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Showing gratitude consistently appears as a major factor of happiness.
When you show appreciation for the good in your life or thank someone for what they mean to you, it not only makes you happier, but the recipient as well.
A Harvard Medical School article reports that “gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.”
While you can express gratitude through a phone call or a gift, the easiest, quickest and most powerful way to bring happiness to your life is to write personal letters.
In my experience, even people who don’t make time to send letters, admit that they love receiving them.
Handwritten personal letters build relationships in a way no other communication can.
When my children were young they grumbled as I insisted that they send handwritten thank you notes for every Christmas and birthday gift they received. From the way they moaned and whined, you’d think they’d grow up hating to send thank you notes. On the contrary, they even send thank you’s to each member of the interview committee following job interviews.
The greatest thing about letters, especially personal handwritten ones, is they create double happiness, touching the sender and the receiver.
Get encouragement and guidance from three heart-warming letter-writing projects.
Heartfelt letters create enduring bonds of appreciation
Lynette M. Smith, copyeditor and owner of All My Best, is on a mission to restore the art of showing our feelings of appreciation through letter writing.
She believes that even simple expressions of appreciation can return our world to joy and hope, one relationship at a time.
Lynette’s personal story illustrates how her book,
How to Write Heartfelt Letters to Treasure: For Special Occasions and Occasions Made Special
On November 21, 2008, my husband and I attended the wedding rehearsal dinner of our son, Byron, and his fiancée, Rachael. That evening, they surprised us when the two of them each made a special presentation to their respective parents–a beautifully framed, one-page heartfelt letter. Their best man and maid of honor read the letters aloud as Byron and Rachael each stood beside their own parents.
Each letter described what they had treasured about growing up in their family, what they had especially appreciated about each parent, and what values they had learned and planned to bring to their marriage.
We were deeply moved–all of us: four parents, bride and groom, and the rest of the guests. And I can tell you, those framed letters will always hold a place of honor in our homes. To this day, whenever I tell someone about that night and our treasured letters, my hand automatically moves to my heart. That’s where I still feel the experience. And my love and appreciation for our son who expressed his love and appreciation for my husband and me so beautifully has truly strengthened the bonds we already felt.
In her book, Smith covers planning, writing, packaging and presenting your letters.
One of the reviews points out
There’s a little bit of etiquette that goes along with writing a letter. For example, when someone dies in the line of duty, one of the last things you want to write is “I know what you must be going through.” No you don’t and hopefully you never will. Lynette Smith helps guide you through those tricky situations, even if you are going to simply write a note on a card. Letter preferred. You’ll learn how to write that special letter and even how to present it. In some instances, you may be encouraged to present a letter in person, and if possible, in private.~D.Fowler
Her three-part reference book Smith addresses milestone birthdays; special occasions for school, military, romance, family, rites of passage and career; and professional and personal relationships, aging, eulogies and mending relationships. A special bonus is her selections of positive words, inspirational quotes and sentence jumpstarts.
Your letters are powerful even when written to strangers.
Handwritten love letters to strangers can bring you and them back from despair
Hannah Brechner, a copywriter and creative consultant, was fortunate to have a mother who communicated via handwritten letters rather than the more efficient, but less touching, email and text messaging.
Here’s Hannah’s story in her own words of how she got into
the business of broken hearts.
i began leaving love letters all over New York City back in October 2010 as a way to try to fight off my own loneliness and depression. the callouses still have not faded from the following year as i spent nine months mailing over 400 love letters to strangers in need around the world. today i run The World Needs More Love Letters, a global love letter writing organization that harnesses the power behind social media to write and mail love letters to individuals across the globe. i’m like a proud mama when i tell people it’s spread across 6 continents and all 50 states. she is my labor of love. where i spend my days
Watch the video to hear Hannah’s story in her own voice. If you feel so inclined join her global letter writing campaign at The World Needs More Love Letters.
Handwritten letters and cards can start a conversation
When Tea Silvestre, marketing coach at storybistro.com, signed up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) that takes place in November every year, she considered writing short stories. But then she remembered how much she once loved writing letters. Next she remembered how much stationery she has neglected since she turned her back on it in favor of email, Facebook and all the cyber rest.
Letter writing is always on time and always in season.
Whether you join in the letter-writing missions of Lynette, Hannah or Tea, you can be sure that your handwritten letters will not only make your recipient happier, but you too.
How excited are you about sending and receiving handwritten letters and cards? Tell us in Speak Your Mind below.
This is a great post, Flora. Thanks for including me in it. I’m a little more than half way thru the list of folks who signed up and can say it’s definitely been good to spend some quality time focusing on one person each morning. It feels much more real to connect like this and I highly recommend it!
Hi Tea,
I’m glad you like this post. I was moved by the ways creative and caring folks like you have decided to promote letter writing. It is not a lost art if we keep it alive.
It’s always a pleasure to find a note or card from a friend among the junk mail I receive. I can’t think of a better way to bring joy to others than by sending a handwritten note even if it’s to just say “I’m thinking of you”. I don’t get that kind of warm and fuzzy feeling from emails and texts.
Thanks for reminding me do more handwriting and less emails and texts!
Hi Gladys,
I agree that an actual handwritten piece of mail, even a notecard, gives a more satisfying feeling than email. That’s why I insist on sending, if not full-fledged letters, at least cards with my real signature for the major holidays throughout the year.
We are part of keeping letter writing alive.
The women in this blog inspire me. For a couple of days around Thanksgiving I shared letters with strangers. I hid some around businesses and put others on car windshields. The messages in each letter varied and I trusted God to make sure they were found by the right people. I love anonymous giving, but would have loved to have seen who found the letters and how they reacted. Sharing letters with strangers is a great adventure and a lot of fun. I intend to buy more stationery and surprise even more people with loving letters. It can get addicting…. Thank you for spreading the word about the value of writing and connecting through letters.
Linda, it’s exciting to learn that you already in gear of sharing lovely thoughts and wishes with strangers through letters. I trust that the recipients received them at the very time they needed them in their lives. Kudos to you.
This is a sad post in a way because it’s so true and because so many of us don’t write handwritten notes anymore. When I was growing up, I loved making my own thank you notes. Every Christmas, I would keep a good record of my gifts, and then I would make my thank you notes by hand for each person. In truth, I probably had more fun making the notes than I did with the gifts! I made all my kids write thank you notes, even my two autistic sons, but now that they are adults, I know they don’t do this anymore. I encourage them to at least call rather than email so that there is a personal connection. Sigh!
Beyond the thank you notes, though, you have inspired me to write other notes by hand. In fact, I’m going to write one right now to someone I know would appreciate it.
Hi Galen,
I’m delighted that this post inspired you to write a handwritten note. With your efforts and those of other like-minded folks, handwritten missives will never die away.
Thanks for chiming in on this topic.