Photo by Rodrigo Rodriguez on Unsplash
What is hope? Hope is that feeling of trust … trust that things can be better.
Hope is age-less, timeless, and without constraints. Hope can be that soft place to fall.
There is a quality in hope that brings comfort and reassurance that all the negativism we create and that is created around us will not drown our joy and happiness in the future.
Happiness and optimism cannot exist without hope, but hope can exist without happiness or optimism. Hope can hold you up and create resilience and strength when you feel weak. Hope can be your best friend.
When you have hope, you have all those good substances (dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin) that circulate through our bodies promoting well-being and energy for living.
Once gone, hope can be difficult to recapture. It requires a willingness to see what works and what doesn’t, without fear of failure … as a bigger part of lifelong learning and growing.
How can we create hope in our lives?
- take stock of your life and see what is working and what isn’t
- be kind to your body and manage stress, spend time in silence
- be with others who have hopeful lives and avoid those who dwell in drama and negativism
- be the elder role model of hope in your family and among friends
- visualize a positive future
Even in the toughest of times, when things don’t go as planned, with hope you will be okay. Hope will get you through anything.
“Happiness and optimism cannot exist without hope, but hope can exist without happiness or optimism”. I disagree with the first part of this premise. I have no strong opinion about the second half one way or the other. At 72, there are things one learns to accept without hope; the irreversibility of urban environmental degradation and the cumulative negative global impact of accelerating fossil feul demand and consumption and death are two realities among several that come to mind.
That said, one can, with a well cultivated sense of gratitude for so many things about being senient and alive, retain a sense of happiness and optimism about many things; one’s’ children and grand children come to mind.
First of all, Martun, thank you for taking the time to respond to my words. I always appreciate dissenting points of view, and yours is no exception. So, thank you for that! I didn’t, however, say “acceptance cannot exist without hope ….” and you talk about learning to accept, not be happy or optimistic. Whether we agree or not, I feel as you that there are huge challenges in this world that look insurmountable. I will never give up the hope — happiness and optimism aside — that improvements won’t come in the future. Again, thank you for reading and responding.