Hello, and welcome to spirituality and mental health, a series designed to help you physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. And today we're going to be looking at a subject that I believe is fundamental. And that is hope, without hope, really nothing else really seems to matter. And when we're talking with people that are depressed or anxious like you may be today, this is especially something we want to deal with, in fact, over the last 10 to 12 years when I've been working with those that are struggling with depression and anxiety, this is the first thing I talk about because many times people that are depressed have lost hope. A number of years ago, there was a researcher whose name was Dr. Beck. And he actually developed an inventory of hope, so called hope inventory and this inventory of hope.

Can be used to measure where you are on the hope scale. So, you may want to look at this sheet as you're listening. It's part of your homework for this first look at hope. And there are questions there on the sheet on this hope inventory. Now what I like to tell people is don't over analyze these questions as you're trying to see where you are in terms of hope. Just answer with your gut response.

The first thing whether true or false. So let's just go through these number one, I look forward to the future with hope and enthusiasm. Is that true or false? Just put down your initial response. Just almost immediately. Don't overthink it.

Number two, I might as well give up because I can't make things better for myself. Is that true for you or false? Number three, when things are going badly, I'm helped by knowing they can't stay that way forever. Again, true or false for you right now. Don't think about in the past. What you want to be just right now, in the moment number four, I can't imagine what my life would be like in 10 years.

Number five, I have enough time to accomplish the things I most want to do. Again, don't overthink it. Just whatever your initial reaction is. Number six in the future, I expect this to succeed and what concerns me most. Number seven, my future seems dark to me, too or false? Number eight, I expect to get more of the good things in life than the average person.

Number nine, I don't just I just don't get the breaks. That means things don't go your way. And there's no reason to believe I will in the future. Is that true for you or false? Number 10. My past experiences have prepared me well for my future to be as true or false.

Number 11. All I can see ahead of me is unpleasantness rather than pleasantness. Number 12. I don't expect to get what I want. Really want. Number 13 I look ahead.

When I look ahead to the future, I expect to be happier than I am now. Number 14 things just won't work out the way I want them to. Number 15 I have great faith in the future. Is that true or false? Number 16. I never get what I want.

So it's foolish to want anything. And number 17 it's very unlikely that I will get any real satisfaction in the future to or false for you. And just three more number 18 the future seems vague and uncertain to me. Number 19 I can look forward to more good times than bad times. And finally, number 20. There's no use and really trying to get something I want because I probably won't get it.

So those are the questions you might want to take just a few minutes now to go over those because I probably read them maybe more rapidly than you can think them through. But again, just your initial reaction, for in the moment for right now, not what happened two weeks ago, not what you'd like it to be, but how you are relating to the questions right now. Now you'll see on the screen when we did this recently with a group I had of 20 different individuals, seven of them, seven of them were very severely hopeless. Six of them moderately hopeless. And five of them really, didn't they, they really were hopeful and so they didn't have any hopelessness on their initial intake and you'll notice where they all started out in those blue bars there, and you can see where they fell, whether they were severely hopeless or moderately or mild.

Now, if you do this, do this inventory and you find yourself at the high end of moderate or severe, it probably need to get, get some help. You probably need someone to process things with. You're struggling with severe hopelessness and sometimes, you know, when you're that hopeless, you need help. You might remember in the book of Psalms, if you read the Bible, it says, Why are they'll cast down all my soul why disquieted within me, and this was talking about sheep. And sometimes sheep get down so low that they really can't get up without help. And that doesn't mean they're bad sheep, it doesn't mean that there's something that you know, they need to be discarded or anything now, they just need a little help.

And so you also may a little need a little help. Now, I want to give you some hope. Just to begin with here, since we're talking about help. Notice what happened in just 10 days, with people that started out severely hopeless. You see, case number two was severely hopeless, and now down to none or minimal hopelessness and same way with case number three, moderately hopeless, but then down to mild. case number four went from almost moderate down to none.

Then case number six, severely hope severe hopelessness, down to qualifying is none and right down the line there was there was no one number 10 was probably the most stellar severely helpless, down to hopeful, no hopelessness at all. And right along the line, this is what's happening in our 10 day program. So you might say, well, how did they go from being hopeless to being filled with hope? Oh, by the way, it might say also here at beautiful minds medical, they do this same inventory when you come in to see where you are on the hopelessness scale. And then they measure it after the through with with the with the program, some people come for two weeks, some people a little more less, but they also have seen that people coming into the outpatient setting, we're usually at a scale of 10. In other words, moderate hopelessness.

And then by the end of the outpatient program, they had no hopelessness at all or very minimal down to three. So, that alone should give you some, some hope. And why is it that their hope is increasing? Well, there's multifactorial reasons that people get depressed and anxious. And there's probably multifactorial reasons why they become more hopeful. Just some of the things they do in the outpatient program for instance, nutrition, you can eat certain foods that will actually make it easier upon your system and make you feel better not have that sluggish feeling have more blood flow to the frontal lobe.

So your nutrition can increase your hope your exercise, when you go out an exercise that increases blood flow to the frontal lobe. And you also can have improved Pope as a result of feeling better physically, water, water increases reaction time by 14 to 15%. So when you're drinking that water and whatnot, and you may want to follow along with the new stuff, acronym, as well, we should have that also for you to look at. But as you're following each one of those, you lay the foundation for increased health. Now they did a study a number of years ago with some rats, they put some lab lab rats and they put them in a tank of water. placed in a tank in a totally dark, depressing room.

They went into the adjoining room and monitored them with video equipment. The rats swam for almost six hours before giving up and drowning. The students then took another set of lab rats and put them in a tank of water and placed that tank in a room where there was a small lamp. So the first room there was no light at all. The second room there was a small lamp, and the rats almost swam 17 hours from six hours to 17 hours. What was the difference between those two rooms when they saw the light they had hope.

Another story I read not long ago about Young man who had been terribly burned over most of his body. And as a result, he wasn't given much chance or hope of living. In fact, the people taking care of him, didn't talk to him very much. And just were kind of preparing him for the inevitable death. But there was a teacher who came in and started to study English with him studying verbs or adverbs or something, some part of speech, something that would take a while to learn and would assume that he would be alive for the next lesson the next week or whenever the next lesson was. And some of the nurses and clinicians kind of didn't like the fact that this teacher was studying these things, recognizing that the boy was probably not going to live and they talked to the teacher about it.

But then they asked also the patient, the patient said, they asked him, you know who he liked, especially seeing he said, I like to see that English teacher. I like to hear her and they asked him why do you like to see that English teacher And he said, Well, she's the only one that thinks I'm going to live. She's the only one that believes I'm going to live. In other words, what she had done was to instill hope in this young man. Now the rostral, anterior cingulate cortex part of the frontal cortex of your frontal lobe, it boosts the flow of positive emotions, and is more active in those that are optimistic or hopeful when they imagine a positive future. And that's what we're really trying to do we increase blood flow to that part of the brain, we are talking about how you're going to get better, not how you're going to stay the same.

And I can tell you, I'm based on 10 to 12 years of experience in the last number of years measuring hope that the things that you're learning in this outpatient program, although they may seem simple, or maybe, to you, they're not simplistic, they actually have a lot of research behind them, and they will in fact, make you feel and actually be more hopeful. And forward thinking by the end of the program. And so I'm excited about that. I'm excited that you're here. Maybe you've already been in the group, or maybe you're just joining or maybe you're just listening to this for the first time. But I will tell you that your hope is going to increase in this program.

Now the Bible, which is a book that many read in the context here in America, in fact, the largest number of religious believers of any any kind of group are Christians in any state, even now, I'm not trying to make you a Christian, but I'm just telling you why I'm going to use a text from the Bible and in the Bible, it says this, it says we are saved by hope. You might want to say that all day to yourself, we are saved by hope or I am saved by hope. And you might point to some of the things you've learned here, and today's program as increasing your hope. Now, there is an interesting book called The handbook of religion and health That was published by Oxford University Press back in 2012. And it looked at all kinds of studies relating to spirituality and mental health, showing that once you're involved in the spiritual or accessing the spiritual in your life, you have a greater, greater percentage of improving from depression or anxiety 50 to 7% sooner than if not.

And I want to just share a study from actually not necessarily that book, but looking at hope and the frontal lobe. brain imaging studies were done and they indicated that there was greater activation and increased blood flow to frontal lobe sites during prayer and meditation. So when you're praying, praying, not praying when you're praying, which is like talking to God has a friend when you're praying, and when you're meditating, maybe take a text that text we are saved by hope you start meditating. Now, who's the we? Well, it's everybody are saved. That means that maybe we're lost.

But we could be found and maybe we were not on the right path, but we can get back on the right path. We are saved by hope. And just meditating on that or anything and actually increases blood flow to your frontal lobe because you're having to think about it you're focusing, can you see how that would increase that blood flow and also increase your hope regular prayer is positively positively correlated in these studies with better overall mental health. And religiosity is correlated with higher levels of self monitoring and empathy, moral insight and other positive behaviors, and negatively correlated with depression and impulsive or risky behaviors. So just praying and meditating can increase your hope. Now, another look, another study was done.

And this is the comment made if religious practices do indeed preferentially activate and stimulate the development of frontal lobes. The research has said this religious practices should be considered as possible adjunct so in other words added on to your therapy or treatment for patients in treatment for mental health disorders. And the frontal lobes, rather than the temporal lobe should be considered the major brain site that supports the core components of religious experience. In other words, if you are really trying to help yourself, you look at what can be done physically, with the exercise and all the things you're learning in the outpatient program, what can be done emotionally with handling those thoughts and emotions? What can be done mentally again with those thoughts and then spiritually also will help. So I want to just encourage you today, I want to give you hope, because many people who have started this journey before you are much better let me just give you one story as I close today's time with you A number of years ago, I had a man who came to our program, the inpatient program, and he was severely depressed and anxious.

And his wife was with him and always with him. She was biocide at all times. And whenever she left the room, he would get kind of, you know, panic stricken, almost going into an anxiety attack. And we knew this had to change. He wanted it to change. And so everyone agreed that maybe the best if his wife at the appropriate time could leave and let him focus in on what he needed to deal with in the program.

Well, she left he found out she left he thought he would do okay, but he didn't. He went into a panic attack. And as soon as I did, before I could realize it, he jumped up, he ran out of the building, we're in and started running down the highway. Now, you can imagine I was a little concerned running down the highway with this man and I was saying, could we please pull over at the next exit, which he did. He actually called His relatives that came and picked him up and took him away from the program because he just was too anxious. Now, we don't want you to do that.

We don't want you to run away from the outpatient program or from the treatment you're in. But that's what happened. And I thought, Man, that's a big fail. But about six months later, I was at a major convention, and another part of America. And I went to this convention, all of a sudden, I was standing at the booth of talks about our mental health programs. Someone came up behind me, pick me up and begin to swing me around, like I was a five year old child.

And I was like, who is picking me up? I'm a grown man, and who is swinging me around. And, you know, when that happened, I then begin to see someone who looks somewhat familiar. I saw a lady that I think I had seen before, and I called out her name, and she said, Yes, and then she gave me the name of the person who's swinging me around and I mentioned his name I said, which Would you please put me down and explain what's happening? So he put me down. He says, You know, I left that program I, I really, I didn't have any hope I didn't have any thought that I would ever get better.

But then I began to think about what had been said, I thought about what you talked about in terms of hope. I thought about this. And I said, you know, why don't I just embrace these things. It's the only hope I really have. I've tried everything else and he begin to embrace the aspects of the program. And then he told me some amazing things happen.

I got a better relationship with my wife back. We weren't getting along. I got a relationship back with my church, I got my job bad. I had a better relationship with my son, my whole life changed. And now I'm telling everyone about the hope they can have if they just follow the principles that we've covered, not just the physical ones, not just the emotional ones, not just the mental ones, but also the spiritual. So I want to encourage you as we finish this session on Hope to go forward and remember we are saved by