The Value of Hope

It’s one of those things in life I feel as though the everyday person takes for

granted because no one ever knows how much they relied on it until they’ve

struggled to find it. This struggle feels like you are in a never-ending abyss,

constantly trying to climb out but never making any progress. How do you find

hope? Hope being the very undervalued thing that’s a core part of us and what

drives us.

We define hope as “the expectation that one will have positive experiences

or that a potentially threatening or negative situation will not materialize or will

ultimately result in a favorable state of affairs,” so in simple terms, it can also

mean looking at life with a sense of positivity and optimism. Hope drives

everyone. No matter what stage of life you are in, it’s essential. Hope is the very

thing that makes you want to do anything. Where and what people find hope in is

really neverending.

I was walking on my colleges’ campus the other day, and some group had

put out a big board and wrote on it, “What give you hope?” and they were

handing people markers asking them to write their answers. The answers ranged

from my mom, Jesus, God, my family, my wife, etc. So truly, people find hope in

so many things.

So what happens when you feel like you can no longer find it? What

happens when you wake up in the morning and feel like you have no more hope
left? Well, It should come as no surprise that hope or lack of it has a close

connection to anxiety and depression. Reading this made me understand why I

couldn’t really come up with an answer to that question they were asking on

campus. I’ve been in one of the worst depressive episodes of my life for the last

few months, and writing “I got myself out of bed this morning” or “after four hours

of laying in bed today, I convinced myself to go to the store” didn’t seem like the

type of answers they wanted.

It honestly destroyed me inside for a bit, feeling like my answers weren’t

good enough. This not only made me feel worse than I already did, but I had

managed to make myself believe what I thought they would think if I had written

my answers down. That my mundane reasons of what was giving me hope

weren’t good enough and actually just meant that I truly had no more hope in

myself or my life. I realized, though, who says that simple mundane things can’t

be what gives you hope. I got myself out of bed today, and for me right now, that

is huge. Worthy of a parade of celebration.

I’ve been clinging to the very last strings of hope I can find for the last

months without even realizing it. I think that’s how you do it, though, how you find

hope when you feel like you’ve completely lost it. Remember to remind yourself

to keep looking for reasons to have hope, no matter how small, dumb, or silly you

may think others may find it. If it is the reason you can get yourself to continue

living, then it is the most valid thing in this world.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mental-health-in-the-workplace/

202110/the-psychology-hope