Feeling hopeless is what most of us would have experienced at hard times. Even though we all believe in hope, there are times when we feel it is like the end of the world. The hard times will drive us to such an extreme.
Sometimes there will be no reason for us to feel hopeless and this feeling can not be avoided! The key lies in identifying and letting the feeling of hopelessness to fade away. It comes to all of us, but one should be smart to get over with that feeling.
Feeling hopeless is dangerous since hope is the only thing that keeps us going. Hope gives us the assurance that our life will improve, will get better and will not stay the same way as it is today.
Hope gives us the strength to overcome the present crisis and settle things in future. So if we lose this vital hope and feel hopeless, a successful life will be in question.
Here are the four best ways that will help you overcome the feeling of hopelessness.
Separate fact from (hopeless) fiction
The main cause of feeling hopeless arises from fictitious thoughts. If you have encountered a failure or have undergone a crisis you tend to feel hopeless by looking at the happenings.
While you think that you are looking at what have happened and are feeling hopeless, the fact might be that you are developing fictions out of facts. You might have tried to evaluate a projected outcome of what have just happened. You might also have cooked up the causes and various other effects apart from what has just happened.
All these will bombard you with the feeling that you are facing a disaster and this will be the end. So if you take a moment to clear your thoughts of fictions and take only the facts to work out the way then you will feel a lot better.
Use the data
Your life is a school and you learn from it everyday. You learn from your successes, failures, friends, colleagues, strangers, accidents, weather and so on.
Think of your success moments and find out the cause. What made you successful on that day? You certainly have qualities to succeed. So dig them out.
Dig out the success strategies from your past. Dig out the reasons for similar failures from the past. Think of what your friend did to succeed.
Think of how your colleague managed to tackle the same issue. You have data inside and outside of you. So just use it and overcome hopelessness.
Use your society
Speaking to friends, family or colleagues will help you to ventilate the pressure. Your well wishers will give you positive comments on the situation and also might come up with a good suggestion for the problem you are facing.
Some might come forward to give you a helping hand and take you out of the situation. Therefore do not hesitate to share and seek for help from family and friends.
Talk to your inner self
Share the exact problem (without adding additional flavors, as pointed out in tip 1) with your inner self. There is no better friend to you than your inner self. So talk to yourself.
Take some quite time off and isolate yourself. Analyze the crisis/critical situation/failure and find out the cause.
See what you can do to improve the situation or avoid its occurrence in future. Tell to yourself that you can improve and this is not the end.
If it is your mistake or a shortcoming from your side that has lead to the situation, then accept it duly and without pride. Take the responsibility and take charge. Be cautious not to make the mistake in future.
If it is someone who has caused a crisis to you, then tell to yourself to deal with the person in a diplomatic and polite way. Assure yourself that everything is under control.
Hopeless feeling: Takeaway
Feeling hopeless is not a great deal; everyone encounters it one day or the other. The key is to identify such a feeling and overcome it. The tips mentioned above will certainly help you to deal with an abandoned situation.
Let me know how it works for you. Do you have any additional tips? Share them in the comments so that others can use it as well.
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About Jane
Feeling hopeless to me is the worst phase anyone can go through. Hope for good times give us the reason to live. The key to me is introspection, because there is no once who can get you out of the hopeless feeling than you yourself. Its an individual who has to believe in himself and find a way out of everything. I usually try to meditate in such times to get a calm state of mind to think and regain the lost energy. There is positive in everything, if only we have an eye to see it.
Hey Jane,
A wonderful post!! These days I am going through this phase of feeling hopeless. I myself is not aware about what is the factor which is acting as a stimulus to make me feel that way. Indeed, this phase is worse and full of numerous thoughts and restlessness. What provides me the much needed relief in such situations is talking to my soul. It gives me the answer to the queries which are the source of worries. Thanks for sharing this post. I had a nice time reading it and gaining information about more ways to attain relief.
It’s true when you mentioned that this feeling haunts everyone once in awhile. When we feel hopeless and upset, vulnerability sets in and this is when we have the tendency to make decisions in haste to get ourselves out of this circumstance we are in. I think that every passing day is a great opportunity to overcome, improve and make a difference in our lives. So get up and go after your dreams!
Thanks Jane, you never fail to inspire me!
Hello Jane!
It’s so timely that I have come across this post! We all feel hopeless at certain points in our lives and I am going through a bit of that now. I feel a lot better after reading your article. It’s the pat on the shoulder I needed. Sometime we let our worries take over our lives without realizing the damage it is causing us. I should keep reminding myself that if there is one thing I shouldn’t let go of, it’s hope. Wonderful share, Jane! God bless you!
Feeling hopeless sometimes is almost a normal feeling whether something triggers it or not. The problem is allowing this feeling to linger more than necessary.
Here’s what helps me limit the feeling of hopelessness and cope with it when it does arise.
I am very realistic with every situation. I mostly don’t let myself get sentimental over issues because then I can start to feel pity for myself. For example, when something happens, instead of nagging about why it shouldn’t happen, I’m thinking of the solution; because I already know I can’t change it. It has happened, it has happened. Period. And when things are not working, or just can’t work, I accept them and move on. I try my best not to deal over things I can’t change.
I try often to count my blessings instead of my challenges.
I set goals.
Generally, I try to have a good perspective about things and life. For example, I know building a business takes time and I don’t expect things to work any other way. I know what I really want so that allows me to limit myself to only what will give me what I want and I am not everywhere. I know the Government can’t solve all my problems even though the most perfect human is on sit as president. I know I can’t become rich or achieve the kind of life I want stuck in the 8-5 job. And so on…
So all these help me limit and cope well with the feeling of hopelessness.
But once a while even as strong as I think I am it lingers on and I can’t seem to help it. In times like that I take a break from everything and just relax the best way I know how – Watch a good movie!
Sometimes all you need is a short break from everything and you’ll be yourself again.
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