People often think that healing from an illness or an injury only happens with the help of medicine and treatments, but hope also plays a pivotal role in the healing process.
Hope is a very interesting word. For some it’s simply that, a word, but for some, it’s something that gives them reason to get up in the morning. Everyone says that having hope heals is, it keeps us alive and it keeps us wishing for something more, which ultimately leads us to working for that something.
Many however question whether hope truly helps us heal. The answer to that is yes. Hope is something that helps us heal some of the most traumatising and deep wounds. Both physical and mental. Hope is not just thinking positively or staying happy. Hope is believing that you will heal and that things will get better. Hope is believing that it will always get better. People tend to get discouraged and sad when they or people they love get injured or suffer from an illness, but it is extremely important that they believe and that they hold onto hope. This is not only to feel better, but having hope can actually hasten the healing process.
If someone keeps having hope, their healing process becomes better, maybe not by an astonishing degree, but by a good degree nonetheless. Having hope strengthens a person’s will and their motivation to heal quicker.
The Medical Aspect
Beyond the psychological aspect, hope is medically proven to heal people quicker. Our brain, when it’s not at war with emotions or doesn’t feel desolate, tends to work much better and more efficiently. When a person feels hopeful and positive, endorphins and enkephalins are released in their brains. This helps lessen the pain and subsequently the medicines. In addition to that, cortisol, which is the stress hormone, also gets lowered when someone feels hopeful and positive. This helps people lessen their stress levels which are known inhibitors of the healing process, thus catalysing the process and quickening the process.
The most interesting yet simple thing hope can help achieve is the placebo effect. Placebo effect is when someone believes a certain thing, often untrue and their body starts behaving in the manner. When a person who has hope starts believing that they’re healing and they’re getting better, their body starts responding accordingly. The placebo effect has been tested multiple times and is known to work for many cases. It means having a hopeful mindset can quicken your body healing by a large percentage.
The Caregivers
One thing that many people seem to ignore or not pay enough attention to, are the caregivers. Whilst it is imperative for the patients themselves to hold on to hope, the caregivers should not feel demotivated either. The caregivers cannot feel the medical benefit of having hope, but the psychological benefits more than make up for that.
The caregivers, when they are hopeful, are of the more help to the patient to heal. A positive and motivated atmosphere is an integral part of healing and is non-negotiable. The caregivers do feel exhausted and sad, sometimes even more than the patient, and that is completely fine. One shouldn’t suppress their emotions but should rather express them and deal with them in order to feel happy and healthy again.
Mind and body
The mind and body are one. Whilst one works, the other complements it. The brain needs to be at a good place for the body to do its job and that’s exactly what hope helps us with. Hope doesn’t have to be something big, some grand gesture or declaration. Hope can be simple day to day activities. Hope can be waking up and going about your day exactly like you would believing that you will heal soon. It can be not changing your bonds, and calling people when you feel like talking.
People don’t have to figure things out by themselves. They can reach out to people and people who aren’t suffering from injuries or illnesses can be the people that can help others find hope and happiness. For most people hope isn’t the big things, it’s the little things that make them feel happy and powerful. That’s what hope is and that’s what helps people heal quicker and in a more holistic way. Having hope does help, and it makes life just that much easier.
By Riya Dubey
Initiative by Group Imagination Unleashed
