How to Find Hope Again: Neuroscience, Faith, and Practical Tools for Hard Seasons

Hope — The Science and the Soul of Beginning Again

When hope feels distant, fragile, or hard to hold, this episode is for you.

In today’s conversation, we explore hope in a way that honors both the brain and the spirit—how it works, why it fades, and how you rebuild it when life feels uncertain. This episode blends neuroscience, psychology, and spiritual formation with a gentle, compassionate invitation to begin again.

Whether you’re navigating exhaustion, transition, loss, or a season where your prayers feel quiet, this episode offers a grounded path back to hope—one breath, one practice, one small step at a time.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

1. The Neuroscience of Hope

• How hope activates the prefrontal cortex, ACC, and dopaminergic pathways
• What happens in the brain when hope dims—and how to reopen the circuits of possibility
• How small actions and tiny wins rebuild hope biologically and emotionally

2. When Hope Is All You Have

• What it means to cling to hope in seasons of uncertainty or pain
• Why Scripture frames hope as endurance, not positivity
• How God meets us in liminal spaces—when the story feels unresolved

3. When Hope Feels Hard to Hold

• Why feeling “stuck” is neurological, not personal
• How exhaustion, overthinking, and fear of disappointment block hope
• How to rebuild hope gently 

4. How to Hope (A Science + Soul Framework)

• Breathwork, grounding, and aromatherapy for regulating the nervous system
• The power of borrowed hope: community, coaching, and co-regulation
• Anchoring hope in something bigger than you—a faith-centered perspective

Special Invitation: Join Me for Advent

If your heart is craving steadiness, grounding, and a return to meaningful rhythms, I’d love to invite you into Breathe in the Season, my Aroma Advent Guide.

It includes:

• Daily practices of breath + presence
• Essential oils to support emotional and nervous-system health
• Reflections on hope, peace, joy, and love
• A gentle path to enter Advent rooted, not rushed

✨ Get your Aroma Advent Guide here: Download the Guide

Get on the list and I'll send you A Song for the Season: Show Me the Way by Gene Reynolds. A quiet prayer in musical form—perfect for reflection, breathwork, or simply remembering that you don’t walk this path alone.

Transcript

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There are seasons when hope feels like oxygen, light, and easy and abundant, Then there are seasons when hope feels like work and discipline, a choice. You have to rebuild, breath by breath. Day by day, if you're listening today from a place where hope is dim or delicate, I want you to know that you're not broken. You're human, you're here, and there is a way forward. And that is through truth. Today, we're diving into the science and the soul of hope. What happens in the brain when you lose it, how to cultivate it and why hope is not naive or just fluff, but one of the most protective resilience building forces that we have. I'm so glad that you're here and if you're listening to this around the season of Christmas, know that I'm recording this during the first week of Advent at which the theme this week is Hope. I have a advent guide that I'd love for you to download. Join us on the journey. there are many of us going through the same guide. It's free. And it's just something that you open every day and do some reading, and reflecting. It's, science, scent, and stillness. So go to the link in the show notes and download that guide. it's my gift to you for this advent season. All right, let's start talking about the science of hope. Let's start in the brain, because hope isn't just an emotion, It is a neurological state, and if you're looking at this as a person of faith, this might be a little strange way to look at it, but I always look at these things as we are created by God and our creator is amazing, mysterious, and we have grown a lot in understanding how the brain works and how we are wired together. As a neurobiological state, when you feel hopeful, three major regions activate. One, the prefrontal cortex, your future thinking brain. Two, the anterior cingulate cortex, your capacity for problem solving and persistence. And three, the dopaminergic pathways, and this is your motivation, your drive and reward anticipation. Hope literally lights up the brain circuits that help you imagine possibility And take action toward it. It's forward momentum and it's built into your biology by our creator. The research shows that people with higher levels of hope have better stress recovery, lower inflammation, and higher resilience after trauma. Hope strengthens the executive functions, making you more capable of planning, focusing and following through. It's much easier to make decisions if you have a sense of hope. Hope is also correlated with higher heart rate variability. a marker of emotional regulation and nervous system flexibility. We work with all of these things in coaching. We blend them together and embrace them so that we can show up every day and default to our extraordinary selves. The hope is not passive. It's not wishful thinking, and it's your brain saying, I believe a better outcome is possible, and I believe that I can influence it. It's saying, I believe a better outcome is possible. Even though I cannot see it, and some of that is tied into faith and what we believe about the world, what we believe about our creator, what we believe about our purpose, when life hits hard. Hope is often the first thing to dim, not because you're weak, it's B because your brain under threat, shuts down. Its forward thinking, circuits to survive in the moment, if hope feels hard, it's because your nervous system is doing exactly what it's designed to do. But it also means that hope can be rebuilt. you can change that by the way you relate to your circumstances, and your thoughts. There's a scripture that encourages us to take every thought captive, and this is how we build hope What about when hope is all you have? Let's talk about those moments where hope isn't a luxury, it's really a lifeline maybe you've been there, a diagnosis, a relationship that's falling apart, A season where effort feels like it leads to nowhere, and a moment When you whisper, I'm so tired and you really mean it. When everything around you contracts, the soul reaches for one thing. Please let tomorrow be different from today. sometimes it's hope that allows the next moment to be different. Some light to shine through. This is human and this is also holy. this is where Hope does its most honest work in scripture. Hope is not sentimental. It's not a mood, it's endurance. hope is really a decision. it's resilience. It's the willingness to believe that God's goodness is not finished. Even when your circumstances feel unfinished. it says in Romans that hope does not disappoint and that's not because life won't hurt, and that's not because disaster won't. Won't touch you if you believe in what the scripture says because hope is rooted in someone who doesn't change. Despite all the circumstances, things can really be sucky and you still can take hold of hope. when hope is all you have. It becomes that quiet courage that keeps you getting up, showing your hands and saying, show me the way. Keep leaning, light the way. And now one of the songs that my husband wrote called Show Me The Way Is it Going to be in my head the rest of the day. I'll post a link to that song in the email so that you can enjoy that song too. So make sure you're on the list so that you get these emails and you get all the extra little things I put in there, for those who are on my email list, What about when hope is hard to hold onto? Sometimes the hardest part isn't believing in the goodness. It's believing that you still have a place in it. Hope can feel slippery or fleeting when you're exhausted, when your story feels uncertain, when the outcome feels outta your hands, when you've tried before and it didn't work when you're afraid to want something again. But here's where science and the soul come together. When you're discouraged, your nervous system contracts, your brain's future thinking circuits dim a little and your imagination narrows to survival. So the work of hope is not about thinking positive. It's about reopening the mind, softening the body, and returning to safety long enough to see possibility again. And we do this by practicing our clarity loop. We notice what we're thinking. We notice how we are feeling in our bodies, and then we think, what is the thought that is triggering these emotions? Is it true? Is it absolutely true? Then we can go to work replacing and choosing the thought that would serve us better we can nurture that progression into changing that into the thought that we really want to have and Navigate through that cycle where our thoughts are producing an emotion, and the emotion is provoking a behavior that's ultimately giving us the outcome that we want. the powerful thing about our brains goes way beyond positive thinking. it's about reopening the mind, taking every thought, captive, and living in the truth. Walking forward with truth and the thoughts that that we choose can be those thoughts that serve us best and lead us on the path to our extraordinary selves. this is why tiny practices also matter. A single deep breath, a moment of prayer or grounding, a scent or aroma that signals calm, lavender, cedarwood, frankincense. a small step that reminds your body, I am not stuck. I can move your brain, rewires in moments, not milestones. you are in control of the stories that you tell yourself about the circumstances that you're in. Hope grows in increments. Now, How do we hope? And this is where you can think of hope, development like building a muscle. You create the conditions for it to grow. I already talked about the clarity loop. We're gonna notice, we're gonna name what hurts. Hope begins with honesty, suppressed disappointment, blocks, future vision. It's no good to keep it locked up in there or to suppress it thinking that you're doing something noble. get it out there. Talk to your coach about it, journal it, talk to a friend, a counselor. Don't stay in your head with it. Hope begins with honesty. Then you're gonna regulate your nervous system, and this is that nurturing phase of the clarity loop where we do practices, slow exhales and grounding practices, aromatherapy, breath, prayer, those all reopen the brain's capacity for possibility. And then we're gonna visualize a future that feels possible, and this is that narrating. We're going to look at something that's not perfect, but possible. Your brain needs a picture, even if it's a fuzzy one. So we start to visualize that future that feels possible with the thought that is actually supportive of us. then we can take that smallest meaningful step to navigate our going forward. Action generates dopamine and dopamine fuels hope, and hope fuels more action. This is a loop that you can initiate on purpose If you're really struggling, borrow hope from someone else. Community creates that co-regulation, someone else's belief in you. Lights up your own circuitry. If you're listening to this, it means that you are leaning into personal development and you are desiring of finding out what's possible and living into your full capacity, I believe that you're here. Doing the work, and I believe in you, not everyone around you is. This is why coaching faith communities and friendships really matter. scroll down and click the link or go to. Coaching with Julie, that's JUL i.com, coaching with julie.com/no regrets. And you can schedule an appointment with me there and we'll get on the phone or zoom and chat for 20 minutes, we'll get you pointed in the right direction. There's no obligation with this. I just really want make sure that you're tapping into your full potential and finding out what's possible. I'm honored to be on this journey with you. So if I can chat with you and support you in that way, I'm all in. Alright, how to hope, name what hurts. Regulate the nervous system. Visualize a future that feels possible. Take the smallest meaningful step, borrow help from someone else, and finally, anchor in something bigger than you. hope is the strongest when it's tied to someone who cannot fail, and that's really what we have in our God, in our creator Alright, so why does Hope matter? Well, hope is not about avoiding reality. Hope is not denial. Hope is direction. It keeps your brain open. Your choice intentional, your heart soft, and your future accessible. we have enough of the skepticism I have a natural lean towards cynical, and I have to intentionally choose every day to lean more towards hope. 'cause hope protects your body. Hope strengthens your mind. Hope keeps your spirit awake to God's voice. Cynicism might feel like you're protecting yourself. And in a way it's a survival mode way of protecting yourself. it's not a thriving way. It's not your full capacity. It will hold you back from your full capacity because you'll shut yourself off to opportunities because of that cynical belief. if I gave into my cynical mindset, I wouldn't take opportunities. I wouldn't believe in the best in people, and those are not thoughts that serve me, and I know that. So hope is a practice. Hope is the replacement for that. And Hope is contagious. Every time you choose hope, even Shakily, you create a ripple effect in your home, your workplace, your relationships, your leadership, your work, your life. Hope is how we live as if the story is still unfolding because it is if you're listening today and your hope feels thin, know that you aren't behind and you're not failing, you're not broken. You are in a chapter, not the whole book. every chapter is rewriteable. When you breathe and you open and you begin again. The same God who held your past is already standing in your future, inviting you forward, whispering possibility, and strengthening your spirit. Every step you take, hope is not a feeling. hope is formation. Hope is a practice. Hope is a way of being human. Even if all you have today is just one small spark, that's enough to start a fire and it's definitely enough to get you up every day. To default to yes, your extraordinary self.