How Hope Impacts Your Mental Health (and Why it Matters)

If we are struggling and we don't have hope, if we don't have the trust in ourselves or other people that they are going to help us make it through to the other side, it gets really difficult to just live life. Welcome to the let's Talk about it podcast, where we are taking the first fear and frustration out of asking for help when it comes to your emotional and mental health and giving you what you need to think about things a bit differently. I'm Laurie Streeter, licensed therapist and certified hypnotherapist, and with each episode I'll bring you thoughts, techniques, or a guest to help you find your breakthroughs and live a healthier, happier life. Are you ready? Let's Talk About It. Welcome back to another episode of let's Talk about it with Laurie Streeter. This is something that comes up very indirectly with a lot of my clients. When I talk about this topic. You're probably going to say, duh. Like, this is probably something that you have absolutely 100% thought about before, but possibly not with the clarity or like the verbiage of how I'm going to describe it. And it's not like I'm doing anything special today. But sometimes we need to hear something that we have already thought about in just a different way so that we can be reminded of it either in that moment or the next time we're struggling or whatnot. So there is a huge connection between hope and mental health. If you look up the definition of hope, it literally says the feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. The second definition, though, is a feeling of trust. And that is a big piece that I think we, again, indirectly think about in terms of mental health. But we don't think about it because I just don't think we articulate it enough to be able to remind ourselves. So one of the big things, when people are coming to me for help, it's because there is some kind of struggle or problem or they're going through a life change. They want skills or someone to talk to, to work through through that thing, what the underlying thing, the thread running through therapy is, or this is how I see it, because there's a lot of fibers and threads that run through therapy and themes and things like that. But this idea of hope, they have a safe place, right? They have someone that they can trust. My clients have someone that they can trust that me or your therapist that you can trust. But this thread of hope, this belief that if I get the help that I need and or want right now, that there is a possibility that things will feel better in the future. Right. And that is really an underlying thing in therapy that I address, but even I don't necessarily address it directly, but it is totally something to think about. So if you think about that definition of hope where I said a feeling of trust, when we talk about hope and mental health, if we are struggling and we don't have hope, if we don't have the trust in ourselves or, or other people that they are going to help us make it through to the other side, it gets really difficult to just live life. It gets really hard to get out of bed when you don't have hope either hope that you can do something different, hope that you're going to feel better, or hope that someone else is going to help you out in some way that day or that moment or later on that week or whatever it is. So this idea of hope is incredibly important in general, right? But specifically when it comes to mental health, because if you don't have the belief, a deeply held belief that it is possible that you can feel better, you are likely going to struggle a lot more because you have a hard time understanding that there might be something on the other side. And when you have hope, when you have this belief that it's possible to feel better, right? If you're struggling with anxiety, there's a possibility that, hey, even if I deal with the symptoms of anxiety for the rest of my life, that there is a possibility that I don't have to feel this anxious every day. If you have that hope, then you do the things and you stick with the actions that help you build the skills to manage the symptoms of anxiety, right? And then down the road, that hope, that belief that it is possible to feel better down the road, you'll be glad that you stuck with it during those hard days. But when you have those hard days or those hard moments and you lack hope, you lack the belief that it is possible to feel better. Healing and recovery and the idea that it could be better than it is is almost non existent. You don't believe it, right? Because you don't believe it's possible. So whatever, there's no, there's no good. This is, this is hard to like explain in words, right? Because it's, it's almost a belief. A feeling of trust is not something that I can explain, it's something that I feel that you feel that your loved one feels or whatnot, right? But you have to decide what gives you hope, who gives you hope, what you listen to and the things around you, right? What can you surround yourself with that keep you filled with the belief that things can get better than what they are right now? You have to decide that for yourself. But if you've never even thought about the idea of how important hope is, start there. Start with, what does that mean to you? If you're struggling right now or in the moments when you're struggling with mental health or anything, it could be finances, right? And we know finances impacts our mental health. Everything impacts our mental health, good and bad. So if you've never thought about, huh, what's pulled me through those tough times? A lot of times, if you think about it, it starts with the belief that it could be better than it, then you're willing to take the action, right? I deal with a lot of people who want to lose weight. If they have the belief in themselves that they can be more mobile, that they could look in the mirror and be proud of what they see, then they're going to be willing to take the action that helps them lose weight. But if they don't even believe that it's possible, they're not going to take the action, or they'll take the action because someone else is telling them it's a good idea, but it's maybe not sustainable, right? So this is a very personal belief kind of thing. So you have to first think about what hope means to you. Where has it showed up in your life before? Where has it carried you through those tougher moments? And then how can you use it now or the next time that you struggle? Because that is going to be the thread that runs through your willingness to continue taking action when things are more difficult or during your harder days. I say all the time that I feel like this is really important, right? I'm sure you've heard that out of my mouth before. But all of these things are important. All of these things are something to think about and something to remember and think about what it looks like in terms of your life and in relation to your life and your lifestyle and your goals and your struggles and all of that stuff. Everything that I talk about is going to look different to each different individual. But hope is another one of these pieces of mental health that maybe we don't think about, or maybe you haven't thought about, or maybe you have thought about it, but you need to be reminded of, right? And a lot of times we have thought about this stuff. If I were to ask a lot of people, you know, if they've ever thought about hope or the idea of it, they probably say yes, but sometimes we just need to be reminded of it or it needs to be framed in a different way that we can remember to think about it the next time that we're struggling. Because I just really strongly feel like stuff is way more difficult if we don't have some kind of belief that it is possible to feel better than what we do in that moment. That is really difficult. I hope this gives you a little bit of a fresh perspective, reminds you of the importance of hope. I know that that word in general can, a lot of times have, like, religious undertones. It doesn't have to. If that's what hope is to you, if it has a religious tie to it, then great. If it doesn't, that's fine. I think it's one of those feelings. If that is subjective, you just have to decide what it means to you, what it looks like in your life, and how it feels in terms of your own personal beliefs and goals and struggles and strengths and relationships and all of that stuff. So I hope this gives you a little bit, like I said, of a fresh perspective, another little something to think about, another little piece of the puzzle. But I really do think hope and mental health for very much, go hand in hand. And a lot of times when I'm meeting with my clients, I am the person that wants to remind them that things could get better. Because when we're struggling, it is hard to believe that things could get better, or it's hard to remember what things looked like when they were better. So sometimes I am trying to reinstill hope and that belief that it's possible in. In my clients. But once they can believe it for themselves, then they're off to the races, right? So sometimes we just need people to remind us that, that hope is there so that we can believe it again, so that we can take the action that is going to eventually help us feel better, get to the other side, make progress, whatever that looks like, based on whatever you're dealing with. If you need little reminders like this, if you need things to think about, tips, techniques, just my own thought. I send out a text every morning after I've woken up and gotten going for the day. And it's a little extra way to be able to connect and send these little pieces of inspiration that we just sometimes need to be reminded of or hear in a different way so that it clicks and that we can face the day in a different way or, you know, just keep going. Or be reminded of, like, okay, oh, I can do this. Like, we're. We're good. I know it's really hard right now, but, like, I got this. So if you want to join me, if you want my text messages every morning, text podcast to 630-228-1002 and join me over there. I also love to see your thoughts when you share this stuff on Instagram and tag me in episodes and let me know your takeaways and all of that. That's always, always, always really fun to see where you're listening to the podcast and what you're getting out of it and all of that good stuff. So, hope and mental health, what does that mean to you? Think about what it looks like in terms of your life and I will talk to you in the next episode. Thank you so much for spending this time with me today. If you loved this episode, it would mean so much if you would share it with someone who you think, think would love it, too. And don't forget to leave a review with your thoughts, what resonated, or even what you'd like to hear more of, because I promise you, if something's on your mind, it's on other people's minds, too. I appreciate your help in getting these messages on mental health out into the world. And until next time, cheers to living a healthier, happier life. Sam.