Hope. We all understand what hope is and what it feels like. We experience it every day to some degree. We hope that things will turn out best for us and others. Most of us have also experienced hopelessness, or perhaps we’ve even questioned the utility of hope. Extended periods of hopelessness can lead to a host of mental health issues, including depression. I don’t advocate fooling ourselves that things are great when they aren’t. However, we must remember that life comes in cycles, and the sun may yet shine again despite the rain clouds of today. Let’s explore a few ways to maintain hope in our darkest moments.
- Acknowledge your feelings. It can be painful to stop and identify your feelings, yet this is a crucial first step in moving forward. Speaking from experience, burying feelings leads to them spilling out in unexpected and unwanted ways. Writing them down or sharing them with a trusted person brings them into your conscious awareness. In turn, you will be better able to identify how they are manifesting in your life and curb their influence.
- Self-care. It’s low hanging fruit, yet many of us need to hear this again and again until it sticks. Do something physical, do some breathing exercises, curl up with a good book, cook your favorite meal, and for the love of everything holy, get off of social media if your algorithm is negatively affecting you.
- Stay connected with your support network. I tend to drift away from my community when I’m feeling low and hopeless. It’s precisely those moments when we need to connect deeper. We may feel like we’re being a burden, yet we are less likely to think of our loved ones as a burden when they reach out to us in their times of need. Allow yourself to be held and heard, and in turn make space for others when they need the same.
- Count your blessings. Not everything is horrible, although it may feel like that sometimes. Again this isn’t distracting ourselves from our difficulties but rather taking a broader view of our lives to include those things which are positive and give us hope.
- Channel your energy into healthy, useful actions. That might look like volunteering, digging deeper into your faith, reading self-help books, becoming active in a new community, or by finally doing that project that you’ve been pushing off for a long time. Nothing is too small, and these little shifts in where we spend our energy can allow us to feel hopeful in new arenas.
- Speak with a therapist. There’s no shame in employing a trained professional to help you move through difficult times. They will likely have new tools and perspectives for you to consider. Also they will be a non-judgmental listener if you need to vent.
I’m currently using several of these tips and I find immense value in them. I encourage you to similarly give them a try and see if they can help you shift. Thanks for reading, and we’ll see each other next time.
