This week I would like to send out a message of hope to anyone who might be struggling to find any at the moment.

As we move into April, this month marks 10 years since I myself woke up in a psychiatric intensive care unit. Back then I felt such a deep sense of despair and unhappiness that I could not see any reason to carry on.

Life seemed meaningless. For my own part I did not feel as though I had anything of value to offer anyone. There seemed no purpose to my own life – and quite frankly I got no enjoyment from living it.

Life had become all about existing rather than living in any real sense of the word.

It is difficult to put into words that level of desperation to anyone who has never experienced it. However, research shows that a much higher percentage of people have had similar thoughts at some time than you would ever guess from the outside.

My message though is this. Ten years on, both my life and the way I feel about living have changed completely. In my case this has involved a change of career, country and husband too.

But it is none of these things that have proved to be the biggest change.   The change that has really made the difference is the way I have learned to look at life. The last ten years have certainly not been a bed of roses.

They have included family crises, severe financial struggles, unemployment, a serious car accident and several close family bereavements.

Life is like that – sometimes it will throw amazing experiences our way and plenty of other times it will involve all kinds of difficult and complicated challenges.

What I have learned, however, is that we have much more control and power than we realise about how we choose to react to things. We can’t change many of the things that happen in the world, but we can change our attitude towards them.

We can also choose how we want to run our own lives.

Our priorities, the people we choose to spend time with, the activities we invest time and energy in, what we choose to give to others as well as our investment in our own sense of wellbeing – these all play a vital part in how we feel about life.

Your choices and your sense of fulfilment are intrinsically linked. I used to feel like a victim of circumstance. And if you don’t like the circumstances, that can be a very unpleasant place to be. What I now realise though, is that your circumstances are only a small part of the picture.

What makes the difference is what you do with them. We have far more power than most of us realise. It took me more than 40 years to understand that – but I feel lucky to have finally got that message when I did.

Of course it wouldn’t be true to say that I have unreservedly enjoyed every day of the last ten years. However I can say that there has been at least some enjoyment in every day. And that on the whole there has been far more positive than negative during the last decade despite all the challenges that it has included.

None of us know for sure what is ahead for any of us. But if you are feeling sad, lonely or without hope today – please rest assured that things can and will change – and you have the power to make that happen.

It is hard to believe when you are in that place – I know because I didn’t believe it either. But rest assured from someone who is now ten years on, and has also worked with many, many people in that time who have also managed to find a renewed sense of hope and meaning, that there are better times ahead.

It might feel at times as though you have lost everything else, but never give up on hope. I almost did – but I am so glad now that I am still here and didn’t miss out on all the joy and richness that the next 10 years was to bring.