How to Stay Hopeful in Difficult Times

Image by Colton Duke/Unsplash

If, like me, you dream of a world in which people treat each other with kindness, respect and compassion, it’s hard to stay hopeful right now. Every time I look at the news I see something scary or upsetting – and many of these events are completely out of my control. As I read the latest doomy headline, I feel helpless, powerless, and it’s easy to lose my hope for a better world.

But in those tough moments, this Martin Luther King quote keeps running through my mind: ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ A typically eloquent, hopeful and inspiring idea from a remarkable man. Human history has had many such men and women, who maintained optimism in the face of adversity. Who refused to succumb to hatred and instead chose love, kindness, compassion – alongside a deep determination to create change through peaceful, yet powerful, action.

As a therapist, I spend my days trying to heal people – especially those struggling with the legacy of childhood trauma. For me, there is no distinction between this inner work and engaging with the outer world of politics and society, because injustice, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, poverty and demonisation of the vulnerable create a great deal of trauma, every day, all over the world. That is why I am passionate about protecting the natural environment, speaking up for refugees and other vulnerable, desperate people who face such scapegoating and hostility in many countries right now.

How to keep the flame of hope alive

It’s so easy to feel crushed by the news and daily events at the moment. Very sadly, the forces of darkness are strong, especially in the United States, where a deeply traumatised and traumatising man wields such power, over his own citizens and those of the whole world. It goes against my professional ethics to diagnose a man I have never met, but I do know that Donald Trump’s father has been described as a ‘sociopath’ and his mother as ‘ice cold’. Not exactly a recipe for warm, nurturing, healthy parenting, is it. He is what Dr Richard Schwartz, founder of internal family systems, calls a ‘burdened leader’. And as his administration wreaks havoc, at home and abroad, how can we stay hopeful? How can we maintain our strength, our calmness, our determination to fight for a fairer, kinder, better world?

As I have often written in these posts, I see two powerful forces struggling in the mind and heart of every human: light and darkness. It’s easy to see the forces of darkness at work right now, not only in the US but Ukraine, Gaza and many other countries around the world. But light shines brightly too, in places like Spain, which has opened its doors to immigrants from Africa and elsewhere, aware that young, energetic workers are needed in a country with declining birthrates and an ageing population. Need some good news? Spain’s economy is booming: in 2024 it grew by 3.2%, almost five times the Eurozone average and more than the US.

Under-reported stories like this give me hope, as does the kindness, decency and altruism I see in my fellow men and women every day. I think we are born yearning to be good, to treat others with respect and receive respect in return. We humans are tribal creatures, so maintaining good relationships with the rest of our tribe is woven into our DNA. Selfish, aggressive men (it’s almost always men) have long seized power in hunter-gatherer bands, as well as the kingdoms and democracies that followed in human history, but have always been forced out when they went too far and their subjects rose up – and men like Trump or Putin always go too far. They can’t help themselves.

Eventually, as Dr King reminds us, justice prevails. History shows this to be true: think of dictators like Hitler and Mussolini, or more recently Saddam Hussein and Bashar al-Assad. These men always seem invulnerable, all-powerful, until they fall and are revealed to be frail, vulnerable and all-too human, not the indomitable supermen they believed themselves to be. Until then, keep – peacefully – resisting. Love your friends, family and neighbours with your whole heart. Sign a thousand petitions, write to your politicians, boycott evil corporations like Elon Musk’s Tesla, give what you can afford to the charities and non-profits fighting for a saner, healthier and fairer world.

And remember, as another famous saying goes, that This too shall pass.

Love,

Dan ❤️