Do you consider yourself optimistic? Do you expect the best and believe in a positive future? Then you would probably consider hope to be one of your strengths. Hope is consistently linked with health and well-being. Hope is a positive emotion and a strength of transcendence on the VIA scale. Strengths that fall under the heading of transcendence tend to connect us to the larger world. In simplistic terms related to being defined a strength, hope is expecting the best and striving to achieve it. A survey completed by a group of oncologists revealed that hope seemed to be the common and prevalent psychological factor influencing recovery. Other studies have shown that more hope affected hypertension diagnoses; fewer people were diagnosed with hypertension and fewer people with more hope than others were diagnosed with diabetes and respiratory infections. Some studies also show improvement in immunity status when they have the strength of hope. I have seen how hope can affect a patient’s recovery. I have been amazed that some people with poor prognosis fared very well because they always remained hopeful. Even in dire circumstances, they looked forward to recovering and thinking about their future.
Hope includes the concepts of basic trust and openness, higher goals, beliefs that empower, collaborative actions, self-regulatory ability and spiritual association which can include religious beliefs, spiritual awareness or a belief in a higher power. Do you have empowering beliefs? Are you trustful of things that happen? Do you have a spiritual connection or believe in something larger than our universe? These are questions to ask yourself.
Ways to foster hope can include:
- When you are faced with a problem, think about how you dealt with challenges in the past. Realize that you dealt with adversity before and can do it again.
- Try to maintain relationships with positive minded people. Accept encouragement and do the same for them.
- Maintain a relationship with nature. Get outside and listen to the birds chirp, the ocean flowing in and out or the magnitude and strength of mountains surrounding you.
References:
Rashid, T. (2015). Retrieved from Character Strengths Matter