The power of hope and the mind 

Author: By Pablo Lorenzo Esteve/ Editor Nicoleta Geru 

While on Erasmus in Malta, during the 2023-2024 academic year, I was organising an event on ‘Overcoming Obstacles to Youth  Participation’ together with another Young European Ambassador (YEA), Natalia Wieckowska. It was going to be a complex event,  with a panel discussion, a workshop and catering, held at the European Parliament Liaison Office. As the event approached, I felt increasingly hopeless about making everything work. So many questions remained unanswered: Who would the speakers be? How to get participants? Time was also an issue – when would I complete all my assignments? 

In my panic, little did I know I was about to learn a very valuable lesson – the power of hope and community. I clearly remember calling Natalia and Maria Pia, our coordinator at the YEAs EU/UK Chapter, and expressing my doubts. I was close to giving up. Yet, in that critical  moment, Maria Pia said simple words that I still remember: “I think you can still do it.” I later realised that every moment spent thinking we cannot do something is a moment stolen from actually making it happen. I also realised the importance of being surrounded by a community that embodies hope, with their actions and ideals. Some things may be  impossible — we don’t know — but why choose to make them impossible by not trying? Those around us bring us back when we forget this.

Hope is like light: clear when the sun shines brightly but also fickle and  ever shifting. Inspiring and beautiful when the stars are out, but seemingly impossible to find in cloudy darkness when we need it most. 

Fortunately, we can become the source of our own light. When the world feels cold and grey, it only takes a spark to light a fire. Like stars in the night, that faint light makes the difference between brightness and nothingness. 

Hope is not merely a feeling or an idea — it is a tool. It shapes how we see  life, and determines not just what we do but who we become. Haven’t we all wondered how to hold onto this slippery yet vital emotion that we call hope? How to nurture it and help it grow, especially when it seems absent? Psychology, philosophy, and our very own experience can shine some light on these existential questions. 

These days, youth and adults increasingly struggle with mental health. We face daily challenges that can often feel overwhelming. From the cost-of-living crisis to climate change, the list of issues keeps growing. The temptation to focus on fear or anger is arguably greater than ever, especially prompted by information and emotions so readily available through the virtual world. 

However, while many things may be out of our control, we remain the owners of our  own minds. Most importantly, we can change the ways in which we talk to ourselves and frame the world around us. 

One of the greatest and most life-defining curses (or blessings) of humankind is that we cannot process the world as it is. Our senses detect only a minute part of reality,  and our reasoning isn’t fully reasonable, as our brain attaches emotions to impulses before  we can process them logically. Some philosophers – post-structuralists – even argue that the world outside doesn’t exist separately from our perception of it. The way we understand the world determines how we interact with it, which in turn shapes new perceptions and realities.  

This limitation could be seen as a terrible flaw — how can we exist properly given how  ignorant we are? However, it is also one of our greatest blessings. Since we cannot focus on all of reality at once, we must prioritise what we let into our minds and what we keep out. Much of this prioritisation is unconscious. However, there is constant  interaction between what is conscious (what we can verbally justify) and what is  unconscious (what we cannot justify).  

Thoughts that seemed surprising stop attracting attention, and complex activities become routine, like learning a sport or game. What is  conscious becomes unconscious. The most significant conscious-to-unconscious transformation is identity. Over time, the stories we tell ourselves settle, defining who we think we are. The question then arises: can the unconscious also become conscious? 

One key aspect of building hope is engaging in metacognition – an overly fancy word to  refer to ‘thinking about thinking’. Why is our attention being drawn in a particular way?  What is the goal of our thoughts? 

Metacognition is daunting. It shifts our focus from navigating the outside world to  navigating our minds, with the goal of finding ourselves. Yet, when we engage in it, we  gain power. We learn to guide ourselves rather than be led by shallow thoughts. Over time, it makes us more self-aware, and ultimately more alive.

After metacognition, we realise that both hope and hopelessness require visualisation. They depend on imagining different realities and our reactions to them. How could things be different, and how would that feel? Hope Theory helps us to understand this further,  dividing hope into three main components: 

1. Goals – Clear and meaningful objectives. 

2. Pathways – Strategies to achieve these goals. 

3. Agency – The willpower to stay motivated and overcome obstacles. 

Goals are the invisible force driving our desire for hope. To reach them, we throw  imaginary ropes toward them, bridging the gap between where we are and where we want to be. These ropes are the pathways. When we start to believe that they can’t reach their objective, we lose agency — and with it, hope. But why do we choose certain goals? What if we could train our minds to build hope and pursue these goals instead of dwelling on unfulfilled ideals? 

Hope is not just a product of our surroundings — it comes from within. By repeatedly  affirming that hope exists, a powerful shift occurs. Where we saw challenges, we now see opportunities. As we identify as hopeful, proactive individuals, seeking paths becomes second nature — it becomes who we are. Hope ceases to be optional and becomes the norm. 

However, the key is to realise that we live uniquely in the present moment. As such,  victories are won in the here and now. So, without losing track of where we want to go,  we can look to our surroundings and recognise what we can do with what we have,  winning over ourselves in the present moment. Taking what we can to consistently build and work towards that end goal. When we make good decisions, and push ourselves to be better, we gain something nobody can take away – mental strength, and the realisation that we did better than we otherwise would have. When living like this, the day becomes full of small victories that make us feel good, and brighter. Ropes attach to everything,  and bring us ever closer to our goals, making us feel ever more agency. 

Hope is not something that merely happens to us; it is something that we shape and that shapes us. The way we speak to ourselves and the stories we tell about our struggles determine whether we see obstacles as dead ends or as stepping stones. By choosing to believe that hope exists, we create a mental framework and find communities that seek solutions. We build better futures in the present.