Rediscovering Hope Amidst Chaos

"Accurately quantifying the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic defies just counting the dead and hospitalized to put the tragedy in perspective. These astronomical numbers fail to capture the impact of individual lives lost and families deprived of loved ones and exceed the limits of human imagination.

As we each strive to reorient ourselves amid the tumult, it is worth remembering that in the myth of Pandora, one thing remains in her possession: Hope. If we are to take anything away from this story, it is that hope gives us the power to endure the ills of the world. It centers us. It makes us strong. It is the inner beacon that guides us. For some people, this hope is closely aligned with faith. For others, it lacks religious character and is related instead to their connection to a community or their love for family.

Throughout my 30 years as a clinical psychiatrist based at an inner-city hospital in New York City, I came to appreciate the durability of hope in the face of tragedy and its ability to lift up patients and their loved ones. Particularly during the most difficult moments, whether following 9/11 or during the spring of 2020, hope gives people something to hold onto. It is integral to resilience.

Given the events of the past three years, many people can surely relate. People throughout the world are still struggling to process the full impact of the pandemic. Economic challenges are fueling an impending sense of doom. The depths of despair are ravaging communities in the U.S. where people feel increasingly left behind. Meanwhile, social media and traditional media feed a steady stream of content designed to keep us engaged through a combination of fear, rage, and indignation.

As understandable as these feelings are, and as pollyannish as it seems to speak of hope, feeding our negative emotions is not conducive to successfully processing trauma. Instead, it leads to internalization. Worse, it fuels a sense of victimhood and rancor, ensuring that past traumas remain unresolved and perpetuated in new and oftentimes more monstrous forms.

If we are to develop resiliency to stress and thrive in the wake of tragedy, we cannot let these negative feelings color our outlook. We must recommit ourselves to our communities, rediscover a sense of collective purpose, and once again lift hope to a prominent position in our lives and allow it to be our guide."

*The past few years have been some of the most difficult years in many of our lives. Our world was turned upside down and everything we were used to changed because of the pandemic. We couldn't socialize like we normally do and we all had to change our daily living habits. This turned into a mental health epidemic and many people are still recovering from that now. I understand the struggle we all feel and as the article stated, we sometimes linger in that depression, whether we intend to or not. The media feeds us all negative news and we are constantly surrounded by it. It's important we turn off the social media and reconnect with the world and ourselves. Not everything has to be negative. We have some control over our moods and the attitudes we surround ourselves with! We have to work on increasing our levels of hope because it can help us tackle tough times when they come. Resilience is important and it begins with hope. Do you think you are someone with a lot of hope? If so, how does that help you when faced with difficult situations? If not, what are some ways you could work on increasing your levels of hope in life?*

#Hope #Pandemic #Resilience

Please find the full article at Psychology Today.

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