How to Feel Instantly Hopeful
The psychological benefits of solving someone else’s problems
The other day, someone I follow on Twitter posted an open offer: If anyone in New York City had an elderly relative who needed help signing up for their Covid vaccine online, they’d be happy to lend a hand. I thought of my own grandmothers, who are both 91 and rely on a network of kids and grandkids to navigate the digital labyrinths of modern life. Then I thought of elders who don’t have this kind of support, and the relatives who may not be able to offer it.
It all dredged up a feeling I barely recognized, this online acquaintance’s gesture of goodwill and, for lack of a better term, usefulness in response to a real problem. It took me a minute to identify it: hope.
That’s no coincidence. Usefulness is inherently hopeful, especially right now.
As you’ve probably heard (and almost certainly felt), this has been the winter of the “pandemic wall.” As Maya Kosoff points out in GEN, this new plateau isn’t only the sum of a year’s worth of emotional exhaustion, combined with the ambient blegh of the season. We’re also experiencing, on top of all that other stuff, the gnaw of powerlessness in the face of cumulative institutional failures. Part of what makes us feel like we’ve hit the wall is that feeling of futility.
