You are great. You have such awesome peripheral vision!
Validation. We all want to feel recognized and be valued as essential and worthy. Actually, we need it. Validation reinforces the connections that link us to our friends, our family, our community. When we validate others, we are saying that we want to join their world and see things from their point of view. It is a way of saying that we understand . . . that we see them as they are and we accept them.
What validates you? Who validates you? What words or gesture rings your internal bell of validation?
Merriam-Webster defines validation as “to recognize, establish, or illustrate the worthiness or legitimacy of.” Without at least some validation in our lives, we often find ourselves feeling isolated or alone or misunderstood. The world feels like a place where others are happy and wildly successful and living lives of fulfillment . . . while we’re not. Validation extends a hand of kindness to another. It says, “I like you the way you are in this very moment.” It says, “I don’t have to know everything about you to know that you are essential.” Validation is a lifeline that saves another from feelings of lonesomeness and disconnect with the world.
You both have such stunning hair!
Sometimes all it takes to feel validated is to feel the touch of someone’s hand on our shoulder. Sometimes it is as simple as hearing, “I like your taste in earrings. The ones you have on are so awesome!” or “I really like the way that your hair curls.” or “Has anyone ever told you that you have a beautiful smile?” Sometimes it takes so little.
Wow! Has anyone ever told you that you have a very strong mind?
Pleasepleaseplease watch this video below. It runs (16:23) and it is so worth watching. It is the sweetest reminder that we can make a difference in other people’s lives simply by stepping outside our own selves and recognizing the little things about them. And there is definitely a ripple effect that accompanies the validation of another.
Validation. I ask myself, “What am I doing to validate other people?” What can I say the next time I recognize that someone needs to be validated?
Valentino, you are great. You are awesome. You have the most beautiful, knowing eyes.
Fill in the blank below when you meet someone whom you can validate. Anyone. A loved one or a stranger. Your dog or your cat. The grocery clerk, your chiropractor, your linguistics professor, your Uncle Johnny. Your doctor, your nurse, your patient. Your teacher, your student, your department chair. Your mentor, your sister, your brother, your daughter. What matters is that you are making a difference. Just do it. What’s stopping you?
Fill in the blank for someone else today. Elevate someone’s day. Make a difference in how someone else feels appreciated and validated. It will make their day. And probably yours, too, when you see their smile and feel the validation connection. I guarantee that your validation will circulate to parts of the world that you have never visited.
You are great. You are amazing. You __________________.
Author bio: Kennedy Farr’s passion for writing caught light at the age of four when she first learned how to spell her name on a sheet of lined tablet paper. Kennedy is a daily writer and blogger, a lifelong learner, and a true believer that something wonderful is happening right now in this very moment. Kennedy lives high atop an emerald-green mountain on a Pacific Northwest island. She feels blessed by the natural beauty, the serenity, and the bird life that grace each day.
Website: https://theunseenwordsproject.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/theunseenwords
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Unseen-Words-Project-1095815913825818/
Click on the 
Here is today’s journal question from my 5-year diary with 1,825 potential answers: If you could move anywhere, where would you move? 
To say this undertaking is intimidating might sound a little dramatic; time feels limited and the sorting is time-consuming. But I shall persist and get to the place where I have made a dent and can go into my next move with better spirits and less drudge-y vibes.
But I was so craving Different in my life. Better. More centered and mindful. I remembered reading that if you lay a wooden spoon across a pot of boiling pasta that it won’t over-boil. The pasta can boil merrily away with no more messy stove to clean up. So simple and easy . . . and it works! This Wooden Spoon trick reminded me that life need not be so overly complicated. Just try . . . and do . . . and lay the spoon across the pot. And try again. It is absolutely possible to turn a moment of my day into a gesture of mindfulness. I can make it happen. I will make it happen. I scrawled across the top of the wall-mounted white board in my office with my blue marker: You’ve got this! Try Something New! Today! I mean it!
You get the idea. I called an old friend just to say hi. I bought Swiss chard at the vegetable stand. I wrote a long overdue letter. I told someone about my current writing project. I had dinner at a restaurant that I had been wanting to check out. I took photographs of garbage. I added kale to my morning smoothie. I had fun with some color and painted on canvas. And another new thing for me? I set aside judgment of “what is good” when I was done painting. I simply valued the experience and the time spent swirling color around.
I started reading my horoscope. I subscribed to a new-word-of-the-day website. I started blogging. I bought three tiny wooden tops, which are proving to create a really relaxing “stop point” during work and study time at my desk. I spin the tops and, while they are spinning, I do absolutely nothing. I learned that an absence of activity can feel pretty good.
Would you like to share in this challenge with me? Is there something new that you have been really wanting to do?
Nothing like a little convoluted writing to unsquiggle a simple question. My takeaway from today’s question: Gaining is the same as Losing. Perspective sometimes wins out over reality. It’s time for me to think on Abundance Theory and keep focused on the sunny side. Eventually time gets us to where we want to be heading . . . which potentially leads to the next question: Where am I going anyway? A question to be answered on another day . . .
I came upon this 3-D message as I was hiking around Mountain Lake last Sunday. It was at the top of a good uphill stretch, and it gave me much to think on as I finished the hike. I imagined that someone must have paused at the crest to rest, all the while feeling grateful for that moment in time.
Today’s journaling is fun, simple, quick, and includes working with some fun and easy pie charts that portray the Circle of Life . . . your Circle of Life. You can download this enlightening prompt by clicking on the aqua-blue link below:
Click on the aqua-blue link below for today’s journaling prompt: Your Great Escape Plan
Click on the sky blue link below for today’s journal prompt. Have fun discovering (and making!) your leap!
I was flipping through the pages of my 5-year journal . . . and of the 1,825 answers that it could contain, I have filled in 53 answers. As I was reading and reflecting on what I had written, I came across this question:
Two weeks ago, when my two best girl friends came to visit, we got out a stack of small canvases and we painted. We didn’t watch a movie. We didn’t go out for dinner. Rather we snacked on a jumbo bag of chips and salsa, sipped wine, and painted for hours. It was fun, rewarding, stimulating, and enlightening. I made an enormous mess and, being the kind of friends that they are, they helped me to clean up my spatters that had followed an unanticipated trajectory across the room.
Creativity. It isn’t what you make that makes you a Creative. It’s the feeling you create while you are creating. Be it something as simple as cutting and pasting images of birds or something as rewarding as nailing those last few measures of “Allegro” — it is all a symbol of how I choose to feel while I experience and savor time. So simple really when I remove all self-imposed external expectations.
Playing my mandolin every single day —> Sitting in with that fun Monday band at the book store
The Unseen Words Project 