|
Friends and family are extremely important in times of crises or emergency. We never know when a crises, emergency or need will occur. If you haven't worked to maintain relationships you may have no one to call when you need help, a favor, advice or just someone who cares enough to listen.
Relationships are built upon the spirit of giving and mutual interest. How does it make you feel when someone is happy to see you, expresses interest, asks questions from a genuine basis of interest or just does something nice? You feel ten feet tall.
When we're young it's easy to make and maintain friends because we have a routine that supports social relationships that's called school, cub scouts or girl scouts, swim club, choir and a variety of other activities. Once we finish school and enter the work world this changes. We have more acquaintances than people we truly call friends. Our friends move away, get married, have children and we all get busy with our lives. Time passes and by the time we find ourselves in our 40's, 50's 60's and beyond unless we've worked really hard to maintain social relationships we find ourselves without a social network.
Research shows that individuals who maintain social networks, volunteer and remain active actually are healthier and age better than their friends. These individuals are also less affected by divorce or the passing of a spouse, both significant life changes that many will experience.
My work during the past ten years in the field of health care and aging has shown me personally the importance of keeping in touch with friends, family members and maintaining social networks. Even though I became aware of a way to make this happen more than a year ago, I resisted because I was stuck in the mindset that if a letter or card wasn't personally handwritten it wasn't good enough. But as time went by I found myself without the time to write personal letters and cards and was finally convinced to try something different.
Imagine my surprise when I received such an overwhelming positive response from friends, family and colleagues that I became a believer that it is the expression of thought about another that makes them feel loved, appreciated or simply acknowledged rather than my old-fashioned belief that only a hand-written letter or card could possibly result in the same feeling.
Even if you live in town you don't make it to your parent's home to visit as much as you'd like. Or maybe you've already become a caregiver for a grandparent, parent, a family member or a friend. Sometimes you'd like a way to make a difference in their day because you know they're struggling with health or day to day issues.
The old fashioned way of communication by writing a letter or going to a greeting card store to look through ten or twenty cards to pick one (and then never mail it) is becoming a thing of the past just like a rotary telephone or penny candy. Can you remember how you felt the last time you received a greeting card that made you feel special?
There is a better way to stay in touch that's easy, saves you time and money and elicits positive feelings from others because of your thoughtfulness. Read on, sign up to send two free cards on me and learn how you can easily maintain relationships with family and friends.
|