Connecting with Friends & Family

Hi! I hope that you are feeling well and staying active so far this week. I’ve found that the move active I am, the better I feel. Is this the same for you? My Monday has been pretty standard. Some of the highlights include:

A 30-minute walk with Layla this morning.

Bringing the vegan, gluten-free chocolate cake that I baked last night into work for our boss’ birthday.

Mailing off the Purebars and some gluten-free “Super-Charge-Me” cookies to giveaway winner, Faith.

Doing a little ToneItUp workout after work.

Salad bar, rosemary steak & Kombucha from New Seasons for dinner.

Now I’m curled up on the couch with Layla and my mug of cinnamon tea, watching The Bachelorette. Who else loves Ben?!

Yes, Layla has a no-bark collar because she has a few issues to work out

Tonight's Tea Bag Quote: "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." - Galileo Gaililei

Recently I’ve been taking some time to think about what makes me feel good about myself. I’ve always been somewhat in tune with how sleep, diet, exercise and relationships affect my mood. Something that I hadn’t thought about is how my communication with my friends and loved ones can make me feel about myself.

In today’s modern world it’s so easy to loose direct contact with the ones we care about. 100 years ago, you had to either pay a visit to your friends and family or write them a letter. Today’s means of contact are much less personable. Texting, Facebook, Twitter, etc. take the meaningful and personal connections out of our communications. For example: texts make it much harder to understand where someone is coming from because they lack voice inflections, Facebook makes it way too easy to feel like an outsider peering into someones life & I’m still confused about how to be personable on Twitter (although I do have an account.)

What I’m trying to get at here is that it’s easy to feel disconnected from our friends and family nowadays. Technology and social media have made it so convenient to “stay in touch” but they’ve also made it more difficult to have meaningful, human interactions with others.

I’ve noticed that I feel amazing when I spend actual time with my friends and family members. I also like to set aside some time to call people when I’m not driving or multi-tasking so that I can give them my full attention. I enjoy hand writing thank-you cards to let people know that I truly appreciate their gifts and kindness. None of these gestures involve social media.

On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve noticed that I feel uneasy when I can’t decipher what someone means by a text. I feel isolated when I’m by myself looking at people’s party photos on Facebook. I feel unexciting when I scroll through 10 blogs back to back with eventful posts. I think that we as humas crave meaningful interactions with others.

Does anyone else feel this way? It’s something that I’ve just recently noticed as a theme in my life. Therefore, I plan to:

1. Spend as much of my free time with my friends and family as possible

2. Call my friends and family who I can’t meet up with when I have a free afternoon

3. Stop scrolling through Facebook & Google Reader on a daily basis. I’ll try it every other day for now!

Readers: How do you feel about your connections with others? Do you ever notice that you feel better or worse with different types of communication?