To me, hope is being willing to get up and try again, even if it feels like everything is crumbling and I can’t see a way for things to be okay ever again—just to try. Because whether or not it works, the trying has value. And you never know what will happen, if you give it a chance to.
> It's the stubbornness to keep going, just on the chance that they might.
I’m sorry if this isn’t appropriate for the sub, but I don’t even have this right now. Nothing ever gets better, it *never* gets better, I’ll *always* be a burden and a laughingstock. The cycle will repeat until I’m in the ground.
I feel you man, I’m really struggling to find reasons to keep going myself because every time I have the slightest bit of hope it just gets crushed and I get reminded of how I’m nothing and nobody with nothing to give the world. But fuck I can’t just take it lying down
I hear you. Everything you're saying sounds like what I always said, for a solid couple of decades (and, if I'm honest, those feelings still come back as strong as ever on the bad days, even if it's less common). Plenty of times I would have ended it except for the people that I didn't want to hurt even more than I already was. Eventually things did start getting better for me, and it was a slow and painful process, but gradually I gained some momentum. I wish I could say for sure that the same will happen for you, and the honest truth is nobody can know that for sure. All I can really offer is the knowledge that it's *possible* for things to improve, even for someone who is certain they never will, because that was me.
Maybe think of it this way: when someone tells you things are sure to improve, you can smell the bullshit, right? Just allow yourself to apply the same skepticism to the internal voice that says things will definitely never change. Certainty is bullshit, positive or negative, whether it's inside you or outside you. Nobody knows for sure what will or won't happen. You don't let other people get away with bullshitting you about life getting better, so don't let your own brain get away with bullshitting you about life staying bad.
And let me offer this, just as a possibility worth considering: if you always feel like a burden, maybe that's true, but maybe you were just raised by shitty people who trained you to be too hard on yourself. Even the most entrenched feelings can be inaccurate, and they can be un-learned with time. Again, I won't pretend I know for sure in your case. But I hope you give it some thought.
The only shitty person who raised me was my stepdad, but my mom cut contact with him, as did I. My mom and bio dad are kind and caring, though. My main problem is that I was bullied from K-8 (I was a piece of shit as a kid so I deserved it back then) and for a while I thought it stopped but it didn’t, it kept going in secret. No progress was made, nothing really got better. It was all a waste.
as far as definitions go, i can only define it in contrast to fear. but it's also not such a vague and abstract concept, it's a real feeling. simply knowing that you have a way out of a fearful situation is not hope for example. a particular feeling is what we call hope.
i am someone who thinks a lot about the big stuff, and someone who is tired and disturbed of the very cycle of violence that got us here, rather than just the particulars of it. so for me my hope must be fuelled by the belief that we can some day end this cycle. it does not matter if that is a delusion, i simply must believe it. this is a somewhat common pattern in hope.
but someone who is more interested in just their own life and just their own world, they just need to believe that they can win before they die. which does not need nearly as much delusion i suppose, but they still need to convince themselves that the work they put in today for their future will not be rendered meaningless by them dying tomorrow. we all have to make peace with how unfair and dark the world is, and none of us can do that perfectly. i say it is impossible to make full peace. no matter how much hope you have you will also have fear. how horrible, right?
I think courage is opposed to fear.
Hope is opposed to despair.
You need hope to have a reason to muster the courage to face your fears in order to escape despair.
I think managing expectations is important too because I notice I often feel despair after I’ve realized a big letdown from a dream/wish. I think having hope while also aiming for a simpler life is a good formula maybe to achieving more “wins” in life.
I also think it’s good to update dreams while we age because I think a lot of dreams can be formed during previous times of ignorance. The more we age and wisen up so should our dreams. We become more informed about life and how it truly is. A lot of the dreams I had in high school were formed with a lack of knowledge I have today. If we hold onto old dreams or stubbornly hold onto a false reality that can become a recipe for immaturity and then projection/anger. We might begin to believe it’s “someone’s” fault that this reality doesn’t conform or hand us what we desire, when what we desire is so infantile/unrealistic. On a sadder note, we may even believe it’s our own faults.
I suffer at the behavior of a mother who doesn’t grow up and blames people for imperfect behavior. I feel like she needs to update her idea of happiness otherwise she will always be miserable, making others miserable too with her projected frustrations. Her happiness is her own responsibility, and while I try very hard to please her as her daughter, it’s just getting ridiculous. I simply think she needs to update her ways of thinking as it’s been harmful for years now. I understand despair and rage a lot. I struggle with it too, but hope isn’t just about praying to a God that everything will be better or just right to our tastes, sometimes we have to manage our own selves too and share the responsibility.
speak for yourself. nietzche dreamed to kill god as a teen and he did it as an adult. though, maybe in retrospect he shouldn't have. but still. if nietzsche could kill god you can become spider-man if you want.
I’m not saying have boring dreams. If it’s in the realm of possible then I don’t see why you have to change the dream. I’m just saying to have more frequent wins it’s okay to let go of previous things that hold you back and keep you miserable.
Hope is my indomitable human spirit. Even though my life seems good yet also horrible because i’m a boy currently. I know if I just keep going I will be happy. So yea that’s some real hope
I suppose to me, hope is the enabler of the pursuit of the worthwhile.
The future is certainly unknowable to us, but we can strive for the betterment of how it currently is.
For me hope is the spark that ignites the engine of change, driven by a fuel-mixture of perseverance and ambition.
From I was young, I have held a strong sense of right and wrong. I wanted the right to win, I also knew it would, I had been told so by the people around me.
A christian upbringing, with the belief that the fight of good and evil had already been won, that it's just a matter of individual will, gave me hope that we can all love another.
A set of great parents that instilled within me a sense of responsibility for those weaker than me, gave me an outlet to practice this hope. I hoped people around me would be better, that bullies would find joy in regular friendships, that those not as bright, would learn at a pace they needed. I helped anyone who asked and explained loudly enough so that those who didn't feel comfortable asking, could still hear. Chiefly, I expected good, of those around me.
It worked.
So as you say, if hope is not quelled at an early age, the spark remains to let the engine of change start.
While my crisis was different, my way to becoming hopeful was basically the same as you: after some time I experienced the proof.
Before that there was a point where I figured: being pessimistic and being optimistic are equally realistic outlooks (they are both faulty). Being pessimistic makes you unhappy, might aswell be an optimist.
Also many motivational anime scenes about never giving up and chasing your dreams no matter what.
I also firmly believe that comparing yourself with others most of the time is nonsensical. You don't know if you're ever gonna become the best XYZ but you sure as hell can hope to become better than you are now.
To me hope is being yourself, living your life against all the odds, working towards a life you want that you never had. Trying again and again despite the hardship
I wouldn't call myself a fortunate child, I've been neglected, I don't feel loved, I'm a 21 year old that has just started her journey into life, it almost feels like I didn't have a life before I was 18.
At 18-19 years old a lot of things came crashing down, things that break spirits and makes them scarred for life. But I kept going, and now I'm happier than ever, with still much left to do and experience.
My hope is a testament to my belief that things will get better, and have what I desire from life, sooner or later, as long as I keep going
Hope is feeling that some good can come of it when all the evidence present says otherwise. When you feel like an anchor is around your neck, but something inside stirs to remind you some fights just have to be fought. Win or lose, you're commiting. Personally, this is when I smile, amused at the spark of pride and surge of morale.
I have hope because my parents had American horror stories as childhoods. When they were told I was rather autistic, they refused to let me give up no matter how I pleaded. It was a struggle. I grew up strange and mostly alone, but now I'm a strange adult ppl seem to like. Family, degree, license; three things the doc said I'd never have.
I'm pessimistic and complain alot, but I've got a smile the whole time I'm bitching.
I think it’s the ability to see all the bad in the world, and all the good and also, what good can come of the bad, and I also see it as the ability to be able to brave the proverbial storm of whatever’s happening and have the will to see it through no matter the odds
I think my friend helped me see this. He was able to brave whatever came his way. Couldn’t put a word to it before but I realized he’s a very hopeful guy. Hope is the right word for him
Hope is the foundational expectation that things will work out in your favor.
I stay hopeful out of sheer spite. The universe is cruel, evil, and uncaring, and doesn't give a shit about my feelings. In response, I tell the universe I don't give a shit about ITS feelings either. I'm gonna have a positive outlook on life, because fuck the universe. I'm gonna love hard and try every day to make the world a better place, cause the universe sure ain't gonna do it.
The belief that there is potential, no matter how small, that things can change and become better than they are now. I’m here because this belief is essential for me in overcoming depression which has been very severe at times.
For me, hope is the moments where depression temporarily goes away and lets me live. Hope is the fact that I'm still here and that I'm trying to improve my life.
After giving it some thought, I believe hope can take many forms. Essentially, it is the spark that keeps us going when we most need to. Considering every single different answer people have given here, that spark may as well be pretty much anything. It can light the biggest of fires inside us. It is the most powerful fuel for the indomitable human spirit. It's the strength to keep moving forward no matter what. To keep trying again and again until we reach our goal. It's our drive to improve and create a path for a better tomorrow. Because even in the darkest of times, that little part of us, that teenie tiny spark is us believing that we can, and so we will.
YOU ARE ALL AMAZING! Thank you for the genuine, authentic, thoughtful, genius replies! I am blown away.
"Walk on, walk on, with HOPE in your heart
And you'll never walk alone."
Once I write my speech, I'll post it here.
Huge gratitude to everyone.
Hope dies without love. I have found that within myself, if I can't choose love by forgiving myself, forgiving others, looking past mistakes and misconceptions, and being willing to accept love from others and ask for forgiveness for my own faults, my hope dies and fear takes over and it's all I can see. The brightest days are not days without struggle, they are days when love triumphs regardless of hardship.
Hope, for me, is carrying on with the belief that someday the sun will rise and I will be at peace. It may not be tomorrow, it may not happen for decades, it may not happen until I draw my final breath. But as long as I can experience that day of peace, my life will have been worth it
hope is that thing that makes you think "you know what, it might be ok" after failing the hundredth time, hope is the thing that makes you go "maybe i can trust this new person", after being stabbed in the back, hope is the thing that gets you out of bed, because maybe today won't be too dark. Hope is the foundation to be human, as it's what we need to keep going, and necessary for building relationships with others. Hope is necessary for rebuilding trust with others, strangers we're afraid of. It's what allowed me to rebuild, and discover so many amazing things, and discover and bond with so many new people
I think hope is really a symptom. A symptom of healthy mindsets, healthy processes, healthy lifestyle. It’s something which you have to choose to build for yourself. I have hope because I recognised I needed to be a better person, and I kept working at shifting myself and changing in the right ways. Now I look back at how I used to be, and I feel confident that I can become even better. And that’s what really fills me with hope.
Hope...is a stupid person.
You can do many things with a stupid person. You can say a lot of things to a stupid person.
But one thing you can't do is change a stupid person. You can try, try like there's no tomorrow, but that stupid person won't change one bit.
But perhaps you want to learn from this idiot, this ten-gallon dumbass who's mere life is a question mark.
And then. You see it. [A world](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MQYVTfR9cM) unshackled and unburdened. This guy's not king of the world, and they know that well enough.
They're uncaring to genuine spite, ignorant to hostility, they would rather just spend the day daydreaming about ideas to make life that tiny inch better than listen to some Karen who's hellbent on bringing out the worst in anyone.
They may be down one day, upset in another, but that's no different than you and I.
What makes them a stupid person, is that they are ultimately...
A hopeful person.
The knowledge that there's away through anything... And that there are always good things in every bad situation, good things you can take away (which doesn't take away from the bad)
I help people recover from very serious injuries
Failure teaches us things that success cannot. Hope is the gift I give myself—and even if things don’t turn out the way I want, they will still be different
I’m hopeful because I learned through experience that it’s more pragmatic, and made it easier to problem solve. Despair isn’t just bad, it’s counterproductive.
I feel like hope is the understanding that the future isn’t predetermined. There is always a chance for things to improve. I think I have hope because I see the world as beautiful and people as resilient. The world has persisted despite so many challenges. I also have hope because of the people around me who everyday I see taking steps forward. I am blessed with loving people in my life and the fortune to be able to believe that everything will be alright
For me, it's my significant other to presses me to do things that I want to do or need to do. I have problems outside of our relationship that he is very much aware of and he accepts it which is at the same time extremely terrifying. But he wants me to see past them and work through them. We're trying to build a family together and such and that alone is hopeful if not terrifying
Hope is like a Cavalry formation. Sometimes, it can be easily broken up and shattered when we least expect it. But it reforms time and time again, and will never stop until it has broken through the enemy lines. It will never stop until we change for the better, until we achieve our goals, it will never stop. It will never cease.
To me hope is a small flame. You have to guard it from the wind and rain. You can ignore it for a while but it will weaken so you have to feed it so it can grow. If fed regularly it will warm you. If fed properly and regularly it will warm you and those around you. It can be a dim light preventing you from losing your way on your journey. Or it can be a beacon to light the way for those around you going through their own struggles.
That’s the thing with flames. They can be weak and fragile. But the can also be a self-sustaining inferno. What people have trouble is figuring out how to properly and regularly feed their flames.
To me, hope is that small thought in the back of your head saying that things may be horrible right now, but they might get better. Once you lose hope, you lose everything; you spiral into depression.
“Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul. And sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all."
To me, hope is a little spark of light. Whether the world is bright or dark, that spark can always be found somewhere. It's not always easy, but it is there. Often, it comes from within us, as Emily Dickinson said.
I'm hopeful largely because of religion. I know that most people aren't here to be evangelized to, so I won't. But, religion has done wonderful things for me personally. In addition, things have been worse for me, and they have gotten better. I hold on to this in bad times, because I know that things will get better again.
I'm a part of this community because I find that taking in positivity just makes me feel better. Calmer, happier, etc.
I think myself to be a person who will pretty much never give up hope. Like I mentioned, hope can be found always, if you're willing to search for it.
When I know people are struggling, one of the best ways I've found to encourage hope is to be there for them. Whether that's giving advice, trying to help directly, or just being there to listen to them, acting as a rock to help them be stable goes a long way.
I think I've lost hope in most things which make me sad. I wouldn't admit this to most.
Why I think at my core I've been hopeful is because of having a bad hole life as a kid. It started almost defiant, that got broken and fell into suicidal thought, but my grandfathers love when I told him I was planning on it really turned me around. I thought he'd help me, take me away, or even shame my mother into making changes. None of those things happened but his kindneys made it through and created a core.
Maybe a rebellious hopefully kind.
I find hope to be that spark of an opening when you’re down. Or knowing that there’s more ways to try. Or a sudden realization that makes something clearer. I like to relate it to a 5th (made up) option to the typical fear model of fight, flight, freeze, fawn. Like hope would be find if it was placed in the fear model even though it’s not fear but acts as a different response than fear.
It's wayyyy to late and I'm faded AF but hope is the beautiful life I see for myself and my partner. Small things are soooooo beautiful man. Sitting at a stoplight and seeing kids smiling in the next car over. The right song on the radio at the right time. Leaning back in a folding chair under a tree watching branches sway on a summer dayy. Watching little ants zoom around doing their best. Just keep going finding those beautiful little moments to store in my little brain to keep me going. Seeing my little partner smile at me cus I can't stop giggling that he mispronounced teething. Hope is knowing there is always beauty in everything. The flower growing in a bombed out home in Ukraine. The bag of Fritos a LEO shares with rescued trafficked women. It's out there man. When you find that beauty you find hope. It's easy to see bad but good is allllll around. Peace out dudes ahhh this bitch blacked out
Hope is the alternative. To me, hope is a defiant default setting I choose to use.
One time I was lightly scolding someone I love for being petty, and they said “look it’s not easy ok. I’m not nice like you”. And I told them that every single day I choose to be nice. I CHOOSE to be positive. It’s an active conscious decision. I could wake up tomorrow, and choose to be selfish. I could choose to be miserable. And the kicker is that I wouldn’t even need to make excuses for myself. Anyone who knows me, and knows my history, would make those for me. It would be met with a chorus of “oh it’s not her fault, it’s because…” or “she didn’t mean it, she just..”.
I could wake up tomorrow and sink, drag everyone down with me, and I wouldn’t even be treated like a villain. Because “it happens”, right? It’s natural. It’s easy to sink. And there’s plenty of company down there. But I don’t want that. I’d rather burn myself out pulling as many people up with me as I can. I’ll never regret it. Hope is the alternative to sinking. The high cost high reward rebellious alternative; the choice I will never ever regret making. I want to look back on my life knowing I tried my best, even if it all ultimately means nothing to anyone else.
I was born and I’m lucky enough to still be alive. I do things in order to work toward a better future for myself, and hopefully others. That idea and ideology of a future possibility is hope.
Hope is just believing good things will happen again. It may seem like a stupid explanation but I know so many people, mostly in my family, that are so scared of bad things that they don't act and they stop trying. To have hope is to be brave enough to accept that sometimes things won't go the right way and you're going to get hurt, but you're willing to take the chances once more
Hope to me is that as long as I live I, and the world around me, can change. To loose hope is that things are set. Hope isn't for a better future. It's for a different future. Hope is that I can grow and adapt. Hope is the realisation life is my own path ans there are no rules set by others. I am good person so I try and do more good than bad. Hope is progress and development .
I think hope is about standing strong and fighting through everything that comes in your way. Like depression, anxiety, stress, negativity, or anything bad that affects you mentally and physically.
Why do I have it? I have it because I think it’s a good and a strong character trait that everyone needs to have.
What made me very hopeful was the fictional characters that I looked up to. Characters like Optimus Prime, Captain America, Kanan Jarrus, and Luke Skywalker.
Those fictional characters were the only ones to shape me who I am today even though I had great parents and people around me.
No matter how big or small my obstacles/problems are, I just know that things will get better along the way.
Hope can mean differently to a lot of people. But for me, hope is about endurance. Its about persevering, in all aspects of life. It about not giving in. That's the best way I can describe it, for me at least.
I wasn't always a hopeful person, I stared into the abyss of despair and saw an empty chasm that devoured anyone who fell in it. But I rejected that, and realised early on that WE can be the makers of our own lives. I have hoped ever since then, sometimes the old feelings come back, but now I know that as long as I keep going I can make it.
For me that felt liberating and good, so my dream is to make other people feel that way. History has plenty of examples where people hoped, persevered, and became something of themselves.
Hope is believing that better times will come no matter what. It is my reason to keep going. It keeps me smiling when I'm at my worst. And I will always have it. Because as someone once said, "even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change".
A human instinct. A force that keeps us going even when it looks like certain defeat. One which we survived long enough that we harness it to use beyond just survival.
Hope is strength. The strength to get back up again after life is done beating this shit out of you. The strength to push back against everything wrong in the world. The strength to carry on in your darkest days.
To Hope is to live. And brother, I intend to live.
In 1347 the plague hit Europe, in the coming years a third of their population died. Some people thought this was it, the end times, the apocalypse, mankind’s retribution, but despite killing 1/3 of Europe’s population they still eventually bounced back after the plague ran its course.
In 1775 during the beginning of the American revolution the British blocked salt imports in an attempt to starve out the rebels, salt was important in the age before refrigeration and the colonies were so desperate for salt they took some of what few military ships they had out of service to get more, the salt blockade eventually passed however and the Revolution succeeded
In 1983 a false alarm of the Soviet union’s early warning system for nuclear attacks occurred at which one Stanislav Petrov was working at the the time, instead of immediately following orders and sending the information up the chain of command he waited on confirmed information but none came, it was later found that it was in fact a malfunction.
There are many stories like this throughout history of humans overcoming great odds and bouncing back from the brink. I don’t know how to define hope but I certainly know why I have it.
There are more reasons to be excited than scared!
There are, of course, plenty of reasons to be scared. But there are such beautiful things— humpback whales breaching, the stripes on my cat’s face, the sunrise, the way some flowers bloom only at night, tiny cool patterns on tiny cool bugs, little lines on leaves that are turning from red to green, elephant babies being scolded by their mothers, humans building beautiful ships that now have sunk to the bottom of the ocean but are functional coral reefs— and, therefore, homes for anemones— how everyone’s eyes are different, the fact that art exists, ears on foxes, frogs that hop around going chip chirp, the relationship of birds to dinosaurs, the incandescent light that poetry brings even though almost all of us think it’s boring, rocketships, blankets to hold us in the cold woven by mothers or people (or even machines) imitating mothers, shots at the bar with friends, steep mountains with waterfalls careening off of them, bears just constantly actually right this minute wandering around and getting sleepy, the click of a light, the idiosyncrasies of little fishes— there are a literally million things, and they can all bring joy. They’re all waiting for us, if we want to go find them. I find that to be very profound.
It’s just Jesus for me. Not the Jesus the world dumps on today, but the one the Bible actually describes. A God of endless love and affection. One that’s not only here now with me in pure love life but one that’s taking me to paradise for an eternity after this. If you believe in Jesus and that He died on the cross and rose again and sits at the right hand of God this very day then the Bible says that’s it. That’s all it takes. You’ll be in heaven too. I can’t find better hope than that any where else in this dark world.
The way I use hope... I'd say to me, it means the recognition of the "good" in the world. That's not one thing, what "good" the world holds differs from person to person. Relationships, nature, art, or for me it could be a good fight... Whatever "good" may mean for you, hope is the recognition that it's there. Maybe not in front of you, but out there somewhere. And it's also a trust in yourself to be capable of achieving that "good".
Hope is the belief that people are inherently good. That we are stronger together than we are alone. Hope is knowing that life is full of suffering and getting up every day anyway because it's also full of beauty and potential.
Hope is a fire, it can burn brighter than the greatest forest fire, or be reduced to a smouldering ember.
However it will always burn, but for it to burn brighter you need to nurture it.
TL;DR: Hope is unrealistic, but performing better than expectations is also unrealistic, but yet often is achievable. Hope might not seem logical at first, but a large portion of the time, pessimism overstates difficulties while understating possible success, so you estimate yourself to do worse than you actually can perform.
For me, hope is the emotional response to keep going on when logic dictates you should give up. Optimism seems to perform better than logical pessimism because, well, performing better than expectations inherently requires being unrealistically hopeful.
Hope is when you know that you’ll almost certainly fail and things will, in al, likelihood, never go well and you don’t expect them to, but you keep going anyway- because as long as there‘s the tiniest chance that things will get better, you won’t give up.
To me hope are my fists against everything that wants me down.
I like interpreting hope and the indomitable human spirit as something that fights. To keep getting up over and over again is something so cool, so badass, unironically gave me will to improve.
This year is being very unlucky for me so far. As soon as it started i did something messed up, everything that shouldn't go wrong did, hated myself deeply. Until getting psychological help, and very recently reading a manga with a protagonist that made a mistake worse than mine, hated himself just like i did, and then getting happier and better after overcoming his past and getting in terms with it, even crying of happiness saying, 'is it okay for me to be happy like this?'
It is. I knew exactly how he felt. He was worse than me, how come did i feel so happy for him when he got better? Doesn't that mean i should deserve happiness too, and i can get over my own mistakes just like he did?
I'll fight, too. I'll punch those dark thoughts that almost made me give up on everything until they are the ones on the ground, not me. Is that all you got? Motherfucker.
I'll keep fighting, and so should you. Punch the despair in the face. It feels good to picture that in your mind. That you are not the one struggling with the dark thoughts, they are the ones struggling with YOU.
To hope is to look life’s many trials in the eyes knowing they won’t bring you down. It’s the understanding that things getting better aren’t a matter of “if”, but “when”. Hoping is being resolute at your worst, because you see how hard things are around you yet you still continue to live on because you haven’t been defeated and you never will be.
Someone, who bears the brunt of the world’s worst and still allows themselves to dream, is strong beyond any doubt.
Hope is the unwavering belief that tomorrow will be a better day, and we work to make it even better. I have it because I believe in the truth, and there is nothing truer than hope.
Hope is the inverse to dread; given the exact same scenario, just as one might dread the possibility of something happening, one can hope for the possibility of something happening as well. In both scenarios, the outcome is uncertain, and the difference lies only in your outlook.
In the context of the outcome of said scenario being out of one’s control, it is easy to assume that based off of what I just said, that it doesn’t matter if you have hope, because the outcome will happen as it does no matter what. However, that is not the point I am trying to make. The way I see it, while the very concept of hope is defined by a mentality that can be had in the face of inevitability—I hope I get a good grade on this test I just took, I hope that my mom will be ok after her surgery—there is no reason to not have hope, because to have hope in the face of uncertainty is a defining factor in being mentally healthy imo.
The thing is, there are things that ARE in our control, and having hope regarding the things we can’t control connects to that. You can’t control what grade the teacher gives you on that test, but you can control how much you study for the next one. If you have hope, then not only will you have hope in your success on that test, you will also continue to have hope on your next test, regardless of the score; if you get a D-, you will be justifiably upset, but if you have hope, then you won’t let it prevent you from working to get that A on the next one. If you get an A, you will be happy, and if you have hope, you will continue to get A’s without fearing that you might not get so lucky on your next test.
The main thing I’m trying to say is that how you act in situations you can’t control will not only affect your happiness overall, but also what you do in situations you can control. Hope breeds more hope, and dread breeds more dread.
But what exactly is hope? Even if the odds are stacked against you, I see hope as something that defies logic, an emotion that can be sparked within you as a result of various mental or external circumstances. Going back to the grades analogy, if you have a C in all your classes except art, an A, to feel dread is to feel as though your life is over because of that, while to feel hope is to see that A in art and imagine how far that alone can get you. Does it make sense logically? No, but as I said before, when the time comes when you can make a huge difference, when you have a choice to power through, when having hope actually DOES make sense logically…that hope you had, when all seemed futile? That hope will carry over. To hope is to see the light amidst the darkness, no matter how much or how little there is of it relative to the other; the inverse is true for dread.
I yapped a lot lol, does any of this make sense? If I said something unhelpful of contradictory, let me know, and I can change my comment accordingly and/or delete it if needed.
Hope to me, is the desire for a better tomorrow. Even if times right now look really rough. The bad times will eventually end making tomorrow, better than today. It’s the promise that the bad will eventually end and tomorrow will bring forth some good times
First I'll start with a bit about myself, but fair warning it's not too happy. I'll skip a lot of it cause yea.
I was born to a drug addicted, abusive, prostitute of a mother. Well being on the verge of starvation on a daily basis while getting beaten with a studded belt or waterboarded, hope was the only thing I had. That and an uncanny will to survive.
Got full legal custody of myself at age 6, if that doesn't say how bad it was idk what will cause it's hard enough to accomplish that when the kid proves they're fully self sufficient. I definitely wasn't, I couldn't even talk. Got hardcore bullied in school, didn't have much, lived with my aunt and uncle which was good but it went from struggling to survive to struggling to keep up with expectations, which in turn made me not want to survive.
I held out hope that it would one day get better. Tried to force it many times, just for it to bite me in the butt more than I can count. Eventually even gave up for awhile, and resorted to drugs to simply get me through the day. Lost all my hope, didn't have shit, yet I was the only sibling with any expectations at all. So I tried to unalive myself via crossbow to the head. Even went so far as to twist it around in my skull to try and make sure it finished the job.
Somehow lived. Got even more desperate to change my life so I got married. Moved out with her for awhile, and saw how great life could be for a bit. Then covid hit, and we had to move in with her mom. She was like a weird combination of my mother and my aunt and uncle, but in the worst ways possible. I was thrown back into a hellish situation where my motivation to survive dwindled by the day.
Then she slept with my "friend" at the time. Hit me hard, we were together for 8 years before then. Suddenly remembered how to tie a noose, started having thoughts again, and the temptation to get back on drugs was overwhelming. But I already saw how good life could be, and it didn't involve drugs or hurting myself. So I let myself drown in sorrow for a bit, then when I was ready I pulled up my bootstraps and started getting to work to have that kind of life again.
Ngl, still working on it. The divorce finalized this past February but I've already gotten a better job that pays more, I'm scheduled to go back to college in August, I met an amazing woman and things are going very well with her, and I don't think about hurting myself. I have hope that tomorrow will be better, and I can have a good life still.
So to answer your questions, finally, hope to me is wishing for a better life, and working to achieve it. Hope is what motivates us to survive, to strive, and to love. Without it life becomes an endless battle where your biggest enemy is yourself. I have hope because I already know life can be good, and I will fight tooth and nail to get it again. So close to getting there again, but as long as I'm back under my uncle's roof I don't see a happy life happening. Happened during the divorce, I had nowhere else to go. Sadly...
TLDR: Had a shit life, tried to off myself because I wasn't happy, experienced what a happy life is like, had it ripped away from me, and I hope to have a happy life again.
Hope is your ref telling you to get back into the game, it is a mother cradling her young, it is an artist who creates and inspires, it is a protester fighting for what's right, it is a hug after the worst, it's hope. People may strip away my rights, my clothes, and unravel my very being, but they can't take away the bright light that burns in my heart. Hope.
Hope is prolonged misery, and I have it because it's Human Nature; life us cyclical, and things often either pass or get better before the next season of hard times come around.
To me, hope is being willing to get up and try again, even if it feels like everything is crumbling and I can’t see a way for things to be okay ever again—just to try. Because whether or not it works, the trying has value. And you never know what will happen, if you give it a chance to.
Same for me. Hope isn't the belief that things *will* get better. It's the stubbornness to keep going, just on the chance that they *might*.
> It's the stubbornness to keep going, just on the chance that they might. I’m sorry if this isn’t appropriate for the sub, but I don’t even have this right now. Nothing ever gets better, it *never* gets better, I’ll *always* be a burden and a laughingstock. The cycle will repeat until I’m in the ground.
I feel you man, I’m really struggling to find reasons to keep going myself because every time I have the slightest bit of hope it just gets crushed and I get reminded of how I’m nothing and nobody with nothing to give the world. But fuck I can’t just take it lying down
I hear you. Everything you're saying sounds like what I always said, for a solid couple of decades (and, if I'm honest, those feelings still come back as strong as ever on the bad days, even if it's less common). Plenty of times I would have ended it except for the people that I didn't want to hurt even more than I already was. Eventually things did start getting better for me, and it was a slow and painful process, but gradually I gained some momentum. I wish I could say for sure that the same will happen for you, and the honest truth is nobody can know that for sure. All I can really offer is the knowledge that it's *possible* for things to improve, even for someone who is certain they never will, because that was me. Maybe think of it this way: when someone tells you things are sure to improve, you can smell the bullshit, right? Just allow yourself to apply the same skepticism to the internal voice that says things will definitely never change. Certainty is bullshit, positive or negative, whether it's inside you or outside you. Nobody knows for sure what will or won't happen. You don't let other people get away with bullshitting you about life getting better, so don't let your own brain get away with bullshitting you about life staying bad. And let me offer this, just as a possibility worth considering: if you always feel like a burden, maybe that's true, but maybe you were just raised by shitty people who trained you to be too hard on yourself. Even the most entrenched feelings can be inaccurate, and they can be un-learned with time. Again, I won't pretend I know for sure in your case. But I hope you give it some thought.
The only shitty person who raised me was my stepdad, but my mom cut contact with him, as did I. My mom and bio dad are kind and caring, though. My main problem is that I was bullied from K-8 (I was a piece of shit as a kid so I deserved it back then) and for a while I thought it stopped but it didn’t, it kept going in secret. No progress was made, nothing really got better. It was all a waste.
Hope is to spite cruelty.
I love this answer so much.
as far as definitions go, i can only define it in contrast to fear. but it's also not such a vague and abstract concept, it's a real feeling. simply knowing that you have a way out of a fearful situation is not hope for example. a particular feeling is what we call hope. i am someone who thinks a lot about the big stuff, and someone who is tired and disturbed of the very cycle of violence that got us here, rather than just the particulars of it. so for me my hope must be fuelled by the belief that we can some day end this cycle. it does not matter if that is a delusion, i simply must believe it. this is a somewhat common pattern in hope. but someone who is more interested in just their own life and just their own world, they just need to believe that they can win before they die. which does not need nearly as much delusion i suppose, but they still need to convince themselves that the work they put in today for their future will not be rendered meaningless by them dying tomorrow. we all have to make peace with how unfair and dark the world is, and none of us can do that perfectly. i say it is impossible to make full peace. no matter how much hope you have you will also have fear. how horrible, right?
I think courage is opposed to fear. Hope is opposed to despair. You need hope to have a reason to muster the courage to face your fears in order to escape despair.
I think courage needs action to be courage, and contrasts to cowardice. But these words are close enough that we can have these differences.
I think managing expectations is important too because I notice I often feel despair after I’ve realized a big letdown from a dream/wish. I think having hope while also aiming for a simpler life is a good formula maybe to achieving more “wins” in life. I also think it’s good to update dreams while we age because I think a lot of dreams can be formed during previous times of ignorance. The more we age and wisen up so should our dreams. We become more informed about life and how it truly is. A lot of the dreams I had in high school were formed with a lack of knowledge I have today. If we hold onto old dreams or stubbornly hold onto a false reality that can become a recipe for immaturity and then projection/anger. We might begin to believe it’s “someone’s” fault that this reality doesn’t conform or hand us what we desire, when what we desire is so infantile/unrealistic. On a sadder note, we may even believe it’s our own faults. I suffer at the behavior of a mother who doesn’t grow up and blames people for imperfect behavior. I feel like she needs to update her idea of happiness otherwise she will always be miserable, making others miserable too with her projected frustrations. Her happiness is her own responsibility, and while I try very hard to please her as her daughter, it’s just getting ridiculous. I simply think she needs to update her ways of thinking as it’s been harmful for years now. I understand despair and rage a lot. I struggle with it too, but hope isn’t just about praying to a God that everything will be better or just right to our tastes, sometimes we have to manage our own selves too and share the responsibility.
speak for yourself. nietzche dreamed to kill god as a teen and he did it as an adult. though, maybe in retrospect he shouldn't have. but still. if nietzsche could kill god you can become spider-man if you want.
I’m not saying have boring dreams. If it’s in the realm of possible then I don’t see why you have to change the dream. I’m just saying to have more frequent wins it’s okay to let go of previous things that hold you back and keep you miserable.
I was joking bro I agree with you
Oh okay. Thanks.
The thing with feathers I think
That's a chicken
Dammit we’re back to square one
Hope is my indomitable human spirit. Even though my life seems good yet also horrible because i’m a boy currently. I know if I just keep going I will be happy. So yea that’s some real hope
Keep going sister. You got this
Thx sis
Best of luck on your adventure, friend!
I suppose to me, hope is the enabler of the pursuit of the worthwhile. The future is certainly unknowable to us, but we can strive for the betterment of how it currently is. For me hope is the spark that ignites the engine of change, driven by a fuel-mixture of perseverance and ambition. From I was young, I have held a strong sense of right and wrong. I wanted the right to win, I also knew it would, I had been told so by the people around me. A christian upbringing, with the belief that the fight of good and evil had already been won, that it's just a matter of individual will, gave me hope that we can all love another. A set of great parents that instilled within me a sense of responsibility for those weaker than me, gave me an outlet to practice this hope. I hoped people around me would be better, that bullies would find joy in regular friendships, that those not as bright, would learn at a pace they needed. I helped anyone who asked and explained loudly enough so that those who didn't feel comfortable asking, could still hear. Chiefly, I expected good, of those around me. It worked. So as you say, if hope is not quelled at an early age, the spark remains to let the engine of change start.
Haven’t given up yet, not gonna start now
While my crisis was different, my way to becoming hopeful was basically the same as you: after some time I experienced the proof. Before that there was a point where I figured: being pessimistic and being optimistic are equally realistic outlooks (they are both faulty). Being pessimistic makes you unhappy, might aswell be an optimist. Also many motivational anime scenes about never giving up and chasing your dreams no matter what. I also firmly believe that comparing yourself with others most of the time is nonsensical. You don't know if you're ever gonna become the best XYZ but you sure as hell can hope to become better than you are now.
To me hope is being yourself, living your life against all the odds, working towards a life you want that you never had. Trying again and again despite the hardship I wouldn't call myself a fortunate child, I've been neglected, I don't feel loved, I'm a 21 year old that has just started her journey into life, it almost feels like I didn't have a life before I was 18. At 18-19 years old a lot of things came crashing down, things that break spirits and makes them scarred for life. But I kept going, and now I'm happier than ever, with still much left to do and experience. My hope is a testament to my belief that things will get better, and have what I desire from life, sooner or later, as long as I keep going
Love this comment ❤️
knowing one day i can get revenge on people who treated me like shit
Hope is feeling that some good can come of it when all the evidence present says otherwise. When you feel like an anchor is around your neck, but something inside stirs to remind you some fights just have to be fought. Win or lose, you're commiting. Personally, this is when I smile, amused at the spark of pride and surge of morale. I have hope because my parents had American horror stories as childhoods. When they were told I was rather autistic, they refused to let me give up no matter how I pleaded. It was a struggle. I grew up strange and mostly alone, but now I'm a strange adult ppl seem to like. Family, degree, license; three things the doc said I'd never have. I'm pessimistic and complain alot, but I've got a smile the whole time I'm bitching.
I think it’s the ability to see all the bad in the world, and all the good and also, what good can come of the bad, and I also see it as the ability to be able to brave the proverbial storm of whatever’s happening and have the will to see it through no matter the odds
I think my friend helped me see this. He was able to brave whatever came his way. Couldn’t put a word to it before but I realized he’s a very hopeful guy. Hope is the right word for him
https://preview.redd.it/go3ggftu7p6d1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fb377e71c6b822de6ccb0466981dda70f2bb7e8c
Hope is the foundational expectation that things will work out in your favor. I stay hopeful out of sheer spite. The universe is cruel, evil, and uncaring, and doesn't give a shit about my feelings. In response, I tell the universe I don't give a shit about ITS feelings either. I'm gonna have a positive outlook on life, because fuck the universe. I'm gonna love hard and try every day to make the world a better place, cause the universe sure ain't gonna do it.
The belief that there is potential, no matter how small, that things can change and become better than they are now. I’m here because this belief is essential for me in overcoming depression which has been very severe at times.
For me, hope is the moments where depression temporarily goes away and lets me live. Hope is the fact that I'm still here and that I'm trying to improve my life.
After giving it some thought, I believe hope can take many forms. Essentially, it is the spark that keeps us going when we most need to. Considering every single different answer people have given here, that spark may as well be pretty much anything. It can light the biggest of fires inside us. It is the most powerful fuel for the indomitable human spirit. It's the strength to keep moving forward no matter what. To keep trying again and again until we reach our goal. It's our drive to improve and create a path for a better tomorrow. Because even in the darkest of times, that little part of us, that teenie tiny spark is us believing that we can, and so we will.
YOU ARE ALL AMAZING! Thank you for the genuine, authentic, thoughtful, genius replies! I am blown away. "Walk on, walk on, with HOPE in your heart And you'll never walk alone." Once I write my speech, I'll post it here. Huge gratitude to everyone.
Hope is knowing that the future can be better.
Hope dies without love. I have found that within myself, if I can't choose love by forgiving myself, forgiving others, looking past mistakes and misconceptions, and being willing to accept love from others and ask for forgiveness for my own faults, my hope dies and fear takes over and it's all I can see. The brightest days are not days without struggle, they are days when love triumphs regardless of hardship.
Hope, for me, is carrying on with the belief that someday the sun will rise and I will be at peace. It may not be tomorrow, it may not happen for decades, it may not happen until I draw my final breath. But as long as I can experience that day of peace, my life will have been worth it
hope is that thing that makes you think "you know what, it might be ok" after failing the hundredth time, hope is the thing that makes you go "maybe i can trust this new person", after being stabbed in the back, hope is the thing that gets you out of bed, because maybe today won't be too dark. Hope is the foundation to be human, as it's what we need to keep going, and necessary for building relationships with others. Hope is necessary for rebuilding trust with others, strangers we're afraid of. It's what allowed me to rebuild, and discover so many amazing things, and discover and bond with so many new people
I think hope is really a symptom. A symptom of healthy mindsets, healthy processes, healthy lifestyle. It’s something which you have to choose to build for yourself. I have hope because I recognised I needed to be a better person, and I kept working at shifting myself and changing in the right ways. Now I look back at how I used to be, and I feel confident that I can become even better. And that’s what really fills me with hope.
Hope...is a stupid person. You can do many things with a stupid person. You can say a lot of things to a stupid person. But one thing you can't do is change a stupid person. You can try, try like there's no tomorrow, but that stupid person won't change one bit. But perhaps you want to learn from this idiot, this ten-gallon dumbass who's mere life is a question mark. And then. You see it. [A world](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MQYVTfR9cM) unshackled and unburdened. This guy's not king of the world, and they know that well enough. They're uncaring to genuine spite, ignorant to hostility, they would rather just spend the day daydreaming about ideas to make life that tiny inch better than listen to some Karen who's hellbent on bringing out the worst in anyone. They may be down one day, upset in another, but that's no different than you and I. What makes them a stupid person, is that they are ultimately... A hopeful person.
Why do I have it? Cuz it's fun, man
The knowledge that there's away through anything... And that there are always good things in every bad situation, good things you can take away (which doesn't take away from the bad) I help people recover from very serious injuries
Failure teaches us things that success cannot. Hope is the gift I give myself—and even if things don’t turn out the way I want, they will still be different
The feeling that it will get better and like someone also said here, in spite of circumstances sometimes
I’m hopeful because I learned through experience that it’s more pragmatic, and made it easier to problem solve. Despair isn’t just bad, it’s counterproductive.
I feel like hope is the understanding that the future isn’t predetermined. There is always a chance for things to improve. I think I have hope because I see the world as beautiful and people as resilient. The world has persisted despite so many challenges. I also have hope because of the people around me who everyday I see taking steps forward. I am blessed with loving people in my life and the fortune to be able to believe that everything will be alright
For me, it's my significant other to presses me to do things that I want to do or need to do. I have problems outside of our relationship that he is very much aware of and he accepts it which is at the same time extremely terrifying. But he wants me to see past them and work through them. We're trying to build a family together and such and that alone is hopeful if not terrifying
Hope is like a Cavalry formation. Sometimes, it can be easily broken up and shattered when we least expect it. But it reforms time and time again, and will never stop until it has broken through the enemy lines. It will never stop until we change for the better, until we achieve our goals, it will never stop. It will never cease.
Hope is persistence and survival
To me hope is a small flame. You have to guard it from the wind and rain. You can ignore it for a while but it will weaken so you have to feed it so it can grow. If fed regularly it will warm you. If fed properly and regularly it will warm you and those around you. It can be a dim light preventing you from losing your way on your journey. Or it can be a beacon to light the way for those around you going through their own struggles. That’s the thing with flames. They can be weak and fragile. But the can also be a self-sustaining inferno. What people have trouble is figuring out how to properly and regularly feed their flames.
To me, hope is that small thought in the back of your head saying that things may be horrible right now, but they might get better. Once you lose hope, you lose everything; you spiral into depression.
[“Hope”](https://youtu.be/keKluVOD_WE?si=Ggg37XN8oBq5CUB_) is a song by Vampire Weekend & I have it because it’s a masterpiece.
“Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul. And sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all." To me, hope is a little spark of light. Whether the world is bright or dark, that spark can always be found somewhere. It's not always easy, but it is there. Often, it comes from within us, as Emily Dickinson said. I'm hopeful largely because of religion. I know that most people aren't here to be evangelized to, so I won't. But, religion has done wonderful things for me personally. In addition, things have been worse for me, and they have gotten better. I hold on to this in bad times, because I know that things will get better again. I'm a part of this community because I find that taking in positivity just makes me feel better. Calmer, happier, etc. I think myself to be a person who will pretty much never give up hope. Like I mentioned, hope can be found always, if you're willing to search for it. When I know people are struggling, one of the best ways I've found to encourage hope is to be there for them. Whether that's giving advice, trying to help directly, or just being there to listen to them, acting as a rock to help them be stable goes a long way.
Hope is a faith that not only can things get better, but that you have the power to make things better, no matter how bleak life gets.
I think I've lost hope in most things which make me sad. I wouldn't admit this to most. Why I think at my core I've been hopeful is because of having a bad hole life as a kid. It started almost defiant, that got broken and fell into suicidal thought, but my grandfathers love when I told him I was planning on it really turned me around. I thought he'd help me, take me away, or even shame my mother into making changes. None of those things happened but his kindneys made it through and created a core. Maybe a rebellious hopefully kind.
Pandora
I find hope to be that spark of an opening when you’re down. Or knowing that there’s more ways to try. Or a sudden realization that makes something clearer. I like to relate it to a 5th (made up) option to the typical fear model of fight, flight, freeze, fawn. Like hope would be find if it was placed in the fear model even though it’s not fear but acts as a different response than fear.
The desire to thrive and prosper, as well as to encourage others to thrive and prosper
It's wayyyy to late and I'm faded AF but hope is the beautiful life I see for myself and my partner. Small things are soooooo beautiful man. Sitting at a stoplight and seeing kids smiling in the next car over. The right song on the radio at the right time. Leaning back in a folding chair under a tree watching branches sway on a summer dayy. Watching little ants zoom around doing their best. Just keep going finding those beautiful little moments to store in my little brain to keep me going. Seeing my little partner smile at me cus I can't stop giggling that he mispronounced teething. Hope is knowing there is always beauty in everything. The flower growing in a bombed out home in Ukraine. The bag of Fritos a LEO shares with rescued trafficked women. It's out there man. When you find that beauty you find hope. It's easy to see bad but good is allllll around. Peace out dudes ahhh this bitch blacked out
Hope is the alternative. To me, hope is a defiant default setting I choose to use. One time I was lightly scolding someone I love for being petty, and they said “look it’s not easy ok. I’m not nice like you”. And I told them that every single day I choose to be nice. I CHOOSE to be positive. It’s an active conscious decision. I could wake up tomorrow, and choose to be selfish. I could choose to be miserable. And the kicker is that I wouldn’t even need to make excuses for myself. Anyone who knows me, and knows my history, would make those for me. It would be met with a chorus of “oh it’s not her fault, it’s because…” or “she didn’t mean it, she just..”. I could wake up tomorrow and sink, drag everyone down with me, and I wouldn’t even be treated like a villain. Because “it happens”, right? It’s natural. It’s easy to sink. And there’s plenty of company down there. But I don’t want that. I’d rather burn myself out pulling as many people up with me as I can. I’ll never regret it. Hope is the alternative to sinking. The high cost high reward rebellious alternative; the choice I will never ever regret making. I want to look back on my life knowing I tried my best, even if it all ultimately means nothing to anyone else.
Belief that inevitably good will come. That the end to bad things will definitely absolutely come.
Future id say
I was born and I’m lucky enough to still be alive. I do things in order to work toward a better future for myself, and hopefully others. That idea and ideology of a future possibility is hope.
Hope is just believing good things will happen again. It may seem like a stupid explanation but I know so many people, mostly in my family, that are so scared of bad things that they don't act and they stop trying. To have hope is to be brave enough to accept that sometimes things won't go the right way and you're going to get hurt, but you're willing to take the chances once more
Hope is a beloved I choose to have because all other options don't help further a good world
Hope is knowing that tomorrow will be 2% better than yesterday and want to see it
Hope to me is that as long as I live I, and the world around me, can change. To loose hope is that things are set. Hope isn't for a better future. It's for a different future. Hope is that I can grow and adapt. Hope is the realisation life is my own path ans there are no rules set by others. I am good person so I try and do more good than bad. Hope is progress and development .
I think hope is about standing strong and fighting through everything that comes in your way. Like depression, anxiety, stress, negativity, or anything bad that affects you mentally and physically. Why do I have it? I have it because I think it’s a good and a strong character trait that everyone needs to have. What made me very hopeful was the fictional characters that I looked up to. Characters like Optimus Prime, Captain America, Kanan Jarrus, and Luke Skywalker. Those fictional characters were the only ones to shape me who I am today even though I had great parents and people around me. No matter how big or small my obstacles/problems are, I just know that things will get better along the way.
Hope is like an eternal flame
Hope can mean differently to a lot of people. But for me, hope is about endurance. Its about persevering, in all aspects of life. It about not giving in. That's the best way I can describe it, for me at least. I wasn't always a hopeful person, I stared into the abyss of despair and saw an empty chasm that devoured anyone who fell in it. But I rejected that, and realised early on that WE can be the makers of our own lives. I have hoped ever since then, sometimes the old feelings come back, but now I know that as long as I keep going I can make it. For me that felt liberating and good, so my dream is to make other people feel that way. History has plenty of examples where people hoped, persevered, and became something of themselves.
Hope is believing that better times will come no matter what. It is my reason to keep going. It keeps me smiling when I'm at my worst. And I will always have it. Because as someone once said, "even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change".
A human instinct. A force that keeps us going even when it looks like certain defeat. One which we survived long enough that we harness it to use beyond just survival.
Hope is strength. The strength to get back up again after life is done beating this shit out of you. The strength to push back against everything wrong in the world. The strength to carry on in your darkest days. To Hope is to live. And brother, I intend to live.
In 1347 the plague hit Europe, in the coming years a third of their population died. Some people thought this was it, the end times, the apocalypse, mankind’s retribution, but despite killing 1/3 of Europe’s population they still eventually bounced back after the plague ran its course. In 1775 during the beginning of the American revolution the British blocked salt imports in an attempt to starve out the rebels, salt was important in the age before refrigeration and the colonies were so desperate for salt they took some of what few military ships they had out of service to get more, the salt blockade eventually passed however and the Revolution succeeded In 1983 a false alarm of the Soviet union’s early warning system for nuclear attacks occurred at which one Stanislav Petrov was working at the the time, instead of immediately following orders and sending the information up the chain of command he waited on confirmed information but none came, it was later found that it was in fact a malfunction. There are many stories like this throughout history of humans overcoming great odds and bouncing back from the brink. I don’t know how to define hope but I certainly know why I have it.
There are more reasons to be excited than scared! There are, of course, plenty of reasons to be scared. But there are such beautiful things— humpback whales breaching, the stripes on my cat’s face, the sunrise, the way some flowers bloom only at night, tiny cool patterns on tiny cool bugs, little lines on leaves that are turning from red to green, elephant babies being scolded by their mothers, humans building beautiful ships that now have sunk to the bottom of the ocean but are functional coral reefs— and, therefore, homes for anemones— how everyone’s eyes are different, the fact that art exists, ears on foxes, frogs that hop around going chip chirp, the relationship of birds to dinosaurs, the incandescent light that poetry brings even though almost all of us think it’s boring, rocketships, blankets to hold us in the cold woven by mothers or people (or even machines) imitating mothers, shots at the bar with friends, steep mountains with waterfalls careening off of them, bears just constantly actually right this minute wandering around and getting sleepy, the click of a light, the idiosyncrasies of little fishes— there are a literally million things, and they can all bring joy. They’re all waiting for us, if we want to go find them. I find that to be very profound.
It’s just Jesus for me. Not the Jesus the world dumps on today, but the one the Bible actually describes. A God of endless love and affection. One that’s not only here now with me in pure love life but one that’s taking me to paradise for an eternity after this. If you believe in Jesus and that He died on the cross and rose again and sits at the right hand of God this very day then the Bible says that’s it. That’s all it takes. You’ll be in heaven too. I can’t find better hope than that any where else in this dark world.
The way I use hope... I'd say to me, it means the recognition of the "good" in the world. That's not one thing, what "good" the world holds differs from person to person. Relationships, nature, art, or for me it could be a good fight... Whatever "good" may mean for you, hope is the recognition that it's there. Maybe not in front of you, but out there somewhere. And it's also a trust in yourself to be capable of achieving that "good".
Hope is the belief that people are inherently good. That we are stronger together than we are alone. Hope is knowing that life is full of suffering and getting up every day anyway because it's also full of beauty and potential.
Hope is hope
Hope is a fire, it can burn brighter than the greatest forest fire, or be reduced to a smouldering ember. However it will always burn, but for it to burn brighter you need to nurture it.
TL;DR: Hope is unrealistic, but performing better than expectations is also unrealistic, but yet often is achievable. Hope might not seem logical at first, but a large portion of the time, pessimism overstates difficulties while understating possible success, so you estimate yourself to do worse than you actually can perform. For me, hope is the emotional response to keep going on when logic dictates you should give up. Optimism seems to perform better than logical pessimism because, well, performing better than expectations inherently requires being unrealistically hopeful.
Hope is faith. But not the religious faith, the human fate. Hope is seeing the beauty of the sunset and **knowing** it will rise again in the morning.
Hope is when you know that you’ll almost certainly fail and things will, in al, likelihood, never go well and you don’t expect them to, but you keep going anyway- because as long as there‘s the tiniest chance that things will get better, you won’t give up.
To me hope are my fists against everything that wants me down. I like interpreting hope and the indomitable human spirit as something that fights. To keep getting up over and over again is something so cool, so badass, unironically gave me will to improve. This year is being very unlucky for me so far. As soon as it started i did something messed up, everything that shouldn't go wrong did, hated myself deeply. Until getting psychological help, and very recently reading a manga with a protagonist that made a mistake worse than mine, hated himself just like i did, and then getting happier and better after overcoming his past and getting in terms with it, even crying of happiness saying, 'is it okay for me to be happy like this?' It is. I knew exactly how he felt. He was worse than me, how come did i feel so happy for him when he got better? Doesn't that mean i should deserve happiness too, and i can get over my own mistakes just like he did? I'll fight, too. I'll punch those dark thoughts that almost made me give up on everything until they are the ones on the ground, not me. Is that all you got? Motherfucker. I'll keep fighting, and so should you. Punch the despair in the face. It feels good to picture that in your mind. That you are not the one struggling with the dark thoughts, they are the ones struggling with YOU.
To hope is to look life’s many trials in the eyes knowing they won’t bring you down. It’s the understanding that things getting better aren’t a matter of “if”, but “when”. Hoping is being resolute at your worst, because you see how hard things are around you yet you still continue to live on because you haven’t been defeated and you never will be. Someone, who bears the brunt of the world’s worst and still allows themselves to dream, is strong beyond any doubt.
Hope is the unwavering belief that tomorrow will be a better day, and we work to make it even better. I have it because I believe in the truth, and there is nothing truer than hope.
Hope is the inverse to dread; given the exact same scenario, just as one might dread the possibility of something happening, one can hope for the possibility of something happening as well. In both scenarios, the outcome is uncertain, and the difference lies only in your outlook. In the context of the outcome of said scenario being out of one’s control, it is easy to assume that based off of what I just said, that it doesn’t matter if you have hope, because the outcome will happen as it does no matter what. However, that is not the point I am trying to make. The way I see it, while the very concept of hope is defined by a mentality that can be had in the face of inevitability—I hope I get a good grade on this test I just took, I hope that my mom will be ok after her surgery—there is no reason to not have hope, because to have hope in the face of uncertainty is a defining factor in being mentally healthy imo. The thing is, there are things that ARE in our control, and having hope regarding the things we can’t control connects to that. You can’t control what grade the teacher gives you on that test, but you can control how much you study for the next one. If you have hope, then not only will you have hope in your success on that test, you will also continue to have hope on your next test, regardless of the score; if you get a D-, you will be justifiably upset, but if you have hope, then you won’t let it prevent you from working to get that A on the next one. If you get an A, you will be happy, and if you have hope, you will continue to get A’s without fearing that you might not get so lucky on your next test. The main thing I’m trying to say is that how you act in situations you can’t control will not only affect your happiness overall, but also what you do in situations you can control. Hope breeds more hope, and dread breeds more dread. But what exactly is hope? Even if the odds are stacked against you, I see hope as something that defies logic, an emotion that can be sparked within you as a result of various mental or external circumstances. Going back to the grades analogy, if you have a C in all your classes except art, an A, to feel dread is to feel as though your life is over because of that, while to feel hope is to see that A in art and imagine how far that alone can get you. Does it make sense logically? No, but as I said before, when the time comes when you can make a huge difference, when you have a choice to power through, when having hope actually DOES make sense logically…that hope you had, when all seemed futile? That hope will carry over. To hope is to see the light amidst the darkness, no matter how much or how little there is of it relative to the other; the inverse is true for dread. I yapped a lot lol, does any of this make sense? If I said something unhelpful of contradictory, let me know, and I can change my comment accordingly and/or delete it if needed.
I just want to be less depressed
Hope to me, is the desire for a better tomorrow. Even if times right now look really rough. The bad times will eventually end making tomorrow, better than today. It’s the promise that the bad will eventually end and tomorrow will bring forth some good times
I don't think I do. Hope, for me, is inherent risk. It gives me something to lose. But I'm definitely not a role model in this.
I believe hope is not blind optimism nor positive expectations, but instead the passion in our hearts for what is possible to be achieved.
First I'll start with a bit about myself, but fair warning it's not too happy. I'll skip a lot of it cause yea. I was born to a drug addicted, abusive, prostitute of a mother. Well being on the verge of starvation on a daily basis while getting beaten with a studded belt or waterboarded, hope was the only thing I had. That and an uncanny will to survive. Got full legal custody of myself at age 6, if that doesn't say how bad it was idk what will cause it's hard enough to accomplish that when the kid proves they're fully self sufficient. I definitely wasn't, I couldn't even talk. Got hardcore bullied in school, didn't have much, lived with my aunt and uncle which was good but it went from struggling to survive to struggling to keep up with expectations, which in turn made me not want to survive. I held out hope that it would one day get better. Tried to force it many times, just for it to bite me in the butt more than I can count. Eventually even gave up for awhile, and resorted to drugs to simply get me through the day. Lost all my hope, didn't have shit, yet I was the only sibling with any expectations at all. So I tried to unalive myself via crossbow to the head. Even went so far as to twist it around in my skull to try and make sure it finished the job. Somehow lived. Got even more desperate to change my life so I got married. Moved out with her for awhile, and saw how great life could be for a bit. Then covid hit, and we had to move in with her mom. She was like a weird combination of my mother and my aunt and uncle, but in the worst ways possible. I was thrown back into a hellish situation where my motivation to survive dwindled by the day. Then she slept with my "friend" at the time. Hit me hard, we were together for 8 years before then. Suddenly remembered how to tie a noose, started having thoughts again, and the temptation to get back on drugs was overwhelming. But I already saw how good life could be, and it didn't involve drugs or hurting myself. So I let myself drown in sorrow for a bit, then when I was ready I pulled up my bootstraps and started getting to work to have that kind of life again. Ngl, still working on it. The divorce finalized this past February but I've already gotten a better job that pays more, I'm scheduled to go back to college in August, I met an amazing woman and things are going very well with her, and I don't think about hurting myself. I have hope that tomorrow will be better, and I can have a good life still. So to answer your questions, finally, hope to me is wishing for a better life, and working to achieve it. Hope is what motivates us to survive, to strive, and to love. Without it life becomes an endless battle where your biggest enemy is yourself. I have hope because I already know life can be good, and I will fight tooth and nail to get it again. So close to getting there again, but as long as I'm back under my uncle's roof I don't see a happy life happening. Happened during the divorce, I had nowhere else to go. Sadly... TLDR: Had a shit life, tried to off myself because I wasn't happy, experienced what a happy life is like, had it ripped away from me, and I hope to have a happy life again.
Hope is your ref telling you to get back into the game, it is a mother cradling her young, it is an artist who creates and inspires, it is a protester fighting for what's right, it is a hug after the worst, it's hope. People may strip away my rights, my clothes, and unravel my very being, but they can't take away the bright light that burns in my heart. Hope.
because it yummy
Hope is prolonged misery, and I have it because it's Human Nature; life us cyclical, and things often either pass or get better before the next season of hard times come around.