I have been thinking a lot about hope lately. I believe it’s the most powerful emotion to bring change into your life. When you are suffering or struggling with something hard, holding onto even a tiny bit of hope that it might change, will allow it to get better. I have seen it work in my life countless times. Even when I couldn’t imagine a solution, if I held onto hope, the perfect solution always materialized.

Even During the Toughest of Times, Hope Shined Through

Much of my life has been a series of painful struggles and extreme challenges and throughout it all, I have always had this deep core of hope within me that wells up to overcome the negative and bring me out of it. At the time I wasn’t quite aware of what it was or how it worked, but I now realize that was me holding onto a connection to God/The Universe. It was me being in alignment just enough to tip the scales from fear, discouragement or feeling overwhelmed to something a bit better. I have always valued this connection and knew it was the key to me being able to “bounce back” quickly and be ok even when things looked dire.

Look Hard for That Tiny Slip of Hope

The other day, I was listening to Abraham talk about a woman who was suffering from chronic pain. It was incredibly difficult for this woman not to think about this pain which was the center of her day. Abraham suggested that if she could find even a few moments to try and think about hope; what it would feel like to not be in pain, things would start to change for her. I have been there and know what chronic pain feels like so I sympathized. I also know how hard it is when you are in it to look away and focus on anything but how miserable you feel. It is possible, but it’s not easy sometimes.

Let Hope Be Your Guiding Light

While watching TV, this idea was hammered home during an apocalyptic scene where the world was desolate and cold. A man sat in a rotted out car and noticed a dandelion coming up through the crack in the pavement. He smiled, and I thought, that is what hope really is. It’s about finding a way to notice that small improvement or find the thread of something better and then pulling hard on it to take you into a more beautiful place.

Sometimes it’s incredibly hard to go from depressed to happy or even stressed to just ok. But if you can find one, tiny ray of hope in the day, you are one step closer to feeling better in all ways. You don’t have to fix it all at once but hope will point you in the right direction.

We all run with the negatives so the next time you feel a tiny bit of hope, run with that instead. Play around with how good things can get, and you will instantly feel better. Pretty soon you will be in that better place and know that hope got you there!