A Stunningly Simple Way to Make a Difference

I want to share with you a story sent to me by Ella de Jong, a solution focused practitioner in the Netherlands. What I love about Ella’s work, is how she can simplify things so they are easy to employ. The other day, she sent me a short article that I loved. I am sharing it below:

The Most Effectful Help is Stunningly Simple

Ella de Jong

Smiling is uplifting, energizing, and contagious. Let’s start volunteering in the field of mental health!

As a substitute teacher, I hated working in schools where I didn’t see teachers smiling in the corridors.

It says a lot about a school when the teaching staff smiles at children, no matter what.

Meaning well, that’s the message of a smile.

I’m currently teaching children with special education needs.

Guess what?

The whole staff smiles, no matter how much children misbehave.

New moments, new chances. We care for you, we mean well.

Fortunately, the kids return our smiles! Gosh, how much we need them!

Published in https://medium.com/the-daily-cuppa/the-most-effectful-help-is-stunningly-simple-307d9bf219b9

While this article is short, it exemplifies so much what the solution focused school counselor does, which is to see beyond the misbehaviors, the sadness or anxiety bothering a student or the unhappy or frustrated parent, and rises above those situations to just… smile. This time of year, particularly, we could all use a smile more often to remind us that there are still things to smile about. 

So, let’s do an experiment, just for today...

Seek out a student, teacher or parent who might need an uplifting jolt to keep them going and, just smile. Feel the response inside of yourself. Know that for a split second when you are smiling that you too, feel slightly better.

Oh, and when it works, do it again tomorrow 😀