How does "hope" affect your health?

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Finding and nurturing hope can be difficult in a time like a pandemic. If there is hope and optimism, there will be a healthier and longer life. Taking control, finding the silver lining, and planning ahead can offer hope. Uncertainty about the pandemic and its long-term effects may leave little hope. According to a 2019 study, researchers found that optimism was specifically associated with an 11 to 15% longer average life expectancy and a higher survival rate to 85 years or older.

1. How does hope affect your health?

Research actually shows that people with a highly optimistic attitude live longer, healthier lives, and have a lower risk of chronic diseases especially cardiovascular disease. Optimistic people who eat a healthy diet, exercise, and smoke less contribute to improved health and quality of life.
There is also evidence that optimism is associated with a reduced risk of chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, overweight and obesity, which leads to longer life expectancy.
Those are good reasons to be more hopeful, ways to improve health, live longer, limit disease, overcome pandemic anguish but finding ways to build hope can still seems very difficult. However, experts say the following 5 tips can help you tap into life's positive side.

2. 5 ways to help you tap into the positive side of life

2.1. Control We always hope that the future will be better than the present. For example, when there is a pandemic, it seems that it is impossible to control when there is a vaccine, when there is a treatment, when we are resistant enough to overcome it.
Although the feeling of despair is real, we need to control in our thoughts the positive things to counteract those negative feelings.
Some people choose to be proactive towards others such as helping their neighbors or supporting those who are in difficulty, so they will feel more optimistic when they can do something instead of sitting in silence thinking about it. occlusion.
2.2. Read positive news Usually when people face difficult situations, they think about how they have overcome similar challenges before. However, because the pandemic is unique, this strategy is difficult.
One way to stay optimistic today is to focus attention on good news, such as the development of a vaccine, and limit reading negative news from the media. . Do not watch TV or read newspapers for a few days to protect your mental health from feelings of hurt, anxiety or sadness.
Recognizing changes for the better after the pandemic can also bring positivity and resilience or go for a walk every day to be more active, reconnect with old friends through technology, spend more spend more time with their children or often prepare meals at home.

2.3. Building Gratitude Research shows that regularly expressing and expressing gratitude can increase happiness and promote optimism by reminding yourself that good things are happening even in the dark. dark times There are dangers and risks, but it takes a more intentional effort to notice the things that make us happy and the things we can feel grateful for. Feeling grateful requires a purposeful action. , not an instinctive response. To start being grateful, ask yourself the following questions and you will find it easier to see the good things in each day as you practice this: What good things happened today? What is my role? And what did I learn from it?
2.4. Blame Bad Luck Optimism is a style of explanation that people use to understand why good and bad things happen. Pessimists can learn to be optimists by rethinking how they react to adversity.
Optimists believe that negative events are temporary and blame external causes while pessimists point to permanent causes of their own making.
Also, when it fails, optimists only see failure in one area and fall back while pessimists believe that failure in one area means failure in all areas of life. .
So if something goes wrong and you consider it your fault, you are less optimistic, but if you consider it bad luck, you are more likely to come back. Alternatively, if you find it more situational than common, you can say “I'll put it in a box and move on.”
2.5 Looking Forward to Better Times While Waiting While waiting for the covid 19 pandemic to be under control, it is extremely helpful to plan for upcoming goals to create a sense of euphoria, such as building a small social gathering outside with a few close friends or dear family members weather permitting and start thinking about details, such as guests, location, music.

3. Is hope something we can learn?

The researchers hope so. Several studies looking at "hope therapy" are showing positive results.
Hope therapy seeks to build on the strengths that people have or teaches them how to develop those strengths, not focusing on the wrong like traditional talk therapy but on helping people live their full potential surname.
One study looked at 32 people who participated in two-hour-a-week hope therapy sessions for eight weeks. They were tested before and after, and compared with a group that did not go to therapy. Therapy groups range from four to eight people and are led by a pair of clinical psychology doctoral students. Participants in group therapy experienced significant changes in measures of self-esteem, meaning of life, and anxiety compared with those not participating in group therapy. There was a reduction in depressive symptoms, but it did not reach statistical significance.
Therapeutic groups are taught skills that researchers believe are relevant to hope and hopeful people have goals, the inspiration to pursue those goals, and the skills to make them happen real.

4. How is hope defined?

If you feel you know how to get what you want in life, and you have the desire to make it happen, then you have hope.
People with high hopes possess the "elements of hope" and have goals with long-term and short-term implications.

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Reference sources: webmd.com, healthline.com