How the science of hope can improve mental health

How hopeful are you feeling? If that question elicits a groan or an eye roll, you’re not alone. About half of Americans ages 18 to 29 are feeling hopeless for at least several days out of a two-week period, according to the Harvard Youth Poll. The reasons include a range of concerns about social, political and economic issues.

Hopelessness is a common symptom of depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions. But did you know that hope can be taught as a skill to strengthen an individual’s psychological state and improve their overall quality of life?

Mental health advocates in Iowa, including Heart of Iowa Community Services (HICS), are beginning to emphasize hope as a skill. In fact, HICS employees have undergone hope awareness training to understand how hope can transform our communities.

What is the science of hope?

It’s common knowledge that having hope motivates individuals and allows for a better overall mindset. Yet, hope may seem like a fleeting and abstract attribute that is dependent on circumstances.

Research from Dr. Chan Hellman of Hope Centered, however, found that hope is part of a science. Hope can, in fact, be taught as a psychological strength that improves an individual’s ability to cope with traumatic experiences. It can also be a framework for positive action that motivates people toward goals.

Why should we care about the science of hope?

Simply put, we need hope. Gallup’s 2022 Global Emotions Report found that, overall, Americans feel they’re having more negative experiences than positive; stress, sadness and anxious feelings are at their highest recorded levels; and people are reporting feeling less joy and fewer feelings of being rested.

Society has traditionally considered the ability to have hope as contingent on the environments and experiences around us being positive and allowing for hope.

If we can teach hope, we can empower individuals with the emotional knowledge and ability to change a negative mindset, according to Hellman’s work. They’ll be better able to adapt to circumstances, reframe approaches to problem-solving and even change the culture of a group. They would also be less likely to have negative mental health conditions, like depression and anxiety, and fewer negative symptoms, such as thoughts of suicide.

What’s even more inspiring: Positive mindsets may be contagious. Research from the Harvard Medical School indicates positivity can spread throughout a social group.

How do you start feeling more hopeful?

Hellman breaks hope down into two parts. First, it’s “the belief the future can be better than today.” The empowerment piece comes second: “You have the power to make it so.”

So how do you gain hope? Hellman shared some thoughts with the American Psychological Association.

1. Cultivate it at an early age. Parents, caregivers and mentors can start asking children at a young age what they want to happen and what they can do to make it happen. This teaches them that they have power to make positive outcomes come to fruition.
2. Recognize the barriers. As any teen or adult can attest, life happens, and barriers may come up along the way that can impede the outcome they hoped for. We can practice recognizing that we will face barriers and focus on how to overcome them when they occur.
3. Reimagine the hopeful outcome. With time and experience comes perspective, and people may realize that a hopeful outcome that they expected may not be possible in the way they imagined. Instead, we can train our minds to pivot to a similar possible outcome.