“Most of us,
swimming against the tides of
trouble the world knows nothing about,
need only a bit of praise or encouragement –
and we will make the goal.”~ Jerome Fleishman ~
What Is Encouragement?
Definition: ENCOURAGEMENT
: something that makes someone feel more supported
: something that makes someone more determined, hopeful, or confident
: something that makes someone more likely to do something
Yesterday when I listed the Top 41 Lessons Blogging Teaches About Life And The Ways Blogging Has Changed Me, one of the things I talked about was how I knew I was loved. Feeling loved is powerful…very powerful.
Have you ever heard of times in the news when people did things that seemed impossible? I remember long ago when a boy was trapped under a car and the boy’s mother lifted the car AND pulled the boy out from under it. Sounded absolutely impossible, but it really happened. That was some powerful love.
Love is a powerful emotion that can help people do things they never dreamed they could accomplish.
One of the reasons that I talk so much about PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is because when I was being tormented by it, I felt very alone. It was bad enough teetering between feeling insane or like an alien in my own skin, but to also feel lonely and alone was almost more than I could bear. Because of that terrorizing, agonizing, depressing, scary, unhappy, sad, lonely period of my life, I think it is absolutely necessary for EVERYONE to understand PTSD.
Giving a person with PTSD encouragement helps them hang on and continue to fight the agony they feel. Most of the time it feels impossible to live another minute and the reasons to continue living don’t really feel that important. Encouragement helps a person feel more hopeful.
Even though a person may appear to be perfectly fine, they may actually be hurting inside. That is often true with people who are experiencing PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and depression.
There is something we all can do for people who are hurting.
24 Ways To Encourage Others – Giving Encouragement To People
There are many ways that we can give people hope and one of the easiest ways is to give encouragement regularly. That may sound vague and not that important, but encouragement is the emotionally equivalent to throwing a rope to a drowning man. Hope is empowering and since encouragement gives hope, you can help to empower someone who is hurting.
Here is a list of 24 easy and practical ways that you can give encouragement to people:
- Go to lunch or dinner together.
- Give the person praise publicly.
- Offer to do a task for the person.
- Spend time listening to the person talk.
- Ask the person how you can help them.
- Offer to babysit their children so they can get away for a while.
- Call the person often just to let them know you were thinking of them.
- Post a compliment or encouraging words on their Facebook wall.
- When someone is making changes in their life, notice and offer words of praise.
- Smile as you pass other people. You never know who needs to see a kind face to give them hope.
- Write a letter of commendation to the person’s boss.
- Write a note and put it in their lunch or leave a note on their desk.
- Give the person a gift.
- Give the person a hug.
- Give the person a compliment.
- Give the person an uplifting card.
- Give the person a motivational book.
- Give the person a gift card to a restaurant.
- Send the person chocolates.
- Send the person flowers/Give the person a single flower.
- Tell the person a funny joke.
- Tell the person that you love them.
- Tell the person you will pray for them.
- Tell the person that you appreciate them.
Having the opportunity to offer encouragement to another person is a privilege. Giving of yourself will not only help the other person, but a consequence of your unselfishness is that you will feel happier and better about yourself. Being encouraging doesn’t take that much time or effort for you, but it could mean the world to the person who is swimming against the tides of trouble.
I decided to give myself a test on the list of your 24 easy and practical ways that I gave you encouragement while you were going through your PTSD:
1. Go to lunch or dinner together. (No we never went to lunch or dinner together because we live across the country from each other. However, we often had lunch or dinner together while we were talking to each other on the phone.)
2. Give the person praise publicly. (That I did! How many times did I publicly praise you in your community and in my comments on your blog?)
3. Offer to do a task for the person. (Yep, I held down the fort in your community while you were at work, speaking to myself endlessly for hours so your community would rank #1 among all the communities on The BlogFrog. Of course, there were others besides me who also helped to hold down the fort in your community and they, too, talked to themselves so that your community would log up the most comments and rank #1!)
4. Spend time listening to the person talk. (Yep, I did that too!)
5. Ask the person how you can help them. (Ummm, I didn’t actually ask you how I could help you, but you knew you could call me day or night or in the wee hours of the morning and I would always be there for you.)
6. Offer to babysit their children so they can get away for a while. (I did not offer to do this. Logistically it would have been impossible since we live across the country from each other and Alyssa was too old to need me to babysit her.)
7. Call the person often just to let them know you were thinking of them. (I called you everyday.)
8. Post a compliment or encouraging words on their Facebook wall. (Yep, I did that too.)
9. When someone is making changes in their life, notice and offer words of praise. (I was always praising you.)
10. Smile as you pass other people. You never know who needs to see a kind face to give them hope. (I often smile at strangers.)
11. Write a letter of commendation to the person’s boss. (That would have been weird.)
12. Write a note and put it in their lunch or leave a note on their desk. (Nope, never did that.)
13. Give the person a gift. (I would like to think that the gift I gave you was my friendship and the many laughs we shared together in spite of your PTSD that you were going through.)
14. Give the person a hug. (Do cyber hugs count? I gave you many {{{cyber hugs}}}.)
15. Give the person a compliment. (Always!)
16. Give the person an uplifting card. (I sent you e-cards.)
17. Give the person a motivational book. (As a matter of fact, I did give you a good book to read. I sent you the Kindle e-book “Codepentent No More” by Melody Beattie.)
18. Give the person a gift card to a restaurant. (Nope, never did that.)
19. Send the person chocolates. (Never did that.)
20. Send the person flowers/Give the person a single flower. (Now I’m really feeling bad, never did that either.)
21. Tell the person a funny joke. (We laughed a lot, but I don’t ever remember telling you a joke.)
22. Tell the person that you love them. (Of course I did!)
23. Tell the person you will pray for them. (Told you that too!)
24. Tell the person that you appreciate them. (That goes without saying! I am always telling you how much I appreciate you and how happy I am that out of all the millions of people I could have met on the Internet our paths crossed and I met you! 🙂
So, how do I measure up? 🙂
That list must have taken you 3 or 4 hours to write! LOL
Joan, you do a FANTASTIC job encouraging me. {{{hugsss}}}