How to Feel More Hopeful

The Science of Happiness

PRX and Greater Good Science Center

Science, Social Sciences

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2023

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How can we build a sense of hope when the future feels uncertain? Poet Tomás Morín tries a writing practice to make him feel more hopeful and motivated to work toward his goals.

This is the second episode of our special series, Climate, Hope & Science. We explore the intersection of environmental well-being and our own well-being, where taking care of ourselves and the planet are one in the same and feeling good is not only possible, it’s helpful. We find the links between crisis, hope, happiness, and action.

Look for the third and final episode May 11. Plus, we’ll share climate-focused Happiness Breaks next week and May 18.

Episode summary:

In the first episode of Climate, Hope & Science, we explored the power of hope with Rebecca Solnitt. Hope can help us cope with uncertainty and sustain action, even when we don’t know what will happen. But what can we do when hope feels far away? This week, we learn about a practice shown in a lab to increase hopefulness and happiness. Poet and professor Tomá Morín got his first taste of climate anxiety as a kid, when he learned about the hole in the ozone layer, and he still feels the panic over the state of the environment today. Will writing about a past hope that was fulfilled — like the global effort to heal the ozone layer — help him overcome despair and cultivate hope? We hear about Tomás’ experience. Then, the scientist behind the practice explains how she created it and why it works.

Editor’s Note: In this episode, Tomás mentions recycling as a way to care for the environment. But in the last few years, we’ve learned that most things we toss in the recycling bin are never made into something new. If you’d like to learn more, here are a few places to start:
https://tinyurl.com/3y9u2y5w

https://tinyurl.com/yckstwer

Today’s Practice:

Find a quiet space and grab paper and something to write with.
Write about something you're currently hopeful for when it comes to climate change. Describe it as if it’s happening now in as much detail as possible. Don’t worry about spelling and grammar.
Next, write about a past hope you’ve held in the past regarding the environment that's been fulfilled and that brings you a sense of gratitude to think about now. Describe what happened, the gratitude you felt, how you and others contributed to it, and what you learned from the experience. If you like, take these prompts one by one. Don’t worry about writing well, just write as much as you can.

Today’s guests:

Tomás Morin is a poet who won an American Poetry Review Honickman First Book Prize for his collection of poems A Larger Country. He’s currently a professor at Rice University.

Check out Tomás’ work: https://www.tomasqmorin.com/About

Read Tomás’ latest book: https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496226495/

Follow Tomas on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tomasqmorin/

Charlotte Van Oyen-Witvliet is a clinical psychologist who teaches at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.

Resources from The Greater Good Science Center:

How Hope Can Keep You Happier and Healthier: https://tinyurl.com/2n9k59xn

How Gratitude Can Help You Through Hard Times: https://tinyurl.com/3b66kh5n

How to Overcome “Apocalypse Fatigue” Around Climate Change: https://tinyurl.com/yc47ph38

What to do With Dread and Anxiety Around Climate Change: https://tinyurl.com/3766a6sj

Tell us about your experience finding hope for the environment. Email us at [email protected] or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

Help us share The Science of Happiness!

Leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts and share this link with someone who might like the show: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It's so easy to just, you know, you watch the news or doom scroll, you know, on social
0:07.0	media, and the algorithm keeps feeding you all the worst things, and it's so easy to
0:11.8	feel alone and hopeless.
0:15.0	As a kid, when I learned about the whole of the ozone layer, I mean, what a moment it
0:18.2	felt like, oh, suddenly we're in some disaster film, and like, what's going to happen, this
0:22.7	is the end.
0:23.7	Recently, scientists discovered a weak spot in the ozone layer over Antarctica.
0:28.4	It felt like there's this awful thing that's happened in the sky that I can't see.
0:32.5	And if it doesn't get fixed, then this is going to physically hurt us.
0:39.8	It's going to force us to change how we live, you know, we won't be able to go outside
0:44.3	anymore.
0:45.3	It'll be too dangerous.
0:47.6	That event hijacked my nervous system.
0:50.9	It just felt too big.
0:52.5	It felt too big for me too.
0:54.4	I think, like, understand mentally, so instead, my body carried that fear.
0:59.8	Now I look back, I realize it was anxiety.
1:03.5	And fast forward years later, I've never seen somewhere, oh, hey, we did it.
1:08.7	And just feeling like, oh, wow, as a species, we're actually capable of this.
1:13.2	Human action to save the ozone layer appears to have worked.
1:16.8	The study says it should fully recover within decades.
1:20.7	To have nations come together, have our government pull together, our politicians come together
	...

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