{"id":898,"date":"2024-12-05T14:40:21","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T19:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/?p=898"},"modified":"2024-12-05T14:40:21","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T19:40:21","slug":"hope-for-the-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/2024\/12\/hope-for-the-holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope for the Holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I don\u2019t know about you, but lately I\u2019ve been feeling like there is a lot of bleakness in the world. Hurricanes, an ag economy full of negative predictions, H5N1, famines around the world\u2026I could go on, but you get the idea. There\u2019s lots of bad news out there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

With all this darkness, it is really hard to feel hopeful sometimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is, hope is essential to all of us. It is a key ingredient in being a productive, caring human being. Without hope we don\u2019t have any motivation to keep going. Research has shown that people who are hopeful have better health, emotional well-being, and social well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how do we get more hopeful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It helps to first understand what hope it. It isn\u2019t blind optimism or wishful thinking. Hope is the belief that the future can be better and that we have the ability to make it so. Not \u201cpie in the sky\u201d but \u201cI know things can be better than they are right now, and I have the power to make things move in a positive direction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Dr. Chan Hellman, found of the Hope Research Center at the University of Oklahoma, there are 6 things we can do to build hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Give yourself permission to be hopeful<\/strong>, and look forward to positive things in the future;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Set at least one meaningful goal<\/strong>\u2014something you want<\/em> to do that\u2019s important to you, not a chore you have <\/em>to do;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Think about all the different pathways<\/strong> you could use to get to this goal and brainstorm solutions;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Call on your trusted support people<\/strong> to help you build motivation and the confidence that you can make things better;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Look for success stories.<\/strong> Instead of reading or listening to doom and despair stories, find stories about people who have overcome challenges and been successful\u2014remind yourself about the possibilities of success and the good in the world;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Use your imagination. <\/strong>Dr. Hellman calls this the \u201cmovie in our heads.\u201d\u00a0 If we can see ourselves in a positive future, it is much easier to be hopeful.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    This year, for the holidays, instead of a tie or another sweater, let\u2019s give each other (and ourselves) the gift of hope. Let\u2019s be someone\u2019s support person, their cheerleader, and build up their sense of hope.  Let\u2019s collect and share success stories\u2014if you want some ideas check out Live Life Happy<\/a>  or just search \u201cstories of hope\u201d.  Let\u2019s use our imagination and picture a future where there is building, and growth, and kindness.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    And of course, my hope for each of us through the holidays and always, is that we keep thriving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For more ideas on hope, check out this article<\/a> or read through the site of the  Hope Research Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I don\u2019t know about you, but lately I\u2019ve been feeling like there is a lot of bleakness in the world. Hurricanes, an ag economy full of negative predictions, H5N1, famines around the world\u2026I could go on, but you get the idea. There\u2019s lots of bad news out there. With all this darkness, it is really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":899,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":900,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions\/900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}