Encouragement. Support.
We would need a steady supply of these to live on in life. Some may require less of it, others may need more.
But how does one excel in it?
Can you learn it in a special school that specializes in it? Or is there an art? Or perhaps a book of phrases, and you randomly pick one and offer it to the person in need?
People will say it varies according to the situation. True, I agree. You can't tell a suicidal or depressed person to "Go!" Or "All The Best!"
So how does one excel in it?
By experience? Or by saying phrases that are uplifting to our spirits, and praying it will uplift the persons' spirits too? Yet, a man's meat is another man's poison, so how can the effectiveness of such phrases be gauged in order to maximize its potential for the right situation?
Then again, perhaps all that is truly needed is a listening ear and a companion. Millions of children grow up everyday, but don't be fooled by assuming that the vibrancy of virtual social networks has made us less lonely.
On the contrary, it has diminished the value of relationships to a virtual status, and I'm pretty sure Abraham Maslow didn't mean social needs to be that of pseudo-physical.
So, could the most effective way of encouragement one provide would simply be a listening ear?
Something so simple, and yet so hard to comply with, in this world where everything demands for our attention, both physically and virtually.
Do you agree?
