AD | By Tyesha Friday, Founder of Think Plenty
The last 12 months have been an abrupt departure from the fast-paced lifestyle many of us had grown used to. We’ve been thrust from sensory overload into a dark, quiet numbness lit by the faint blue light of our screens. For others, the past year has felt quite the opposite – an exhausting balancing act of trying to channel Mrs Doubtfire and play school teacher, colleague, parent and chef all at once. Either way, it’s been tough.
In the midst of the UK’s third lockdown, I started to reflect on what I went through when my dad died in my early twenties and how I could put that experience to good use to help others through tough times of their own. Remembering feeling lonely and without support, I decided to launch Think Plenty – a clean and simple range of cards to encourage people to reach out. While a handwritten note may not be the quickest way to get in contact with someone, it’s a meaningful form of communication. Here’s why you should write to someone today.
Make a human connection when it matters most
In a time when everything is virtual and we’re feeling more isolated than ever before, there’s something comforting about old-school simplicity. We’ve spent so much time trying to re-create personal connection through Houseparty, Zoom drinks, virtual baking contests and trivia nights, when really the answer may lie in taking a step back from the digital and connecting in a way that feels more tangible and real. Speaking to a loved one shouldn’t feel like another meeting in the calendar. Take a break from the screen and go back to basics to show you care.
Give to not receive
Writing can be cathartic and ritualistic – ask anyone who practises daily journaling. It gives you a chance to sit with your thoughts and what you want to say. Beyond words themselves, writing to someone is thoughtful as it’s an act done with intent, a sign that you have stopped for a moment to think of them and have gone out of your way to reach out. It gives them space too, if they need it. There is a certain pressure not to leave people on read in messages or to ask how the other person is doing on a call. Writing to someone is more gentle, it lets them know you’re there for them, when they’re ready for you.
Embrace the personal, warts and all
We lose a lot of personal touches from digital communication – the familiarity of someone’s handwriting, spelling mistakes haphazardly scribbled over, awkward spacing or diminishing word size as someone realises they still have more to say. These little quirks tell a story in themselves, so why not take a break from Arial size 11 and leave your own mark on the page?
Send something that lives beyond today
You can’t keep a phone call and you don’t scroll back up to the text from years ago. While it may make your day, it will almost certainly disappear from memory weeks, months or years later. One of the great benefits of sending something physical is that it can live on the shelf as an enduring reminder for someone that you care. One glance is all it takes to remind someone that you are there whichever way the wind blows.
Visit www.thinkplenty.com for a range of thinking of you and sympathy cards or follow on Instagram @thinkplenty.
0