Benefits of hope to be healthy and happy

Often times, people are reluctant to hope for fear that hope will not come true. Hope is also often associated with an expectation that is owned for other people. Even though when you have hope, it doesn't mean you just sit back and wait until your dreams come true.

The importance of having hope

Source: Hope Grows

“ Hope is a waking dream ", A piece of the words of Aristotle that many people have not realized.

Hope is often misinterpreted as mere wishful thinking that is groundless. In fact, hope is a dream that can be realized in the real world. Hope is also the belief that things will change for the better, no matter how big or small.

According to Charles R. Snyder, a psychologist at the University of Kansas, there are three main interconnected components of hope. The three components are goals, agency, and pathways .

Agency is a person's ability to shape his life, the belief that someone can make something happen and motivated to achieve goals or the desired result. While pathways is a plan that defines how a person will achieve his goals.

In other words, when someone has hope, they should also have had the means and the effort to make it come true. Not only dreams that come to you every now and then, a person also has to face the real world as he wishes.

Hope and happiness in life

Having hope has been proven to provide benefits in the form of changes for the better in one's life. A professor and psychologist at the University of Leicester conducted a study on his students for more than three years. Those who live hopefully have more successful academic lives.

In a different study, expectations also increase one's productivity. The study shows that employees with expectations contribute around 14% to productivity in the workplace.

Not a few people also associate hope with depression or anxiety disorders that a person feels. And it turns out this is proven through a survey.

The survey of more than 500 college students showed that those who had high hopes during the early years of the school year had a lower risk of developing symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders.

Benefits have hope for health

Not only does it have a good impact on your psychological state, the existence of hope can also have a good effect on physical health.

Several studies have shown that people who have expectations have lower pain perceptions. Hope, which is still closely related to optimism, can unconsciously change people's perceptions of the pain that arises.

One of these is the case control study published in Current Pain and Headache Reports . Patients with jaw joint disorders who have lower optimism feel discomfort due to pain higher than patients who have high optimism.

This shows that pain can actually be influenced by a person's emotional and cognitive interpretations. When a person is not too focused on the pain that will arise, he will also reduce the possibility of experiencing more severe pain.

You certainly know the recommendations for avoiding stress in order to maintain health. Presumably, this recommendation also applies to those with chronic disease. Hope can also benefit by helping in the healing process.

If the patient does not allow himself to sink into negative emotions and worries about the days ahead, he will focus more on taking care of himself and adopting positive habits that can help him live a healthier life.

Do not stop there, by having hope that you indirectly have tried to maintain heart health, physiological processes such as blood circulation and respiration, and maintain blood pressure to remain at normal numbers.

Therefore, do not be afraid and feel free to hope. However, you also have to remember that expectations must also be matched with your ability to try to achieve them.