Kindness That Lasts
Being There for Someone Who’s Struggling We’ve all experienced bouts of bad mood and even occasional depression. While difficult to go through, it can be equally challenging to see someone we care about hurting and not know how to help. The main thing to remember is that providing support isn’t about fixing things; it’s about showing up in meaningful ways.
FOCUS ON SMALL GESTURES. Along with providing company, you can support your loved one with simple gestures — a phone call, handwritten note, or warm meal. These acts remind them that someone cares and that they are not alone. Continuing to show up for your friend even after the rest of the world has moved on can have an even greater impact. There’s no specific script to follow, but small efforts all add up and may matter more than you’ll ever know. If you have a friend or family member going through a hard time, validating their experience and being present for them can be all they need. While they may not remember what you said, they won’t forget you showed up and stayed when they needed you most.
SKIP THE PEP TALKS AND LISTEN. For many of us, our initial instinct is to rush to lift our loved one’s spirits and help them break out of a bad mood. However, offering them space and a calm ear is often the best thing we can do. Friendly company can be comforting even if they’re not ready to talk. Just be sure they don’t feel pressure to do or say anything. This might mean bingeing a favorite TV show together or just being with one another in the same room.
THE GOLDEN GIFT OF MEMOIRS
Although striving to experience life’s greatest joys in the present is always best, reflecting on our pasts can be a tremendous gift to ourselves and others. If summertime gives you more time for leisure activities, now may be a great opportunity to consider chronicling your life’s most significant moments in a memoir. Preserving your history for your family members, particularly those who are young or have yet to be born, is often just as valuable as selecting the physical assets you will leave behind for others. Whether you’re a seasoned wordsmith or a novice writer, here are two quick pointers to help you craft your experiences into precious prose. NARROW YOUR NARRATIVE. First and foremost, there are no concrete rules for structuring your memoir. It could zero in on a specific period, such as your military service or how you met your spouse,
or it could be based on your love of volunteerism or lessons you learned in your profession. Length can also be fluid, as memoirs
and prolific authors have times when the words just won’t come — or, even worse, they spin their mental wheels over crafting that perfectly structured opening sentence. If you struggle to turn your ideas into coherent passages, don’t worry about form and structure immediately, but still put down words as frequently as possible. A page full of rough ideas and scattered word sketches is infinitely better than a blank slate without a single syllable. When in doubt, relax and try writing freely. Writing without restraint will likely result in ideas and directions you hadn’t considered if you had focused solely on getting everything right.
can range from a relatively short essay to an extensively detailed story spread over multiple chapters. No matter which direction you choose, it is wise to focus on what you want to write about and your intended audience before you compose your first words. This approach will help you better organize your ideas for subject and tone upfront instead of getting bogged down with scattered thoughts that will inevitably slow or even prevent your writing process. WRITER’S BLOCK CAN BE BENEFICIAL. Here’s the deep, dark secret of successful writing: Even the most accomplished
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