Why blog on encouraging?

I think we all need encouraging. Always. An encouraged person is a better person, better able to love because there is self-love.

I first realized how important encouraging is during my cancer healing 11 years ago. Never one to share my feelings too openly I had eventually decided to join a support group.

To my huge surprise I ended up being most moved by our group closing ritual, when we all joined in reciting: "You are good just the way you are. There is nothing miss with you. You are right and good and nothing needs to be changed."

Having always been blessed with a very positive outlook on life, a personality that made social contacts easy, I had always been (and to some degree still am) a pleaser - always trying to make it good for the other. And a striver, striving for personal improvement, studying hard, trying to go deep in spirituality - never quite meeting my own goals. That I was "good enough" came as a surprise.

It took a while to believe it - and it felt good. So good that I wanted to share this good feeling with others. That's when I became an "encouraging trainer". There's lots on this website about encouraging, about the process itself, about the 10-week-training, and about where it all came from. I personally owe my encouraging training to the Schoenaker Academy here in the Netherlands.