hopes are unrealistic, then failing to achieve our goals will likely lead to disillusionment and poor choices.
So impractical goals and false hope can leave us more hopeless than when we started.
Christian hope
Christian belief and practice can help us be more hopeful:
- It encourages us to feel gratitude and practice kindness and forgiveness.
- It can surround us with supportive people.
- Believing God loves and forgives us can build self esteem.
- Christian hope is built on God’s character, which sustains hope better than our own aspirations do.
Of course christian hope (e.g. in answered prayer or healing) that isn’t fulfilled can also leave us disappointed.
Hope for 2025
I wish you a hopeful 2025.
Why not benefit from the advice of positive psychologists and from christian belief?
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