How Hope Can See You Through

How you can encourage yourself and your struggling child.

Cathy Taughinbaugh
A Parent Is Born

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Hope sign in a garden
Photo by CARL HUNLEY JR on Unsplash

When I have faced problems in my life, I do what I can to keep hope alive. It helps me stay more positive and feel that I can find a solution.

So what is hope?

Charles Snyder explains, "Hope is a positive cognitive state based on a sense of successful goal-directed determination and planning to meet these goals. In other words, hope is like a snapshot of a person's current goal-directed thinking, highlighting the motivated pursuit of goals and the expectation that those goals can be achieved."

I know I lost hope at times when I was concerned about my child.

And yet, we all need something to keep us going in the darkest times. We need to have faith that things can change for the better.

Hope can give us the incentive to hang on a little longer when our son or daughter's substance use keeps us stuck. It helps us feel more optimistic in the most challenging of times. We can face our struggles with less stress.

In addition, we need something to keep us going when we desperately want something to change. It gives us one reason to keep moving forward with an uncertain outcome.

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Cathy Taughinbaugh
A Parent Is Born

Invitation to Change Certified Group Facilitator & Author of The Compassion Antidote. Learn more at www.cathytaughinbaugh.com