Have you ever felt you were down and needed support? Giving and receiving support is an integral part of the human experience. Human beings are social creatures and you included will at some point need each other for survival.
For you to thrive generally, you will need a support system to boost you each time. You need people that can bear your burden for you. Those that can give you a shoulder to lean on.
This article has described how you can make people feel supported now that a support system is a must for human bearing. Read on for inspiration on support as a system of advantage for people.
1. Active Listening and Empathy
You can support a person emotionally by being present to listen to them. You should listen to them without interrupting, judging, dismissing, or giving them advice. They always want to pour themselves into you. Give them your undivided attention by avoiding distractions like your phone or anything else. You should face them and have open body language to show them that you are actively listening.
Also, you should cultivate healthy empathy. Your empathy essentially shows your capacity to share and understand another’s state of mind or emotion. You will make it by thinking about how the person feels rather than trying to feel like the person. A few breaths can help as well.
It’s not enough to simply ask questions. Listening actively, or empathically, is another important part of providing emotional support. When you listen to someone, you give them your full attention.
2. Offering Emotional Validation
After you have listened, It is relevant to validate what someone has shared with you. If you show critical or diminished emotions, it will less likely be effective and helpful. Your validation cultivates a sense of care and wanting to know the weight of the problem digging on where you can necessarily help. Emotional validation is the process of learning about, understanding, and expressing acceptance of another person’s emotional experience.
Emotional validation is distinguished from emotional invalidation when a person’s emotional experiences are rejected, ignored, or judged. In validating emotion; you identify and acknowledge the emotion, acknowledge the source of the emotion, then validate the emotion. Here are statements you can use; “I can see how you would feel that way.” “That must be hard.”
Support doesn’t require you to fully understand a problem or provide a solution. Often, it involves nothing more than validation.
3. Providing Practical Assistance
You can ease the victim’s pressure by offering practical assistance. You can help by undertaking a task that the person finds difficult. This will help ease the stress and exhaustion they might experience. Also, you can demonstrate your commitment to be helpful in personalized ways that enable people to take that help. By giving them help or access to resources that would be otherwise difficult to access.
If a person has a skill or capability that might be useful, they can ask the other person if they would like assistance. For example, drive them to an appointment, speak up on their behalf, or look after their children. You don’t have to do anything grand or sweeping. Little things can often have more impact, especially when your actions show you truly heard and understood their words.
4. Being Non-Judgmental and Accepting
When you are supporting them, focus on accepting who they are, genuinely make no moral judgment about their situation, and empathetically try to get to their wavelength. You can apply this by allowing the listener to hear and understand exactly what is being said. Also, enable the person to talk freely and comfortably about problems without feeling that he or she is being judged.
When offering support, try to keep your opinions on what they should have done or where they went wrong to yourself.
The words you hear from them will trigger your mind instantly, do not switch off to what they are saying. You should just listen to them and create a safe and comfortable environment for them to speak openly. Acceptance allows you to respect them, genuineness connects you to them and empathy will allow you to try to be in their shoe.
5. Showing Genuine Interest and Care
You have to show them love, care, and encouragement. They would want to hear genuine affirmations from you. For instance, you can tell them you love them or you are there for them. Help your friend or loved one get their mind off things.
Suggest a fun, low-key activity that can easily be rescheduled if need be. Examples might be taking a walk at the beach, cooking a healthy meal, organizing something easy in their home, playing a game like Backgammon, or watching an entertaining show.
Also, When you want to support someone, don’t worry too much about whether you’re providing the “right” kind of support. Two different people typically won’t offer support in the same way. That’s OK, though, since there are plenty of ways to support someone.
6. Encouraging Self-Care and Self-Expression
This is a very important way to foster support. You can embrace this by allowing your friends to think about how they can boost themselves. Taking care of ourselves, both physically and emotionally, is essential for building resilience. This can include things like eating a healthy diet, getting regular exercise, and taking time to relax and recharge.
Self-expression is the process of communicating our thoughts, feelings, and experiences to others. It’s a way for us to share our unique perspectives and connect with others on a deeper level. Self-expression can take many forms, including writing, art, music, dance, and public speaking, among others. This lies o how much you protect and guard your welfare or else things might fall apart.
7. Maintaining Boundaries and Respect
You should set boundaries that will protect you against self-destruction. You can create systems and structures to guide your values and conducts. Get plenty of rest, exercise regularly, and eat a brain-healthy diet. You should have firm boundaries with emotionally draining individuals.
The draining individuals; are usually always in a crisis, are not interested in solutions, have an endless list of needs and expectations, and guilt or manipulate you when you set a boundary! It’s critical to your well-being to take excellent care of yourself and give only what you can without harming yourself.
Instead of searching for the perfect thing to say, go for what feels natural and genuine. An authentic expression of concern will likely mean far more to your loved one than a canned response or one devoid of true feeling.
8. Being a Reliable Presence
Your integrity and ability are what will define your presence. The victims rely on you for your help. Presence is an interesting concept. Some people seem naturally charismatic and born with it. It isn’t necessarily something that can be defined, at least not easily, but it is something that is sensed; in other words, you’ll know it when you see it.
After a difficult conversation, you can hug someone, it can provide physical support that reinforces the emotional support you just offered. Holding a loved one’s hand while they go through a painful procedure, receive unpleasant news, or deal with a distressing phone call can help them feel stronger. Cuddling with your partner after they’ve had a bad day can wordlessly emphasize your feelings for them and offer healing comfort.
9. Cultivating a Supportive Environment
If you notice someone you care for seems to be a little low, harder on themselves than usual, or going through some self-doubt, a sincere compliment or two can go a long way toward improving their outlook. Through this, you program a supportive atmosphere. You can Choose compliments that highlight specific strengths over empty compliments that might apply to anyone. Instead of simply saying “You’re so thoughtful,” pinpoint what makes them thoughtful and share your appreciation for that skill.
Dealing with such issues is very crucial and you need to be very critical. You might think you’re helping someone by telling them how to fix a problem. But, generally speaking, people don’t want advice unless they request it. Even when you know you have the right solution, don’t offer it unless they specifically ask something like, “What do you think I should do?” or “Do you know of anything that might help?”
Conclusion
All said and done, making people feel supported during their hard times is a kind gesture to them. Now because you might at one time need help also, the same friends you helped are obliged to help you back.
Offering support through gifts is also a kind gesture. A personalized birthstone bracelet is a thin bracelet for mothers. Its dainty helps to enhance your beauty and gives you a modern look.
Also, an engraved black ironwood ring is a nice gift for your loved one. It is durable and scratch resistant. You will be comfortable wearing it. You can engrave on it your motto.
