Make ‘praise’ part of your day. Give it freely to everyone you interact with. Praise is about looking for what someone has done right rather than what they have done wrong. It’s thinking about what you are saying before you say it, and delivering a specific response.
Children particularly benefit from this, for example, ‘Well done for hoovering and tidying your room this afternoon’, could be shrugged away by your eight year old. However, a more thoughtful response could go something like this ‘I like the way that you lined up all of your teddies in a row on your beautifully made bed. I also like how you’ve tidied your desk and made a nice clear space to do your colouring’.
Praise is positive feedback and it can be used with adults too. It’s quite easy to throw over a negative comment to your partner such as ‘you never clean up!’ How about more specific praise such as ‘Thanks for dusting around the edges of the ceiling as that’s the bit that I can’t reach’ or ‘Thanks for noticing that I’d left the cleaning stuff on the side and for cleaning the shower whilst you are in it. It’s so clean that I don’t want to spoil it by using it.’
How are you going to make praise part of your day?
Sandra Madeira 