Welcome to the Very Well Mind podcast. We've interviewed over 100 authors, experts, entrepreneurs, athletes, musicians, and others to help you learn strategies to care for your mental health.

This episode is hosted by psychotherapist and bestselling author Amy Morin. Now let's get into the episode.

Okay. You're listening to the Friday fix. Every Friday, I share a quick mental strength strategy that can help fix the thoughts, feelings, and actions that can hold you back in life. Today I'm

talking about hope. I've heard people

say things like, it's okay to be hopeless. But without hope, we really don't have much. That's not to

make you feel even worse if you lack hope right now. Instead, it's an acknowledgement of what a dark

place it can be and to encourage you to take steps to cultivate hope. Before we talk about

how to do that, though, let's talk about what hope really is. When most researchers define hope,

they say it requires a belief that you could create a positive outcome. It's different from

wishful thinking, like wishing you'd win the lottery. Instead, it involves having the

belief that you're capable of achieving a goal or having trust that other people have the ability

to help you reach a goal. So while optimism and hope are related, optimism is usually described

as thinking about positive outcomes, regardless of the role you play. Hope involves having personal involvement

in making that good thing happen. Hope isn't just a feeling or a way of thinking, though.

It's about taking action. The action might mean taking a step that could help you feel better,

like telling a family member that you need help for depression. Telling them means that you're

hopeful that they'd stick by you and they might even help you call a doctor or check yourself

into a hospital. It might also mean that you're holding out hope that you'll be able to find a

solution to a problem down the road even though you can't quite see your way out of it right now.

Hope often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you believe that you have the power to make things better,

you're more likely to go out there and try. Of course, some people are just naturally more hopeful

than others. It's part of their personality. But the good news is everyone can cultivate hope. It's important to

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