How To Train The Brain To Maintain Hope

Training the brain to maintain hope is possible. It is always a good time to make a change, to make a mental and emotional revolution, to integrate new thinking schemes with which to make our way through the present with better resources. Likewise, we cannot ignore one aspect: enhancing this competence directly improves our mental health.

On the other hand, there is another no less important factor: not only must we be able to maintain and enhance hope, it is also advisable to know how to transmit it to others. We have reached a point in our society where everything related to the issue of personal growth is focused on self-care, on procuring self-well-being and happiness.

We could almost say that we are drifting into a kind of somewhat selfish materialism at once. It is also time to go beyond ourselves and take into account the one close to us. It is time to cultivate certain psychological competencies with which to gain quality of life and, in turn, be able to create nurturing environments for everyone.

Awakening hope is possibly the most determining value and emotional resource right now. Let’s see how to do it.

Training the brain to maintain hope: 5 keys

The psychologist Dacher Keltner, a professor at the University of Berkeley, is one of the best experts in understanding hope from a neuropsychological point of view. In books, such as Born to be good, he explains the mechanics of these areas that affect well-being and happiness, as well as mental health.

Something that explains in this work is that people are biologically prepared to experience hope. This data that, as such, can call our attention has an explanation behind it: it is a survival mechanism. The brain will always prioritize optimism, improvement or resilience in the face of defeatism, because otherwise we would not advance in the journey of life.

We also have research such as that carried out at the University of Sichuan, in China, which shows us something very illustrative. Hope is an antidote to stress and anxiety. It has been possible to see through MRIs how, thanks to psychological therapy and training the brain to maintain hope, it changes.

It does so by generating greater activation in areas such as the bilateral medial orbitofrontal cortex and reducing the level of cortisol in the blood. All of this translates into greater motivation and confidence in oneself and in one’s future. Therefore, let us know what keys can help us to enhance this dimension.

Think short term

Hope works better in short-term futures than in long-term visions. To reduce stress and have a greater sense of control, it is best to look to what may happen next week or next month.

What may happen in 12 months is anyone’s guess and focusing on that void can cause us discomfort. It is better to put the spyglass towards a closer area.

Hence, the most advisable thing to do is set simple goals for a few days from now. An example, I can tell myself that for next week what I want to achieve is to meet with friends or acquaintances to share ideas about my future work.

It is very possible that, in one of these meetings, someone knows of a job offer or gives me an idea that makes me feel better. The fact of achieving it, that a week passes and I achieve it, will make me feel more well-being and feel more confident to continue achieving goals little by little.

Finding small meanings in everyday life

Training the brain to maintain hope necessarily involves finding vital meanings. Our brain needs things, dimensions and people to anchor to find security. Having hobbies, values, remembering what we are passionate about or would like to achieve in life, offers us anchors to feel safe and sails to keep looking to the future.

To clarify them, take a notebook and write simple sentences that represent those meanings that you find in everyday life:

• I like being with my partner: love gives me hope.
• I enjoy being with my pets, walking in the mountains or on the beach: nature is important to me.
• My work is important: I would like to advance professionally, that also gives me the strength to continue.

To train your brain to hope, stop looking in the rear view of your life

If you look back sick with nostalgia. If you put your gaze in the rear view of your life, the mind will obsessively drift into a lost yesterday that will not allow you to move forward. Training the brain to maintain hope implies, in turn, having control over our attention and thoughts.

As we have pointed out, it is not appropriate to focus on a too distant future where nothing is certain, where there are only hypotheses that can inflame anxiety. Likewise, it is not correct to place ourselves in that yesterday that does not exist either and that we have left behind. 

What then is the most successful? Position the attention in the present present and in the future in the short term. It is our zone of survival and also of opportunities. It is that area that must be seeded with new decisions for the objectives to flourish. Likewise, it is also that scenario in which new opportunities are hidden that we must take advantage of.

The simple act of accomplishing things increases the sense of hope and makes us feel more secure. To conclude, we insist once again on the fact that hope has a direct impact on our mental health. Working on it is a priority right now. As is transmitting it to others. Let’s keep it in mind.