Feeling hopeless can be a draining experience, and it can cause you to isolate yourself from friends and stop exercising and doing what you used to enjoy. This only adds to your sadness and feelings of hopelessness. Often feelings of hopelessness co-exist with other negative emotions that prevent you from living your best life. You may have low self-esteem, social anxiety, or even depression.
In all of these cases, you may be plunged into a vortex of sadness and isolation that makes you wonder if you will ever find hope again. It is difficult to improve your life when you feel it is pointless to try. However, acknowledging your feelings and taking action to improve your situation is the only way to put yourself on the road to wellness.
Here are the different ways to stop feeling hopeless:
1. Question your despair
When you are desperate, you often feel that there is no point in trying, which can lead to an endless cycle of despair. To stop this, you need to challenge your hopelessness. Just think about the possibility that you are wrong – you have a reason to hope.
Decide to act despite your despair, and know that your negative thoughts can be overcome. You can speak to professional counsellors and online psychotherapy services for help.
2. Set aside time to think of what you like
Set aside or clock in an hour this week to think about yourself. Create a self-love ritual. Write them down in a journal or even on your phone. There is no fixed guide to your self-love ritual.
You do not have to stick to one ritual throughout your lifetime and do not have to do a self-love ritual every day. You must have some rituals when you feel like you need to realign your thoughts and needs with your body and mind.
3. Take initiative
Be optimistic by doing things you don’t necessarily want to do but might improve. Go for a run or go out for dinner with friends. Take the initiative to prove your despair wrong. Do something that feels like a small achievement to prove that life is not a lost cause.
4. Look at the things that you can change
Sometimes the feeling of hopelessness comes when you feel overwhelmed. You feel like the tasks are too big or too hard to accomplish.
Instead of constantly thinking about the things you can’t change, look at the wide range of things you can change or the smallest task you can complete with minimal effort. Let’s say your job is a hopeless situation right now. You’ve been fired, and there’s nothing you can do to change that. But what about all the things that are working well in your life or that you have the power to impact?
Rather than dwelling on your hopelessness about losing your job, focus on what you have control over, such as time to yourself and time to explore other career paths.
5. Recognize that there are many facets to your well-being
You may assume that the problem you feel is hopelessly out of your control. You may be focused on the constraints or challenges you face, unable to see beyond them.
But take a moment to consider the other aspects of your life that contribute to your well-being – family, friends, health, etc. Even if you only have one thing to be grateful for, you have something to look forward to.
6. Live in the moment
Almost always, the present moment is perfect. It is our thoughts about the past or the future that cause our suffering and despair. What is happening now? Is this a hopeless moment? Keep yourself in the present moment by focusing on your breathing and the things around you.
Work on a simple task, such as washing dishes or folding clothes, and pay attention to each action and feeling. When you are present in the moment, you distract your negative thoughts and give yourself a break from sad and anxious feelings. It also helps you accomplish things little by little. Sometimes it’s about letting time pass and distracting yourself while engaging in other areas of your life.
7. Focus on gratitude
Don’t let the darkness cover your light. The setbacks you face cannot take away your skills, knowledge, degrees, experiences, and loved ones. It may be hard to feel grateful when you’re feeling hopeless. But a little perspective helps.
Maintain a grateful heart for the shining stars in your life. Start a gratitude journal and write down all your blessings daily – even the small ones. Focusing on gratitude has been proven to improve your mood and give you a reason to hope.
8. Be a child again
Until they learn from society that they should plan for the future, children live in the moment without worrying about tomorrow. A child may be sad when a toy is broken but quickly moves on to find joy in another game or distraction.
Remember what it means to live without hoping things will change and accept what is. This is particularly useful in situations where you cannot change.
