Hope, Health and Happiness: Advent Day 5

The three elements of hope include having goals, feeling empowered to shape your life, and identifying ways toward making goals happen.  We know that working toward meaningful life goals is one of the most important strategies happy people utilize.  

In a number of studies, hope is a strong predictor of satisfaction and as Dr Shane Lopez says in Making Hope Happen it’s a symptom of happiness.  
 
Hope and Health

The choices we make about our health on a daily basis are important. Most of us unfortunately will have experience of serious illness, whether it happens personally or to a loved one.  It’s important to recognise that a number of studies indicate that hopeful people seem to tolerate pain better than their less hopeful peers.  Making Hope Happen says even in children a child’s level of hope can provide a glimpse into whether they will follow doctor’s orders or not.

Hope and Happiness

Hope can help you make life worth living. Research shows that hopelessness is a strong predictor of mortality, and those folks who said they felt hopeless were more than twice as likely to die during the study follow-up period than those who were more hopeful. We also know from experience of our adult learners that joining in, learning new things and being part of the learning community brings hope and happiness into older people’s lives. We hear stories every day of how ‘#AdultLearning saved my life-I didn’t know if I’d be able to live again, I didn’t want to carry on-now I know I can’.

Please give the gift of learning this Christmas and save someone you know from feeling hopeless…
National Adult Learners’ Forum
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