As Pride Month is both acknowledged and celebrated, my mindset is focused on the strength involved in the many different areas of life and why we pause for one month to wave flags of recognition. The quality someone possesses which helps them to overcome adversity may be physical, it might be mental. Many personal situations call for different forms of strength and deserve more than a calendar representation.

My feeling is that designating a month-long observance is extreme, such recognition should be an everyday occurrence in accepting individual capacities for particular ways of thinking, feeling and believing. At month’s end, people tend to move on until the next yearly observance rolls around and brings a repeat of retail marketing and other factions focused more on financial gain than the personal battles of so many individuals. We see this with so many observances for our veterans, historical and other events. Whether it is one day set aside for remembrance or one month, people move on and too easily forget.

What is overlooked are the character strengths involved with the word “pride”, wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance and transcendence. As far as I’m concerned, these six virtues of positive psychology are benchmarks for anyone embracing life patterns that give them a voice and productive goals as human beings. Daily encouragement of children to become aware of their strengths allows them to develop more self-confidence, self-awareness, and a deeper appreciation and value for how each of us is different.

There is such a positive impact with encouraging individuals to explore and understand their individual character strengths. We all need to be supportive, not just for a moment, one day, or a given month, rather each and every day. Simply helping others to develop true pride by encouraging their creativity, perspective, and bravery, as they pursue whatever their chosen path in life is, that in itself denotes the ultimate measure of strength.