“I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.” – Anne Frank, German-born diarist, and World War II Holocaust victim who died at Bergen-Belsen concertation camp at the age of 16

Optimism is in the biology of hope. For thousands of years, man has been searching for a reason. A reason to live, to work, and to love. Why would someone harness themselves to an oxcart, day after day, knowing that they will have to do it again? To trudge through the muck day after day?

Some have used religion and spirituality; some have turned to science to search for the answers to life. There is one thing in common, they inspire hope.

In the dictionary, if you look up hope you will find that it says that it is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. You can find hope as a pillar in every self-help book and all religions. We all desire a reason to push on and hope is that reason. Continue reading →

Hope is something that we all wish to have, yet very few of us are able to maintain long-term. It’s only human nature to hope that things will be better in the future, even if they’re less than ideal right now. But did you know that hope actually has healing qualities? Let’s go over five ways that hope can heal you physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

1 – It Can Improve Your Mood

In a study published in the Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research in 2018, researchers were looking for a link between being optimistic or hopeful and a patient’s mood. They recruited 38 people suffering from diabetes mellitus, a condition that can produce chronic pain and depression.

Patients underwent a type of therapy, hope therapy, that focused on a patient’s strengths and good qualities rather than their weaknesses. By the end of the study, scientists learned that the presence of hope resulted in a greater overall mood and a lower risk of severe depression. Continue reading →