Did you participate in the Thinking of You Week challenge?

If you did, how did you like it?

If you don’t know what I’m talking about…

Thinking of You Week is an international movement to encourage people to send more snail mails 🐌

The challenge was, during the week of September 24th – 30th, you were to send a card a day for 7 days and let someone know you’re thinking of them.

When Thinking of You Week USA contacted me on Instagram and asked if I’d join the challenge, I got so excited and knew right away I wanted to do it.

For someone who makes greeting cards for a living, I don’t send enough cards…😬

I think of a lot of people every day, but I don’t take the time to let them know I’m thinking of them.

The challenge came at a great timing. I’d just received a post card from my high school Japanese literature teacher and was thinking of writing him back.

I immediately thought of a few more people to write to – and others I just picked a person that came to mind during the week.

I had so much fun hand selecting a card that let me express what I wanted to say to each person.

Here are the 7 cards I sent out!

They went to my high school teacher, Mr. Eto, my artist friends I haven’t met in-person, Kelly and Laura, a friend/knitter/podcaster, C.C., my bff, Amie, my parents in Japan, and my sweetie, Dave.

(I actually mailed a card to Dave from our home to our home 😀 It was priceless to see the expression on his face when he got the mail! 😆)

Every day, I was giddy thinking about my friend receiving a card and being delighted.

It felt kinda like planning a tiny surprise party for them 🎊.

And that week I was stressed out about my website launch and the whole political chaos.

So having to pause every day to write to someone I cared about was good for my mental health.

It took me less than 10 minutes to write a message to each person – but that 10 minutes gave me peace.

It was peaceful because I was focusing on what I appreciated about them and how they were making my life better.

It gave me a pause to just “be.” I’m ok at this very moment. Nobody is hurting me. I’m safe. I’m surrounded by relationships that are positive and caring even if the person(s) may not be here with me right now.

I’m most definitely making this an annual tradition! I marked the week in my calendar for next year (September 23rd – 29th, 2019) and set to repeat annually.

And I promise I’ll be sending more snail mails in between 😉

xo

p.s. Inspired by the challenge? You can start your own “Thinking of You” week anytime you want! Browse my greeting card collection to get your list going ✨