Anxiety and Stress
Mental Health and the Power of Hope
Mental health consists of our psychological, emotional and social wellbeing. It influences how we feel, our thought processes and how we behave. Our mental health can impact how we are dealing with stress, interacting with people and the choices we make. Our mental health affects us at every stage of our lives.
When we experience mental health challenges, our mood, thinking and behavior can all be affected. Often when people are dealing with challenging circumstances such as a loss, difficulties in a relationship, divorce or financial struggles our mood can be affected. This may cause us to feel sad, experience the blues, or a depression can set in. This sometimes leads to people feeling lonely, experiencing heartache and for many a loss of hope.
Hope means that we are desiring or expecting something good to happen. It is a feeling of trust that things will turn out for the best. We experience the fruition of hopeful expectations during good times. During difficulties, we are looking to hope to comfort. In the darkest of times, we cling to hope to get us through.
Hope can have a powerful effect on a person’s mood and mental health. It can help by redirecting our negative thought processes to more positive ones; impacting our emotions. It can also influence our outlook on the future. For many, the promises of God offer hope. One of my favorite quotes from the Bible comes from the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah. Here we find his words,
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jer. 29:11 NKJV).
Here are some quotes on hope that may improve your mental health.
Try reading through the quotes, letting the words sink in, and see if they help. If you find one that resonates with your heart, write it down and try looking at it regularly. Hope can have a powerful effect on our mental health.
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness.” Desmond Tutu
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” Albert Einstein
“To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.” Gilbert K. Chesterton
“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.” Winston Churchill
“A leader is a dealer in hope.” Napoleon Bonaparte
“Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.” Robert H. Schuller
“We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.” Franklin D. Roosevelt
“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.'” Erma Bombeck
“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.” Emily Dickinson
“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier.'” Alfred Lord Tennyson
Having hope can have a powerful effect on shaping our future.
“Hope is the word which God has written on the brow of every man.” Victor Hugo
“When the world says, “Give up,” Hope whispers, “Try it one more time.” Unknown
“God puts rainbows in the clouds so that each of us – in the dreariest and most dreaded moments – can see a possibility of hope.” May Angelou
“Hope is patience with the lamp lit.” Tertullian
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
“However long the night, the dawn will break.” African Proverb
“Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.” C.S. Lewis