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A shared universe › Blog › Waiting and hope · Español

Waiting and hope

Waiting for news, for a change, for a better day. Readings on hope, patience and uncertainty, and on setting out towards what you wish for.

What hope is, according to psychologyFor psychology, hope means having a goal, seeing ways to reach it and feeling able to follow them. How it differs from optimism and how to look after it.4 min read When you are waiting for newsA job interview, an exam, test results, an answer that does not come. What psychology has found about waiting and what helps you get through it a little better.4 min read Not knowing what is going to happenSome people find not knowing what will happen much harder than others do. What intolerance of uncertainty is and what helps you live with it.4 min read Wishing for something and setting outImagining your wish already fulfilled is relaxing, but brings it no closer. Psychologist Gabriele Oettingen proposes a four-step method to get from wish to way.4 min read Patience can be learned tooPatience is not gritting your teeth and putting up with it. What Sarah Schnitker’s research says and simple ways to practise it when the wait grows long.4 min read Starting again after a failureA failed exam, a business that closes, a relationship that ends. What psychology says about how we read failure and what helps us get back up.4 min read The value of small steps forwardWhat lifts a working day most is not big achievements but moving forward a little in something that matters. What Teresa Amabile found and how to see your progress.4 min read Optimism can be learnedOptimism is not thinking everything will turn out fine: it is how you explain what happens to you. What Martin Seligman found and how to change that explanation.4 min read What is up to you and what is notFeeling that nothing is up to you is exhausting, and so is believing that everything is. What Julian Rotter studied and how to tell one from the other.4 min read Making a hard decisionWhen you can’t decide, it helps to look for good rather than perfect. What Barry Schwartz found, and why we usually adapt better than we expect.4 min read Finding meaning when everything changesWhen a loss, an illness or a change throws everything into doubt, the question is what to carry on for. What Viktor Frankl taught about meaning.4 min read How long it takes to change a habitIt is not 21 days. A study by Phillippa Lally measured how long a habit really takes to become automatic, and found something that takes the pressure off.4 min read The way of the starsFor centuries, the Milky Way was called the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Where that legend comes from and what that band of light really is.2 min read The joy of what is yet to comeLooking forward to something good lifts the spirits, sometimes more than living it or remembering it. What researchers have measured and how to nurture it on hard days.5 min read What resilience really isResilience isn’t putting up with everything or feeling no pain. What George Bonanno and Ann Masten found, what supports it, and why it isn’t a solo effort.5 min read Waiting for the results of a medical testWhy waiting for medical results is so stressful and what helps, according to Kate Sweeny’s research: when to brace for the worst and how to get through the days.6 min read When you’re looking for work and it doesn’t comeWhat the Marienthal study taught about unemployment, why a job gives far more than a wage, and what helps keep your spirits up while you look for work.6 min read Starting from scratch in another countryEmigrating is a fresh start and also a form of grief. What John Berry and others say about adapting to a new country, for those who left and those who came to Spain.5 min read Hope and optimism are not the same thingYou can have hope without being optimistic. What the psychologists Bruininks and Malle found, and why hope appears when the outcome is out of your hands.6 min read Why waiting feels so longTwenty minutes in a waiting room can feel like a whole morning. Why time stretches when we wait, what David Maister observed and what helps in long waits.5 min read

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