The Importance of Having Hope

Life can be challenging at times. No matter where you live or how comfortable your life is, everyone experiences pain and suffering at some point in their lives - it’s just part of the human condition. 

Although it may not always feel like it, your trauma doesn’t define you. Rather, it’s how you move forward that matters. To move forward, you need hope. 

What is hope?

Hope sometimes gets branded as nothing more than wishful thinking. In reality, hope is so much more than just desiring or wishing for something. A better definition of hope is that it is a combination of faith and trust in an outcome. 

A hopeful future is one in which you have faith and trust in the potential for your life to involve the people, emotions, activities, and overall quality that you feel in your heart is meant for you.  

Why is having hope and Positive thoughts is important today?

If you ask someone why having hope is important, the first answer they’ll often give you is that hope makes it easier to get through tough times. While emotional regulation is one component of hope, it has the power to benefit your life in so many other ways.  

Hope makes it easier to forgive and Trust

Holding grudges and having hope are incompatible. You cannot move toward a hopeful future until you leave the past behind. By embracing hope, you also embrace forgiveness. 

If you’re struggling to forgive someone, consider how this grudge is serving you. By punishing this person with a withholding of forgiveness, are you also punishing yourself by keeping yourself stuck? Having faith that good things await you in your future will make it easier to forgive those who have hurt or wronged you.  

Hope is Positive, motivational and inspirational

One of the most important aspects of hope is its power to effect real, concrete change in your life. When you have faith in a happier future, you’ll wake up each morning feeling self-motivation to do what you can to get one step closer to that future. 

For example, if you’re feeling stuck in your current job and are hopeful that you’ll find your dream job one day, you’ll put in the time to check out job boards and submit applications until you get an interview.  

Without hope, the obstacles and time it takes to reach your desired future will feel too monumental to overcome. 

Hope is empowering

Wishing for something to happen is a passive act. It suggests waiting around for good things to fall into your lap. Unlike wishful thinking, hoping is an active process. When you have hope, you don’t wait for others to make things happen for you. Having hope means you know that the only person who can instill change in your life is you. 

Feeling empowered through the knowledge that change is within you will also change your negative thoughts to positive ones. Instead of thinking you can’t do something and that you’ll be unhappy forever, hope reminds you that you can do anything you set your mind to. That happiness is important and right around the corner.