Finding Hope In the Time of Coronavirus
The article sheds light on the health benefits of hope. Finding hope in these unprecedented and challenging times can be overwhelming and cumbersome. The ongoing pandemic forced humanity to rethink their priorities, finances, health, careers etc.
Finding hope during these trying times can be challenging but not necessarily impossible. Hope is indeed a powerful feeling. Hope is like an inspiration that helps us to face the hurdles in our lives. So, no matter what, it pays to be optimistic.
Did you know that hope can be linked directly to your health? Yes, there are health benefits of hope. According to a recent Harvard study, it was found that people who are more optimistic and had more hope lived fairly happy and healthier lives.
People who believed in hope also lowered their chances of anxiety, chronic diseases, depression and stress. In short, when you live with hope in your lives, you improve your overall well-being.
Even during the pandemic, it’s important to look for a ray of hope, no matter how minute it may be. Finding hope and being optimistic helps you to age in well with better mental health as well. Studies also suggest that being optimistic also helps one lower the chances of hypertension and obesity, thus bringing down the risk of premature mortality.
What Are the Health Benefits of Hope and How Can You Build It?
If holding on to hope and optimism is a good thing, how do we instill and build it in our everyday lives?
Look For Positive And Motivational Content
Attend a motivational seminar or event, watch or read about inspirational people from around the world. Positive quotes, success stories can inspire you to be optimistic in your life and hold onto hope for a better future.
Alternatively, you can also be a part of a religious or spiritual group. For decades, this has been a success. People have drawn support, sought calm and witnessed the elevation of the human spirit simply by believing there is something or anything far stronger than them in a world of like believers.
Be Grateful
Being grateful is one out of the many other things you can follow to build hope in tough times is to practise gratitude and kindness. Pray, write or profess gratitude – be grateful for the little things in life. It helps you to shape an optimistic mindset.
If you constantly complain about the things gone wrong in your life, you are only attracting negative thoughts and energy, leaving no room for positivity or hope to take over.
When you practice kindness and gratitude, you are building room for positivity and hope to grow. There is hope for good things to unfold even in uncertain times.
To begin the practice of being grateful, you need to ask yourself the following questions:
- What all should I be grateful for today?
- Did I contribute in any way to all the good things around me?
When you start noticing the good things in your everyday life, it becomes easy to be optimistic even in the darkest times.
Take Control
It is important to control your emotions and feelings while acknowledging that certain things may not be in your control. While you cannot control the vaccine doses and COVID-19 spread, there are certain things that you can take charge of.
For instance, you can control your course of action, your feelings and actions. Hope is what makes the future what living for. It is a powerful thing; it believes that things can be better than the present circumstances.
We may not control the ongoing pandemic, but we can surely be hopeful and look forward to a world free of the virus. Being hopeful has a positive effect on your life as well as others.
You can always take control of the situation and help people, supporting your neighbours during the pandemic. Helping others always helps you feel good and build hope – that things may be tough, but together you can endure it.
To sum up, one cannot control or stop bad things or unfortunate incidents from taking place. But instead of blaming your misfortunes for it or yourself entirely, try changing your perspective.
Maybe it was all bad timing and bad luck or circumstances. Things may be bad now, but it could have been worse. Pessimists will always look at one failure or mishap as a permanent one, and that’s why they find it difficult to build optimistic thoughts.
Optimistic individuals and people who hope will always see misfortunes as temporary and try to emerge victorious from their ill-fate.