Hope to raise your vibration
All of us are born into this physical existence with an emotional guidance system. The thoughts that race across our minds can affect our emotions, and vice versa. Hope is an essential positive emotion as it lies on the cusp of more negative emotions. Hope allows individuals to envision a positive future and believe it is possible to achieve goals and dreams. It can help people overcome challenges and maintain a sense of optimism.
Hope is especially important to the world's most impoverished as it fosters purpose and direction. According to Charles Richard Snyder's “Hope Theory,” hope is not merely an emotion but a positive motivational state caused by a cognitive process. Again, it’s one's thoughts that are the powerful crux of hope. Snyder postulates three keys that can lead to hopeful thoughts: having goals or a desired outcome, discovering various methods or paths to achieve those goals, and, most important, believing that it's all possible.
Synder’s theory resonates with us because we’ve witnessed its truth firsthand. During our four-day workshop with our partner, AIFO Liberia, in 2021, we had the pleasure of interviewing Rose Dargbe. Rose was born with a physical disability that makes it difficult for her to walk. However, despite her disability, Rose persevered by setting goals for herself, figuring out how to make them happen and believing in herself the whole way. You can see Rose's full interview in the video below.
The benefits of hope are as abundant as they are profound — improved physical and mental health, increased life satisfaction and greater resiliency, to name a few. illuminAid, a dealer of hope, believes that Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D) is the most effective method to help deliver that hope. ICT4D can disseminate the knowledge and inspiration that can mean the difference between thoughts of "I don't think I can" to "I know I can." All it may take is a slight nudge over the fence to bridge the two.
And hope is not just for the world's poorest — it's for anyone who can envision the positive impact their contributions will have on the lives of those they are helping. With your help, we can spread a greater sense of hope for a better future throughout the globe.