I give a lot of advice.

Each month, as a part of Sati365 (my personal coaching program in the form of a self-study and practice program), I advise participants to take part in a 30-day challenge; a simple exercise to do each day over 30 days to create a positive habit.

This past month, we were focusing on deepening our connections to our nearest and dearest, and I decided I needed to take my own advice and participate. The challenge was to reach out and set up a date or phone call with the important people in our lives with the goal of investing in developing closer connections. Since community and connection are an important part of flourishing in life, I reached out to one of my sisters with whom I had been having trouble connecting. We had been best extremely close growing up, but over the years the connection became more and more difficult to maintain.

I made a plea to my sister that we work on developing our sisterhood and friendship that had been lost. With a little effort on both of our parts, we arranged a time to see each other and spent several hours reconnecting and sharing openly and honestly. Once I could feel our bond restrengthening, I wanted more!

I asked my sister join me, along with three of our other sisters at a retreat I was holding at 1440 Multiversity in Scotts Valley, California this past weekend. While the weekend was idyllic in a gorgeous redwood-lined setting, with immaculate accommodations, nourishing food, enriching sessions and an amazing group of participants, the highlight for me was the sisterly love and energy that grew between us and rippled out to the entire retreat group. It was a powerful weekend of heartfelt tears, loving conversations and lots of great laughs.

But the point of this blog is not to simply point out what a great time I had; it is to point out how one small action, a phone call with a positive intention, can have a powerful ripple affect far beyond your life and the life of the person you reach out to.
Take some time to write down the names of people you consider your nearest and dearest. Look over that list and ask yourself, “Am I nourishing these relationships?” The more of these relationships that are healthy and strong, the better your quality of life will be.

Pick one person that you have neglected or haven’t made time for lately and give them a call to get some one-on-one face time on the calendar for in the next few days.

It is the relationships you invest in that will flourish and grow.

Go ahead. Take the challenge. It is worth it.