Hope

Hope

What is it?

Hope is the belief that good things will occur in the future. Why it’s important right now? With the pandemic causing so much loss to life and livelihood, it is hard to remain hopeful, yet it is now more than ever that hope is required as it may help guide us out of the darkness and drudgery that is the pandemic. Hope has been shown to mediate a reduction in psychological distress, during the pandemic it also acts as a protective factor against the stress of the pandemic.

How?

If you don’t usually look at life with a hopeful outlook, and all this hope talk is making you feel hopeless, don’t dread, we have you covered, here’s how you can adopt a hopeful attitude towards life:

1. Smallest possible change: Think of something in your life you’re dissatisfied about, commit to taking one small step to change something small about the situation.

2. A little bit of imagination may do the trick: Close your eyes, or keep them open if you’d rather not, and imagine an older, wiser you maybe 5 years down the line or ten who has achieved all that you wanted to, has the life you want, now imagine this older, wiser you seeing you go through the struggle, ask yourself, what words of encouragement may this future you have for the present you, what may they do differently in this situation, how can you incorporate that into your life now. If you have been feeling hopelessness, for more than 2 weeks continuously, then it may be suggestive of a depressive episode, however, it is important not to panic. A certain level of hopelessness may be a by-product of the challenging times we are living in, however, if you have other symptoms, accompanying hopelessness, such as low mood, loss of interest in activities, low energy, for 2 weeks or more, please contact a mental health professional for diagnosis and further help. It may seem impossible and we agree that it’s really hard! But, you can make it through! You can be helped. Jus give it a shot :’)