Unplug and Reconnect With Family and Friends

The holidays are a time for getting together with family and close friends. It’s all about face-to-face interactions. Along with the hours of traffic and delayed flights, it’s a part of our holiday heritage.

We need this time to disconnect from our multiple forms of electronic engagement—our smartphones, iPads and computers—and to exercise our ability to have real-life relationships. We gain strength from the emotional warmth of being with those about whom we care, even if it means listening to cranky Uncle Herbie complain about his aches and pains, and eating Aunt Carol’s overcooked chocolate chip cookies.

With today’s pervasive social media platforms, we can rekindle relations with extended family, friends and colleagues, with whom we’ve lost touch, without leaving home. Social media networks provide us with the ability to find and revive these relationships so easily that we can pick up where we left off as if no time has passed.

We just get so wrapped up in the holiday shopping and parties that we sometimes forget what’s really important. So this year, as you take your holiday break, reflect on your personal journey over the past year. While you’re recharging, reach out to one or more people from your past via phone, email, letter or social media, just to say: “Hi! I’m thinking about you.” Because it’s the people in our lives who give it meaning and showing you care is one of the most powerful things that you can do. At its core that’s what the holiday season is really about.

Please allow me to take this opportunity to thank you, my readers, for your generous time and attention.

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Photo credit: jcestnik via Flickr