Feeling hopeful
Feeling hopeful means believing something good could still happen, and letting yourself look forward to it without knowing how things will turn out.
What does feeling hopeful feel like?
A small lift when you picture the next few months. You start making plans again: seeds in the ground, a trip penciled in, an application sent. Hope often turns up after a hard stretch, quieter than excitement, and it can sit right next to worry. You can be hopeful and scared on the same morning.
Hopeful or reassured?
Reassured needs something from outside: a call back, a kind word, a fact that settles a doubt. Hopeful can come with no news at all. It’s what you choose to lean toward while the answer is still unknown. Reassurance closes a question; hope keeps you going while it’s open.
In a sentence
- “I’m hopeful we’ll find an apartment before winter.”
- “The first warm day of spring always makes me hopeful.”
- “He sounded hopeful on the phone, more than he had in weeks.”
Where it sits on the wheel
Hopeful is in the middle ring, under Joyful. Further out: optimistic, eager and inspired.
A gentle prompt
What are you hoping for? Write it plainly, without needing to know how it will happen.
Kept in this browser as you type. Saved answers join your journal on this device; nothing is sent anywhere.
This browser isn’t keeping saved data, so answers will be lost when you close the tab.
Something to go with it
A small screen-free idea, if you’d like to spend this mood on something.
Feelings near hopeful
Joyful (one ring in)
Hopeful looks ahead to something good that might happen; joyful is about the good that’s here now.
Happy (also under Joyful)
Happy is about now; hopeful is about what might come. You can feel hopeful on a day that isn’t happy.
Playful (also under Joyful)
Playful is about fun in the moment; hopeful is about looking forward.
Optimistic (further out)
Optimistic expects things to work out; hopeful believes they can, even when it isn’t likely.
Eager (further out)
Eager is hope with something definite on its way, and wanting it to arrive.
Inspired (further out)
Inspired is hope that has turned into wanting to make or do something.
About the feelings wheel
Hopeful is one of the 104 words on the Slow Days feelings wheel, and the list of feelings has them all. The wheel isn’t a test or a diagnosis.