“To make something special you just have to believe it’s special.”– Mr Ping, The Kung Fu Panda
With the rise in mental health problems across the world, individuals and institutions have gradually realized the importance of well-being and happiness. Although the ideas on importance of emotional and mental health have had a significant rise in recent years, their origins can be found in ancient schools of thought such as Greek Philosophy and Buddhism. Spirituality has always talked about the importance of hope and believing in oneself. When we dwell into these aspects, Buddhism provides a framework for understanding aspects of reality that relate to well-being. One of the core teachings of Buddhism is the inevitability of suffering. Hardships and adversity are characteristic of human life and are unavoidable. However, Buddhism also carefully elucidates how this suffering can be eliminated. They talk about focusing on yourself and believing in yourself. Although this process requires dedication and can take a lifetime to achieve, we can incorporate some aspects from it to help us better cope with our adversity. One such quality that allows us to cope with our suffering is our capacity for positive expectancies or in simpler words, hope. Simply said, Movies such as Kung fu Panda, are based on these principles and demonstrate how this hope may be inculcated.
Hope allows people to approach problems with certain strategies and a mindset that is suitable for success, thereby increasing the chances of winning their battles and accomplishing their goals. It is commonly conceived as just a feel-good emotion, but research in the field of Psychology has shown that it is a lot more than that. Psychologists describe hope as a dynamic cognitive motivational system.
This means that having hopeful thoughts leads to learning goals which motivate us and are conducive to our growth and improvement. A bulk of research shows that learning goals are positively related to success across a wide range of fields - from academic achievement to sports to even science and business. When we set larger goals and set smaller milestones to achieve this, we are able to be hopeful every time we achieve these and stay motivated to reach our larger goal.
Hope often gets a bad reputation because without taking action, it alone does not accomplish anything.However, combined with talent, skill and ability, hope plays a major role. A 2002 study looking at the impact of hope on academic success in college students found that hope was related to a higher GPA 6 years later!
Students with higher hope were also more likely to have graduated and less likely to be dismissed from school due to bad grades (Snyder et al., 2002).
Another study looking at hope in athletes found that among female cross-country runners, their capacity for hope predicted their results at athletic competitions beyond training, self-esteem, confidence, and mood (Curry et al., 1997).
Thus, it is true that hope alone cannot accomplish anything. When we combine hope with belief and faith, we preserve and surely are able to reach our goals. However, during times of hardship it is hope that gives us the strength to stay determined and keep working towards our goals. It allows us to recognize that our current state of suffering is temporary and with the right mindset we can work towards improving our emotional state and achieving our goals.
Watch our video on Instagram by Vidushi on how she believes and aims to bring this hope into practice to achieve her dreams!
CLICK HOPE, and Share with us what makes you hopeful, in linked form !
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References
Snyder, C. R., Shorey, H. S., Cheavens, J., Pulvers, K. M., Adams, V. H. III, & Wiklund, C. (2002). Hope and academic success in college. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94(4), 820–826. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.94.4.820
Curry LA, Snyder CR, Cook DL, Ruby BC, Rehm M. Role of hope in academic and sport achievement. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1997 Dec;73(6):1257-67. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.73.6.1257. PMID: 9418279.
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