What to do if the future seems hopeless

The human brain is designed so that while thinking, we regularly “live” in the future. Sometimes this becomes a serious problem.

We humans are perspective-thinking beings. This is what psychologists and philosophers say - for example, Martin Seligman, Peter Railton, Roy Baumeister and Chandra Shripada in Homo Prospectus.

Seligman says that about 30-50% of the thoughts that arise in the human head during the day are experiences, hopes, worries about what will happen in a week, month, year or 10 years. No other creature looks ahead so often and far. What is there - only we and some species of primates do itApes save tools for future use.

Thinking about the future, the monkey within us in the near future wants to see a lot of fruits and the opportunity to get them. The best way to upset her is to tell her that the tree will be empty or the fruit will be hanging too high.

Since we spend a lot of time in the future in our minds, we are happy to think that it is full of pleasant possibilities that we can control. Conversely, an almost ideal cocktail of suffering is to believe that the future is hopeless and we have no leverage to change that.

Why are thoughts about a hopeless future dangerous?

Usually people are frivolous about the concept of hopelessness. They laugh at him. They create funny pessimistic characters like Eeyore Donkey. But in real life, this pessimism is not at all a laughing matter.

Research showsAn Examination of Optimism / Pessimism and Suicide Risk in Primary Care Patients: Does Belief in a Changeable Future Make a Difference?that feeling of hopelessness is closely related to suicide risk.

Pessimistic young adults who live to middle age disproportionatelyPessimistic explanatory style is a risk factor for physical illness: a thirty-five-year longitudinal study suffer from various health problems.

The same applies to the subjective feeling that you are not in control of your life. When, due to financial losses or other hardships, a person begins to feel that he cannot change anything, this hitsLinks in the chain of adversity following job loss: How financial strain and loss of personal control lead to depression, impaired functioning, and poor health. health - both mental (up to the development of depression) and physical.

In short, when your inner monkey begins to see an empty tree in the future, it becomes ill. It is even more unpleasant if there are many monkeys on this tree at once and hopelessness covers them all. The collective sense of powerlessness overpowers, making each individual feel even worse.

What to do if the future looks hopeless

It seems as if all we can do in a situation like this is to sit and wait. Vaccines. Herd immunity. Elections. In general, anything that might change our perspectives. Meanwhile, pessimism will grow.

However, we are not helpless. Yes, there is little each of us can do to accelerate the emergence of vaccines or, for example, to influence the political structure of the state as a whole. But we can change our way of thinking so that hopelessness does not prevail and break us, at the same time ruining our health.

It only takes two steps to do this.

1. Challenge seeming futility

Pessimism is actually a mirror that distortsHow Negative News Distorts Our Thinking reality. We expect the worst and see in everything a progressive and inexorable movement towards this scenario. As a result, despair builds up.

Seligman and other psychologists recommendWHY LAWYERS ARE UNHAPPY [*] fight this with the so-called dispute technique. It consists in the following.

Imagine the worst version of the future that you expect. And find logical inconsistencies in it, flaws - challenge it.

This is necessary to prove to yourself that the future is multivariate, and a bad scenario is perhaps less realistic than good ones.

Here's my example: I teach at a university and I love working with students in the classroom. It fills me with energy, brings joy. However, due to the pandemic, all classes had to be transferred online. At first it was unusual and interesting. Then it started to scare.

A year has passed. The other day, I found myself thinking darkly that I would probably never return to that open, student-filled classroom that I loved so much. That the need to lecture from home, through a computer screen, will become my new normality. This pessimism is fueled by news headlines like "How the coronavirus will change universities forever."

However, in reality, the feeling of hopelessness in my case is completely unjustified. And I challenged it by analyzing the facts. For example, I took into account the started vaccination. I read the forecasts according to which the pandemic will end by the end of 2021. And I came to the conclusion: there is a high probability that classes in the classroom will resume within a year. So my troubles are certainly exhausting, but temporary.

Chances are, your future is also brighter and brighter than the picture you paint yourself in dark thoughts. Therefore, challenge your own pessimism. Only not with thoughtless optimism, but with facts.

2. Change your goals to see opportunities in constraints

When I was 30, I made a living doing analysis at a large think tank in California. And when I got into trouble, my boss would say, "Turn constraints into solutions."

He suggested starting the study of each problem by listing how and where it limits me. And then, instead of sadly accepting it as an inevitable reality, figure out how you can use the limitations for your own good.

A simple example. During quarantine, I often heard complaints about the remote control. People said that it was impossible to work effectively from home when children and family were nearby. Which is exhausting the need to constantly cook. There is a lack of live communication with colleagues. And because of all this, you can't be as productive as you used to be.

Yes, there are indeed limitations. But look at them as opportunities. To do this, it is enough to adjust your own definition of productivity.

Many people have a distorted view of productive life, associating it exclusively with work. Take the Americans: they are en masse working more than necessary.

For example, a 2018 survey by the U.S. Travel Association foundStudy: A Record 768 Million U.S. Vacation Days Went Unused in '18, Opportunity Cost in the Billions: 55% of employees deliberately cut the length of their paid vacation. And 54% of those who still went on a good rest reportedWhat does America have against vacation?that they feel guilty.

Meanwhile, productivity can and should apply to other areas of life as well. For example, since you have the opportunity to cook more often, why not change your habits in nutrition.

And since you can spend more time with your family, try to improve your relationship with your children and your partner. Or use the hour you used to spend on your commute to learn English. This is all going to be a productivity story.

I will not tire of repeating: the healthiest way to live in difficult, seemingly hopeless times is to see opportunities in them. And then use them to become better and stronger.

Even if your pessimistic inner monkey turns out to be right and the tree looming in front does not give you fruit, at least you will face this unpleasant future in better shape.