Blue Eyed Sun

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Why should you care about Thinking of You Week?

Why Thinking of You Week

Years ago I attended a greeting card industry seminar, not unlike the Ladder Club days for new publishers that I speak at each year. I remember a speaker proudly stating that she never sent greeting cards and that this was not uncommon amongst card publishers. The statement has preyed on my mind ever since as an insidious problem within our industry. I dont have the facts on how widespread this issue is, but I do know that I personally could do better with the number of cards I send each year.

As card publishers, suppliers and retailers we should be the ones that are using these products the most. If we dont use them why should anyone else? Given that the industry is dominated at board level by men and 80% of card buyers are women, it must surely help us improve our offering and make the card sending tradition stronger if we are sending more cards ourselves?

None of us know what will happen to the card industry in years to come and whether or not future generations will enjoy cards as much as those previous have. We cant control these things, but we can control what we do now. That is why I have been so excited about working with the Greeting Card Association Council to create and launch both Festive Friday and now Thinking of You Week to help promote card sending by starting with card publishers ourselves. 

This month I agreed to take part in a dry run of Thinking of You Week, a new event being held in the last week of September to highlight the emotional power of sending and receiving cards. I roped in some of my colleagues at Blue Eyed Sun to join me. Everyone who took part in the initiative had fun doing it and enjoyed taking the time to stop and think about friends, family and loved ones. I'll be updating more on their stories later this month.

The quality of our relationships is based on the quality of our communication. Cards are such a great way of communicating that we care, by taking the time to consider others and what wed like to say to them. We know that scientific studies show that receiving cards makes people feel more special than receiving texts and Facebook messages. Because there are less letters and cards received in the post these days, I believe they may have an even stronger power now. It is said that receiving cards can even stave off depression for recipients. I think it can help the senders with this too. 

Whatever you focus on youre going to feel. Focussing on being grateful for what you have in your life and the people you care for means that you take your mind off yourself. Fear disappears when you are grateful, as does stress. 

What are you grateful for? Start with yourself, then your close family and friends and all those who are important to you. This is what I did when I sat down to write my cards for Thinking of You Week. Pretty quickly I found that there were a number of events or reasons to send cards to the people I care about. It wasnt as difficult as I thought it would be. It helped that somehow all of my Facebook contacts birthdays have downloaded into my iPhones calendar.

The hardest part was tracking down all of the addresses I needed. Remember that card sending is an important, meaningful tradition for older generations who will greatly appreciate the time and effort that you have taken to think of them. You might also find that it's a more powerful way of connecting with everyone who is important to you.

Staying connected in meaningful ways with my friends and family is so important to me that I am very grateful for the opportunity to take part in this initiative. I hope that you do too. This really is a wonderful idea thats worth spreading so please do get involved and send some extra cards during the last week of September.

Click to find out more about Thinking of You Week

Read more about scientific studies on card sending