Six Affirmations for Hope

When hope dims, affirmations rekindle the flame. Here are my six favorite affirmations.

Photo by Fineas Gavre on Unsplash

Exerting effort at anything and not seeing positive results can be discouraging, I learned this after job rejections, friendship losses, breakups, poor grades, and failure to meet personal goals. Perhaps you’ve had some of these experiences, too.

Discouragement can lead to feelings of hopelessness, especially when our shortcomings are repetitive. But the nice thing about hope is that it can return. This article contains six affirmations I have found to be very helpful in reducing discouragement and rekindling hope.

Writing to reframe my thoughts helped me find value in affirmations.

Negative thoughts sometimes seem louder than positive ones. Here are some thoughts that I’ve had.

• If I’m dealt a bad hand, I can’t win the game of life.
• If I can’t do something once, twice, or three times, I’ll never be able to do it. What’s the point?
• What was the point of a college education? People who never went to college are making more money than me.
• I’ll never be as good as the person standing next to me.

I once told a therapist about these thoughts, and he said, “Wow! Having those thoughts must be exhausting!” I never looked at them that way because they appeared very easily. But he was right. Actually dealing with the effects of negative thoughts was exhausting.

During our session, my therapist had me dispute these thoughts by thinking about things like:

• A time when I overcame an obstacle
• How I would feel if multiple attempts pay off
• What I learned and enjoyed during college
• My positive qualities that make me unique

After writing down my thoughts, I realized that despite my dark views, there was light. My positive thoughts led to lessons that provided hope. I then started to use these lessons as positive affirmations.

Affirmation 1: I got my current job. So I can get a new one someday.

At times, this affirmation was hard to truly believe because it took a long time for me to find a job. Sometimes I…