{"id":7483,"date":"2016-11-07T06:02:09","date_gmt":"2016-11-07T10:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/?p=7483"},"modified":"2025-09-04T14:46:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T18:46:20","slug":"increase-your-happiness-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/7483\/increase-your-happiness-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Increase Your Happiness: Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is in our series about\u00a0increasing happiness<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0life satisfaction<\/strong>. \u00a0Many people with chronic pain can\u2019t\u00a0decrease their pain. \u00a0So another way to live a more enjoyable and fulfilling life \u2013\u00a0perhaps even more\u00a0important \u2013\u00a0is to\u00a0increase the positive. \u00a0That\u2019s what we\u2019ll look at in this series.<\/em><\/p>\n

Let’s look at\u00a0hope<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

To be more hopeful, we can learn to recognize our\u00a0pessimistic thoughts and then change them to be\u00a0more hopeful.\u00a0 You can use\u00a0“ABCD” (I’ve slightly changed the acronym from Authentic Happiness<\/em>).<\/p>\n

A<\/strong> – What is the adverse event<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

B<\/strong> – What are the beliefs <\/strong>that you’re having because of this event?\u00a0 (Beliefs are just thoughts; they are not necessarily true.)<\/p>\n

C<\/strong> – What are the consequences <\/strong>of these beliefs?<\/p>\n

D <\/strong>– How can you dispute<\/strong> these beliefs?<\/p>\n

So let’s look at some\u00a0examples:<\/p>\n

A – Susan wasn’t invited to the wedding of a coworker Ann.<\/p>\n

B – Susan starts to think, “I was left out.\u00a0\u00a0Maybe everyone else was invited and Ann\u00a0doesn’t like me.\u00a0 Maybe no one really likes me at work.”\u00a0 (See how our thoughts can spiral?)<\/p>\n

C – Susan\u00a0feels upset and sad because of these thoughts.<\/p>\n

D – To dispute these thoughts, Susan can do several things:<\/p>\n