Hope is a powerful feeling, a desire and a belief for something to occur even when odds are against it.

Feeling hopeful urges us to keep on going and brings with it a sense of optimism that ‘things are going to work out’ or that ‘ there will be light at the end of the tunnel’. It may boost our resilience and give us something to hold on to when things seem bleak. Even if things don’t go according to plan, hope is the conviction that everything will turn out for the best.

Conversely, the absence of Hope or hopelessness may foster feelings of exhaustion, wanting to give up, discouragement, sadness or even anger.

According to research, those with high hope scores have superior psychological well-being, lower levels of despair and anxiety.

We can work to foster or cultivate a sense of hopefulness in our lives, and is not something we need to do alone. The first step to fostering a sense of hope is to accept that there is always that possibility of things turning around. We may look to build our narratives through other stories of hope from our own and other’s lives as well.

In these uncertain times, are you able to experience that sense of ‘hopefulness’? What steps do you take to invite hope in to your life?