During one of the hardest times of my life, I once wrote how hope felt elusive to me. It felt completely unattainable and seemed like no matter how much I wanted to believe things would change for the better, it always felt too far out of reach.
But once I finally walked through and overcame that difficult time, I realized hope could’ve been there all along. Hope is a feeling, a choice to have a positive mindset and believe that our circumstances will end up turning out for the best, no matter what it looks like on the outside. It’s believing in something we might not be able to see, yet still choosing to hold onto it despite what we’re going through.
Experiencing something life-changing can cause us to feel out of control of our circumstances. Especially when we can’t predict or know what will happen as the future unfolds. But something that always helped me through those times was learning how to find and hold onto hope, no matter what I was facing.
I’ve always believed that our perspective shapes how we feel, along with the decisions we do or don’t make. If you find yourself struggling to find the silver lining in the season or situation you’re in, here are reminders for holding onto hope during difficult times:
Remember That Everything Will Be Okay, Even When It Doesn’t Feel Okay
We can’t always see our way out of a situation when we’re in it. And we never know the emotions we’re going to feel as a result of what we’re going through. Even recently, I found myself in a season that felt like there was no end in sight. I kept slipping into the pattern of looking at where I was, rather than shifting my perspective, knowing there was more on the other side of despair.
The hard times never last forever, and even though it might feel like it at the moment, there’s always hope waiting to be found. Not everything will always feel okay, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t eventually be okay.
Remember that there’s so much we can’t see until hindsight. It’s often in those deep feelings of grief that it becomes hard for us to believe that things will ever be different or simply ‘get better’. Even when something doesn’t feel okay, it’ll eventually be okay. Finding that light of hope will always guide you through pain and uncertainty.
Focus On The Truth, Rather Than What You Think
It’s amazing how much our thoughts can influence how we feel, sometimes without us even realizing the impact they have on our choices and decisions.
I’ve mentioned before some limiting beliefs that held me back in the past: feeling like I wasn’t qualified as a writer because I wasn’t published in a larger name-brand magazine (but I was still published in several, smaller publications), or feeling behind in life because of my own expectations I felt like I was falling short of (even though time continued to prove I was right where I needed to be).
Just because we think something about a situation, it doesn’t mean it’s true. When we only look at how we think or feel, our mind and emotions can alter our perspective, convincing us to believe something that might actually not be true at all.
Focusing on the truth rather than relying on our thoughts and feelings can help us find hope even when we aren’t sure where our situation is headed or how things are going to turn out. Feeding into the feelings of doubt only leaves us second-guessing ourselves, or feeling like things will never get better until our situation changes or improves.
But you can always find hope in what you know to be true: even if something hurts now, it doesn’t mean that it will hurt forever. And even if you don’t know how a situation is going to turn out, you can find hope in learning how to trust that it will eventually work out, even if it’s not in the timing you expected.
Holding onto hope can give you purpose and strength to keep pushing through, no matter what you’re facing. Hope isn’t something we’ll always be able to physically see. Sometimes it’s the hidden light that carries us through, especially when everything around us feels uncertain.
Give Yourself Patience And Grace
When we’re going through a difficult time, one of the most important things that we can do is give ourselves patience and grace, and meet ourselves where we’re at.
I used to convince myself I had to be strong all the time, even in the moments I felt completely weak. But strength isn’t found in how we feel, it’s found in how we keep moving forward despite our feelings.
The truth is, we won’t always feel hopeful. Instead of getting caught up in the pressure to feel okay all the time, it’s more important to accept and embrace where we are, not where we think we should be. While there are still times in my own life that I fall short of holding onto hope, especially when seeing a way through feels impossible, I’ve learned how to work through my feelings of pain, rather than avoiding them.
Something that’s helped me time after time is journaling exactly how I’m feeling. A lot of the pain, worry, concerns, and anything that we’re holding onto is easier to release when we’re able to get it out of our heads and on paper. It won’t always solve all our problems, but it’ll help us separate what we feel from what we know, and give us more clarity moving forward.
It can feel hard to distinguish the line between where we are and where we want to be, but remember that through each difficult time we go through, we’re growing and becoming stronger. Give yourself patience and grace if you aren’t where you want to be, by accepting exactly where you are.
Never Forget There’s Purpose In Your Pain
I wrote an entire article about the importance of finding purpose in your pain. It’s such a deep and important topic to me because sometimes I think it’s easy for us to lose sight of knowing there is always a reason for where we are.
While we make our own decisions and choices, it can sometimes lead us down an unexpected path. Even when our journey looks different than we imagined, it doesn’t mean there isn’t purpose found where we are. We might not always have the answers when we want or need them, but if we learn how to trust and lean onto hope in what we’re facing, we’ll eventually see the bigger picture.
The pain can feel so deep and all-consuming that it feels hard to see a way out, but know that it won’t last forever. Sometimes we hold onto the things we’re meant to let go of, but not everything is meant to stay in our lives.
I never understood why certain doors closed when I thought they should’ve stayed open. But now, looking back, I find myself feeling thankful every single one of them closed when they did. Even though it took years and years before I could understand the reasoning of why things had to seemingly fall apart or change, time always revealed the answers I was once searching for.
Sometimes what feels like the most painful thing at the time is the best thing for us because it puts us exactly where we need to be. Hold onto hope and never forget there’s purpose in your pain.
Hope can feel hard to hold onto, especially when we’re in a difficult situation that we can’t see a way out of. We might not always feel hopeful, but choosing to hold onto hope despite how we feel will always help us push through with purpose. Our perspective is everything, and one of the best perspectives we can hold onto is finding hope no matter what we’re going through.
