Does Hopefulness Outshine Mindfulness? New Study Says Yes

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During hopeless times, when you feel as if you're trapped in a dark and desperate place with no way out and no light at the end of the tunnel, new research suggests that cultivating hopefulness is better than practicing mindfulness. This North Carolina State University study (Scott et al., 2024) on hope vs. mindfulness examined work-related resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When high stress levels are baked into someone's daily life, first author Kristin Scott and colleagues found that a future-oriented mindset boosts resilience and motivation better than mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). These findings were published on August 30 in the peer-reviewed journal Stress and Health.

Happiness and Hopefulness Go Hand in Hand

For the study, researchers recruited 247 participants and used a multiwave statistical model to identify dynamic relationships between hope, mindfulness, and outcomes related to work-related resilience, engagement, and psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

One key finding of the latest (2024) research on the differences between being hopeful and being mindful is that hopefulness seems to go hand in with happiness; mindfulness doesn't.

"Fundamentally, our findings tell us that hope was associated with people being happy, and mindfulness was not," Scott said in a news release. "And when people are hopeful—and happy—they experience less distress, are more engaged with their work, and feel less tension related to their professional lives."

Hope Is Forward-Looking, Mindfulness Isn't

Whereas hope involves future-oriented thinking, mindfulness is rooted in the here and now of the present tense. The NCSU researchers found that hope's forward-looking nature can fortify someone's motivation to move toward a goal (agency) while simultaneously thinking of fresh ways to achieve future goals (pathways).

"Because hope is inherently forward-looking, while mindfulness is about appreciating your current circumstances, we wanted to see how each of these two mindsets influenced people's well-being and professional attitudes during difficult times," senior author Thomas Zagenczyk explained.

The researchers posit that hopefulness, more so than mindfulness, enables people going through dire times to break the cycle of despair because hope involves actively engaging the control phase of metacognition.

Unlike optimism, hopefulness constructs involve "thinking about one's thinking" (metacognition). Taking a metacognitive approach to getting "unstuck" can help hopeful individuals living through tough times stay focused on attaining goals and finding the best pathway or ladder they can use to climb out of a hopeless hellhole.

On the flip side, because mindfulness is more about passive acceptance and nonjudgmental awareness, it can backfire by inhibiting agency and subconsciously dissuading MBI practitioners from actively imagining escape hatches out of a dark place, which can keep someone stuck in a bad situation.

"There's a lot of discussion about the benefits of mindfulness, but it poses two challenges when you're going through periods of stress," according to Zagenczyk. "First, it's hard to be mindful when you're experiencing stress. Second, if it's a truly difficult time, you don't necessarily want to dwell too much on the experience you're going through."

On Low-Stress Days, Try Being Mindfully Hopeful

The equanimity and acceptance associated with mindfulness don't usually translate into action, but hopefulness's fervor often does. Therefore, during desperate times, future-oriented hopeful thoughts will ultimately be more beneficial than dwelling on the here and now during mindfulness-based interventions.

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This isn't to say that mindfulness doesn't have upsides. Living in the moment has certain advantages. Nevertheless, the latest (2024) research suggests that a hopeful outlook outshines a mindful disposition during prolonged periods of stress. However, when your stress levels aren't off the charts, being hopeful and mindful at various times throughout the day would be ideal.

Mindfulness and hopefulness can coexist. If present-focused mindfulness works for you most of the time, that's great. But if life throws you a curveball and you feel hopelessness creeping in, remember to cultivate hopefulness and hold on tight to the forward-thinking notion that no matter how bleak things seem right now, there's a brighter place somewhere up ahead that's reachable.