Hope: Harness the Emotion That Keeps Us Going.

Hope is often seen as one of the most important emotions in life in life. Defined as an optimistic state of mind based on an expectation of positive outcomes, hope is something that we all have to a greater or lesser extent.

hope/

1.a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen.

Oxford Languages

Hope is portrayed as a great motivator in films, TV shows and literature, and psychological studies have shown that hope can, indeed, be of great benefit to us, but only when the thing we hope for is based on a realistic sense of optimism, not on a naïve “false hope”.

In the USA, April is the National Month of Hope and celebrates the power of this emotion. As the days get lighter and warmer and spring really arrives, hope seems to come a little easier.

History: 

The National Month of Hope is the result of the work of the not-for-profit organisation, Mothers In Crisis, Inc. Beginning as a support group for women, the organisation expanded into community-based prevention and intervention for drug rehabilitation. Mothers in Crisis was founded by Rosalind Tompkins in 1991, herself a recovered addict.

Mothers In Crisis, Inc. supports women and families. It’s hope campaign encourages the sharing of stories of hope to help families ripped apart by addiction and this, in turn, led to the recognition of April as the month of hope in 2018.

How to Celebrate: 

Here a few ways you can help spread hope and kindness around your community: 

  • Volunteer by reading to children in schools or a library. 
  • Experience meaningful and healthy communication with loved ones, family, friends, co-workers, and colleagues. 
  • Giving of time, food, and money to help families in need. 
  • Post on social media words of hope, you never know who needs those extra words of encouragement. 
  • Sharing your story of overcoming with those who are going through hard times, can inspire them or show that times can get better. 
  • Lending a helping hand to those in need, can be as simple as carrying someone’s shopping.
  • Cleaning up areas where there is litter such as parks, beaches and any green spaces.
  • Spend a day with the homeless whether on the streets or at a homeless shelter or food bank.

There is no doubt that hope is an important thing in people’s lives and the psychologist Charles R. Snyder has argued that hope should be viewed as a cognitive skill that demonstrates an individual’s ability to maintain drive and motivation in the pursuit of a particular goal.

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.

— Emily Dickinson

There have even been some studies that have shown that hope can play an important part in the recovery process from illness; it has strong psychological benefits for patients, helping them to cope more effectively with their disease.

Hope is the thing with feathers, as Emily Dickinson said, and a little bit of hope is good for us all.

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