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When we're feeling chronically stressed, it's hard to find hope.

We can recognize when we're stressed and practice stress relief.

We can then build our hope with a meaningful goal, pathways, and agency

If you’ve been feeling helpless and hopeless lately, you’re not alone. A few months ago, the World Health Organization reported a worldwide rise in anxiety and depression (WHO, Sept 2025), and our sense of security has been undermined by rapid changes in technology, economics, politics, and the aftereffects of the COVID pandemic (Kruglanski et al., 2025).

We’re experiencing chronic stress, which blocks our ability to hope. Here’s why: the amygdala, the brain’s alarm center, reacts with fight, flight, or freeze (Akil & Nestler, 2023; LeDoux, 1996). This reaction can save our lives in an emergency. When we’re in a crosswalk and see a car speeding toward us, we can react by stopping or jumping out of the way.

But when stress becomes chronic, it can compromise our health, weaken our immune system, lead to anxiety and depression, and keep us from thinking clearly (Akil & Nestler, 1023; Gouin, 2011).

Chronic stress keeps us stuck in dysfunction, unable to move forward with hope. The stress reaction compromises our higher brain centers, undermining our ability to think clearly, remember, relate to others, and solve our problems (Brackett, 2025; Öhman et al., 2007). We react defensively—“fight” someone who disagrees with us as the enemy, withdraw in fear (“flight”), or “freeze” in helplessness and hopelessness.

The first step in developing greater hope is to recognize when we’re feeling stressed and use a strategy to gain greater peace of mind (Goetzke, 2022). Many strategies are simple and accessible (Dreher, 2025; Geetanjali et al., 2023). Here are two:

Breathe. Stanford neurosurgeon Jim Doty (2016) would take three deep mindful breaths to relieve stress and focus during complex brain surgery. If this works in stressful brain surgery, it should help with our challenges too.

Practice Self-Compassion. Psychologist Kristin Neff (2011; 2023) recommends these three steps:

Name your feeling. Tune in to how you feel. Tell yourself, “I feel stressed. . .anxious. . .worried. . .ashamed. . . upset. . .sad. . .angry. . .” or whatever you’re feeling.

Recognize your common humanity. Tell yourself “It’s only human to feel this way.”

Be a caring friend to yourself. Talk to yourself as you would a dear friend, saying reassuring words like “this is hard but I’m here for you. We can get through this.”

Then you can begin practicing active hope with goals, pathways, and agency (Feldman & Dreher, 2012; Feldman et al., 2023). Set a personal, professional, or altruistic goal. Then come up with pathways — a few steps to reach your goal, and build your agency or motivation.

A personal goal might be fitness and a pathway could be to work out three times a week. A professional goal might be to search for a new job and a pathway to search online for opportunities and arrange informational interviews. An altruistic goal could be making a contribution to your community. My friend who retired from selling real estate now teaches reading at the local library.

These days we have many opportunities to develop active hope by setting an altruistic goal. Instead of obsessing about current problems of hunger, homelessness, environmental damage, and political unrest, we can view them as a menu of possibilities and choose one area to work on.

During a recent freeze in SNAP benefits, my neighbors and I set a goal to help collect food. For our pathways, we put canned goods in brown bags in front of our houses and one neighbor picked them up and took them to the local food bank. Our efforts not only provided food for people in need but brought us a greater sense of agency. We felt more energized, because we were making a difference together.

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You can begin your own positive program of active hope by writing down:

A Goal that’s meaningful to you.

Pathways. Three steps to your goal, an obstacle that might get in the way of each step, and an alternative step for each—for a backup plan if you need it.

Agency. Build your agency by taking a few moments to visualize yourself reaching your goal. Take care of your health—get enough sleep, healthy food, and exercise. You can also remember a time you reached a goal and tell yourself “I did that then; I can do this now.” You can say an affirmation—like “si se puede,” or “Yes we can!” And you can connect with a friend to work on your goals together, building an empowering sense of teamwork and community.

By recognizing and relieving your stress and following these steps, you can build greater hope for yourself and our collective future.

This post is for informational purposes and should not substitute for psychotherapy with a qualified professional. © 2026 Diane Dreher, All Rights Reserved.

Akil, H., & Nestler, E. J. (2023). The neurobiology of stress: Vulnerability, resilience, and major depression. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(49), e2312662120.

Brackett, M. (2025). Dealing with feeling. New York, NY: Celadon Books.

Dreher, D. (2025). Pathways to inner peace. Hollister, CA: MSI Press.

Feldman, D. B., and Dreher, D. E. (2012). Can hope be changed in 90 minutes? Testing the efficacy of a single-session goal-pursuit intervention for college students. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13, 745-759.

Feldman, D. B., Jazaieri, H., O’Rourke, M. A., Bakitas, M. A., Krouse, R. S., Deininger, H. E., Hudson, M. F. & Corn, B. W. (2023). Healthcare professionals’ lay definitions of hope. Journal of Happiness Studies, 24(1), 231-247.

Geetanjali, G., Wahane, A., & Sharma, A. (2023). Exploring effective strategies for stress management: enhancing mental well-being through mindfulness, CBT, exercise, and relaxation techniques. Bull Env Pharmacol Life Sci, 12(5), 345-348.

Goetzke, K. (2022). The biggest little book about hope. New York, NY: Morgan James Publishing.

Gouin, J. P. (2011). Chronic stress, immune dysregulation, and health. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 5(6), 476-485.

Kruglanski, A. W., Ellenberg, M., Szumowska, E., Dragon, P., Pierro, A., Contu, F., Molinario E., Altungy, P. R., Jaume, L. C., Laurijssen, M., & Wang, M. (2025). Facing the unknown with hope or fear: On the affective reactions to outcome uncertainty. European Review of Social Psychology. DOI: 10.1080/10463283.2025.2514413.

LeDoux, J. (1996). The emotional brain. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Neff, K. (2011). Self-compassion: Stop beating yourself up and leave insecurity behind. New York, NY: William Morrow.

Neff, K. D. (2023). Self-compassion: Theory, method, research, and intervention. Annual review of psychology, 74(1), 193-218.

Öhman, L., Nordin, S., Bergdahl, J., Birgander, L. S., & Neely, A. S. (2007). Cognitive function in outpatients with perceived chronic stress. Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health, 223-232.

World Health Organization (WHO) (2025, Sept 2). Over a billion people living with mental health conditions. https://www.who.int/news/item/02-09-2025-over-a-billion-people-living-with-mental-health-conditions-services-require-urgent-scale-up

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