How Hope Helps You Heal After the Death of a Spouse (And Why It Matters in 2026)
As we step into 2026, I want to invite you to focus on one powerful word that can quietly change everything: hope.
Hope may feel fragile right now. For many of you, it may feel distant, even unreachable. And yet, hope is not about denying your grief or just pretending things are okay. Hope is about believing—sometimes quietly, sometimes fiercely—that good things are still possible, which they are!
One of my favorite definitions of hope is this:
Hope is believing with confidence that good things will happen in the future.
When we believe in something, and not just think it, but really believe it with conviction, it no longer feels impossible. It doesn’t feel like something reserved for “other people.” That you can never have it. Hope brings the future closer and it makes healing feel attainable.
Hope is also defined as “a desire paired with expectation—that things can go well again.” It’s an optimistic state of mind. And it’s rooted in the belief that life still holds meaning, purpose, and joy for us.
After losing a spouse, hope can feel complicated.
You may want to look ahead to a new year filled with fresh possibilities, while at the same time feeling deeply pulled back by the past. We were just talking about this feeling in the Widow 180 Holiday Club meeting we just wrapped up. We’re moving into a new year and with the passing of time, we’re teetering between holding onto the past and stepping into the future.
Your life has been uprooted. You may still be trying to understand who you are now, where you belong, and what any of this means!
If that’s where you are, please know this:
you are not broken for struggling with hope.
It’s hard to have hope and feel hope when you’re drowning in grief. If hope feels especially hard right now, loneliness may be playing a bigger role than you realize.
But still, I want to encourage you—because that’s what I do, having been through all of this myself and lived through it, that no matter where you are emotionally—you CAN move forward with hope.
Because what’s the alternative?
Hopelessness is a heavy place to live. I’ve been there. I’ve been in that dark place where nothing has meaning anymore. Where nothing matters anymore.
When hope disappears, we stop believing that we have any influence over our future. We begin to let our circumstances decide what’s possible. And that’s not how we heal.
There’s a quote I love that says:
“Allow hope to be a force greater than your grief.”
Grief may always be part of your story—it will always be hiding under the surface, but it does not have to be the loudest voice guiding your future.
Like I said, we’re moving into a new year, moving into 2026.
Here’s why making hope a priority in 2026 can truly transform your healing journey:
So make this a year of transformation. Maybe that requires a change in thoughts. A change in beliefs.
Hope Gives You Something to Look Forward To
Hope builds anticipation. And anticipation creates movement. Even the smallest thing to look forward to—a trip, a goal, a quiet dream—can pull you forward when grief tries to hold you back. This is called: Positive Anticipation and I did a podcast episode all about this. It was episode 211. Click here to listen to the episode.
Hope Shifts Your Perspective
Hope helps us reframe our thinking. It changes thoughts from negative to positive. It’s about forward-thinking. It allows space for possibility alongside pain. Instead of asking, “What have I lost forever?” hope invites us to ask, “What might still be waiting for me?”
Hope Builds Confidence After Loss
Hope encourages us to believe that the future can be bright again—even if it looks different than we imagined. It reminds us that we are capable of rebuilding our lives. It reminds us that we can have confidence to trust our own decisions and to be self-reliant. It helps us redefine and rediscover ourselves again.
Hope Inspires Action
Hope isn’t passive. Hope encourages us to take action. It nudges us to take steps—small or big—toward healing. It reminds us that our dreams and our desires still matter, that we still have purpose. And when we honor them, we begin moving forward with intention.
Hope Helps You Live on Purpose
When hope lives in your heart, you start making choices aligned with the life you want to create. You choose growth over stagnation. Possibility over fear. Healing over just surviving. When hope begins to return, many widows start asking deeper questions about who they are now and what comes next. Our workbook, The finding purpose and meaning after loss workbook, was created to help guide widows thorough that process step by step.
As we move through 2026 together, let’s try our best to make hope a priority.
It’s a priority but with no pressure.
You don’t need to have everything figured out. You don’t need to have all of the answers today. Healing happens in small, intentional steps.
You don’t need to even feel hopeful every day. We wish we could feel hopeful every day, but it’s not likely that will happen.
You just need to believe that healing is possible.
Because it is.
And you are 100% worth it. 💛
If you’re feeling ready for support, I’ve created resources and other tools to help widows move forward with hope in our workbooks like the Finding Purpose and Meaning After Loss workbook and Boost your Confidence Level After Loss workbook to walk with you at your own pace—offering guidance, reflection, and encouragement as you continue moving forward with hope.
You can find those workbooks at widow180.com/workbooks.
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