Being the Future: creativefacilitating.com Blog

Hope as a Healing Power

May 28th, 2010

I want to call your attention to an article in a recent (March 2010) edition of Ode magazine, Great Expectations: How hope therapy can help banish mild mood disorders and boost happiness. The author is Catherine Ryan. The article notes that “people’s emotions often are determined by their expectations for the future.”

Interestingly, I have also been learning recently that people’s moods can affect the possibilities they see, and thus their possibilities for action and for a future. Emotion is central to action in us humans. Try thinking of the day ahead with arms crossed tightly across your chest, what can you entertain? Try thinking of the day ahead with relaxes arms and a smile on your face, do you see any other possibilities? If we see a cyclical quality here we might ask ourselves how we break out of negative cycles and enter positive ones.

Back to the article, which does not promote a “Pollyanna” view of the world or a disregard for negative emotions. It does point out that if we can see a positive road ahead we feel better about where we are today and we are better able to move forward. Not so surprising, huh? The surprise is, I think, that we don’t act on this idea more often.

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