How to find hope in difficult circumstances

To mark Family Caregiver Day (Tuesday April 2, 2019), I interviewed Denise Larsen, Professor of Counselling Psychology in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta and Director of Hope Studies Central. She's also a caregiver for her mom, who has late-stage Parkinson’s disease.
 
Denise describes practical steps that people can take to find hope in their lives, especially when circumstances are difficult.

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“Hope is a choice,” Denise says. One of her mentors thinks of hope as a habit, like brushing one’s teeth, something you should do every morning as a matter of course. That means taking a few minutes at the start of each day to identify the signs of hope in your life (big or small). It takes a little bit of effort, but it doesn’t take a lot of time. “Don’t expect [hope] to just sort of descend on you,” she says.

Denise has kindly made herself available to answer your hope-related questions and comments on our caregiving forum.