Hope

Hope is defined as a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. It can often be rooted to a passion, conviction or an ultimate goal and often drives our ambitions.

The number one thing that can weaken, or completely tear apart one's hope is spending to much time thinking about past mistakes and regrets. When thinking about it, there almost exact opposites; looking back and hoping. How can we hope on a past? Our past? It's important to look back and learn but constantly looking back will prevent us from moving forward. Life is less about where we've been and more about where we're going. The person we were in the past isn't the person we are today, nor is it the person we are striving and working so hard to become. It's so easy, too easy really, to look back at the storms we've weathered through that we loose attention on what's in front of us and don't even know where our ship is going. It's too easy to look at flaws and faults rather than what we should be looking at, our strengths and goals for our future.

Hope is like the light that shines through a dark tunnel, the light we're walking towards. It represents the place we want to be or the goal we wish to accomplish. It can be a compass when we get lost. Something we can look to, to remind us of why we're doing what we're doing in the first place. What all the struggle, hardwork, early mornings, and late nights is for. It's what we have left when everything else sometimes feels so far away. It's not always east to have hope, but it is ALWAYS necessary. Hope is what gives us the strength and perseverance we need to push through our difficulties.

Hope is something that's easy to have when everything seems easy. When the sky is clear and the sun is out. It's when the clouds form and rain begins to fall that it can be very difficult to have hope. But of course, that's the most important time.

Hope is important for us to have in our life and it is important to look positively into the future. Just as important it is for us to be realistic. Having hope, something to hope for, whether it's a place to be/reach or something to do, has a expectedly substantial effect on our overall mental health. Hope for something in the future can lead to better decisions being made, healthier habits forming and whatever else will help us reach/get to what we're hoping for. Positive emotions arise from that, which then help us when times gat hard, as they always do. Those times aren't anything we can prevent, but they are something we can be prepared for, whether it's consciously or not. Because hope is realistic, and hopelessness is pessimistic. Hope doesn't ignore the bad things, rather it looks at everything and chooses to not stop moving forward.

"Hope is not a passive exercise in wishing, but an active approach to life, arising when there is something we want when we've got a clear goal in mind. And though it may be tough going, we’ll develop a plan to get us closer to where we want to go."

Polly Cambell - 'Why Hope Matters' via Psychology Today

We all find ourselves in difficult, annoying, saddening, and just out right ridiculous situations, times or scenarios. Maybe you're in one now, to be completely honest, I am right now, as I'm writing this. Let's remind ourselves; of what our hope is, what our end goal is, and why are we doing this in the first place. How about taking a break, and a few steps back to see the entire situation at hand, or scenario we are facing. Let's be courageous and turn to the people around us, and ask for the help, inspiration and/or encouragement that we all need sometimes. Let's remain hopeful.