5 Steps to Create Hope When Things Feel Hopeless

You did not except this. You are not happy about it. In fact, you are feeling pretty low about how things are happening. It may feel like you have no control. You may feel like you want to do something but you just don’t know what to do. The hopelessness can be overwhelming and make you feel stuck. Well, you do not have to exist in this space of hopelessness and despair. I want to share with you 5 steps to create hope when things feel hopeless.

1. Acknowledge That It Is What It Is

Mama said there’d be days like this,

There’d be days like this Mama said

(Mama said, mama said) – Mama Said by The Shirelles

Instead of wasting time trying to act as if things don’t feel hopeless, go on and acknowledge that it is what it is. Life is full of good and the not so good. Allowing yourself to admit that things really feel hopeless in that moment can sometimes be exactly what you need in order to regroup. Give yourself the space to feel what you are feeling. Those emotions contain important information about this moment. Until you are no longer a human, you will feel hope and hopelessness sometimes. Accept how you feel in this moment as simply your truth.

2. Remind Yourself of Who You Are As Your Most Powerful Purposeful Self

Now that you’ve accepted that you feel hopeless, take a moment to remember that you did not always feel that way. Describe what happens when you have shown up as your most powerful purposeful self. How did you feel? What did you do? Remind yourself of a time, or multiple times when you stood in your purpose and made yourself proud of who you are and how you handled things. No, the situations you bring up do not have to be related to this situation in any way shape or form. Just remember you at your best.

3. Shift Your Focus

Kick start your attitude of gratitude to shift your focus from all that is not to all that is. Often times when things seem hopeless, they only seem that way because you get caught up in all that has gone wrong. Instead of being focused on what is wrong, choose to look at what is going right. As I said, life is full of good and the not so good. They are happening simultaneously and your focus determines what you notice. Decide to notice the good. Challenge yourself to recognize things in this situation that are hopeful that are helpful that are good. Do not give any more energy to the negative hopeless aspects of the moment. Shift your focus to highlight signs of hope right where you are.

4. Imagine What It Is When It Is Not Hopeless

Now that you are beginning to see the current hope in what felt like a hopeless moment, kick up the hope even further. Use your imagination. Allow yourself to dream. Describe what it is when it is not hopeless. This might be a memory or it might be a wish. Explore the details of how fabulous it is when it is not hopeless. What is it instead? How do you know? Do not be afraid to dream big! Your visualizations set an intention to create what you describe. Imagine the best that you can and pay attention to how it feels.

5. Move As If The Hope Is Real

What do you notice about how you are feeling now? Do you notice less hopelessness? Fantastic! But you are not finished. It is time to work on those things that had you feeling hopeless to begin with. You’ve put them into perspective but are there things that need to change? What can you do to make sure you do not end up back here feeling a sense of hopelessness again? If you started moving as if the hope is real, what would you do in this moment? What would be a great next step if you moved with an expectation of hope? Get up. Get moving. Get busy. Get results. How you act speaks directly to how real you believe the hope is. You will notice that when you move as if the hope is real, you show yourself that the hope was always real.

So how do these steps work for you? Where did you surprise yourself with your own sense of power? Where did you find yourself reluctant to embrace these steps? How can this process be useful to you right now or sometime down the road?
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