Day of Encouragement

Day of Encouragement (Sept 12) was started in 2007 by a group of Searcy, Arkansas teenagers who felt that encouragement could help many teens face their problems. The Mayor of Searcy proclaimed September 12, Day of Encouragement. A similar proclamation was made by the Arkansas Governor. Later, President George W. Bush made it a National Day of Encouragement.
Before we talk about ideas for celebrating, let’s define encouragement.
According to Dictionary.com  Encourage is defined as
1. to inspire with courage, spirit, or confidence
2. to stimulate by assistance, approval, etc.
3. to promote, advance, or foster

What kinds of activities are encouraging to others? Here are some suggestions to get you started.
• Listening and spending time with someone makes them feel important.
• Smiling and saying positive things about them may cheer them.
• Notice when they do something right or put in a lot of effort and recognize their diligence or determination.
• Express gratefulness and appreciation for the person they are.
• Be a cheerleader by applauding for them and giving them the ‘celebrity’ treatment.
• Do something nice for them.
• Send them a thinking of you card.
• Express interest in the things in which they are interested.
• Forgive them.
• Think about times when you have felt encouraged and pass that on to someone else.
• Avoid whining about your own problems and model positive self-talk.
Now that you have some suggestions, think of the person in your life who is most in need of encouragement and make plans to execute a few of these ideas. Do any of these ideas particularly resonate with you? If so, make a habit of trying to do that one thing with everyone you know. Find ways to add it organically to a conversation so as not to be the obnoxious encourager.

Final note: Do you think being an encouragement to others will bolster your own positive thinking?