The New Science of Hope

"According to Gallup’s 2022 Global Emotions Report, the trend for this situation is getting worse. The Gallup report highlights three important, alarming tendencies.

1. People are having more negative experiences and fewer positive ones.
2. Stress, sadness, and worry are at their highest recorded levels.
3. People do not feel rested and experience less joy than at any other time in history.

New research and ways of thinking about what is needed indicate there is hope—literally. A new science of hope and hopefulness has the capacity to change the trend. The key is understanding exactly what hope is, what makes it unique and making that realization work for you.

Hope is the only positive emotion that requires negativity or uncertainty to be activated. Without bleakness, the spark for hope isn’t ignited.

Low hope people fail to realize that the negativity or uncertainty is a call to action—one that can serve to change their perception about a situation. High hope people stand ready for life's challenges, and the payoff comes from research that shows they will live a longer, happier, and healthier life.

We require different ways of thinking about the problem to create more effective treatment interventions.

This new approach helps empower people to make changes by assisting them to experience more positive emotions.

Negative and positive thoughts are typically unbalanced when under stress and worry. Medicine and traditional therapy approaches knocked the negative thoughts off, but they do nothing to add to the positive thoughts. We relapse because there isn't anything positive being added. This is to say that positive psychology and hope can offer the other half of the equation.

If you want to add a little more hope to your life, here are three things you can do to begin.

1. Use micro-goals. Set goals that let you achieve results within 20 or 30 minutes—or even up to 2 hours. Micro-goals provide satisfaction and joy from accomplishing a goal.
2. Express gratitude toward others every opportunity you have. The benefits of expressing it are known to cause an increase in happiness, health, and life satisfaction, as well as decreases in negative emotions and problematic functioning.
3. Finally, find ways to be kind. Being kind is part of a feedback loop that is triggered by positive emotions and facilitates well-being."

Read the complete article available at Psychology Today!

Reflection:

Would you say that you're a hopeful person? What are some ways you would recommend to add more hope to your life?

*I used to be very pessimistic until I learnt that it was becoming very detrimental to my confidence and overall self-esteem. I'm working on being more hopeful and optimistic! I would definitely recommend the 'gratitude expression' method of building hope. It's improved my life tremendously.*

#Hope #Optimism #Positivity #Life