Keep your hope. We need hope. It allows us to continue to put one foot in front of the other. It allows us to keep living. We need hope that things will get better, that the pain that we are in will not be the way we will always feel. But sometimes, it can be difficult, especially when we watch the news and see day after day of bad news, awful news, and even worse news. 

We will not get hope from the news, so where will we? Some people get hope from their spiritual beliefs which is a wonderful way to do so. It does not matter what your spirituality is. Most beliefs have hope built in. Prayer can be helpful.

But there are other ways as well. Nature can engender hope. Seeing growth, continuation, can let you know that life will continue on. Seeing children can do the same. Especially the laughter of children. Have you heard a baby do a belly laugh? That can lift spirits immediately!

Art can also increase hope. Beauty of any kind. Which can also include the beauty of friendship, family and love. Knowing that someone cares for us, is there for us, has hope for us even if we cannot feel that ourselves, can often help us to keep moving forward. The love of our pets also can give us hope, and theirs for us.

Learning new skills to help deal with the issues that we are struggling with can make all the difference in having hope. As simple as learning to take a deep breath when we are stressed allows us to know that what we are feeling can be changed, which brings more hope.

The bottom-line is that it does not matter where you get your hope from; it is important that you do know where and how you can increase your hope when you need a boost. Hope is as necessary as breathing. Find it and hold on to it. And remember, whatever you are struggling with now is temporary. Life will change. There is hope.