By Alex Cohen

When was the last time you checked your ‘Heart-O-Meter’?

February always brings visions of love, hearts, candy, flowers and cards – all in the name of romance.  These things are usually geared towards people in romantic relationships – people with girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, wives and partners.  But what about people who do not have a significant other?  What does this month of love mean to them?

I want to challenge all of you to try something different this year.  Let’s make February 2016 about love – plain and simple, non-romantic love.  Let’s use this Valentine’s Day to share love with everyone in our lives – not just our partners and significant others.

Pick three friends or family members who do not have a partner and send them flowers, candy or just a note telling them how much they mean to you.

Your heart is a muscle, and you should exercise it regularly – not just with cardio but also with emotion.  There are many important emotions we must practice – love, empathy, sympathy, even sadness.  All of these emotions and feelings ultimately come back to one thing: gratitude.  Without gratitude we are nothing – we just take up space.

I had a chance to express my gratitude this month when a dear friend of mine passed away unexpectedly.  I flew to her wake to pay my respects and to thank her for being such a presence and influence on my young life.

Ms. Pat Carroll was my 6th grade math teacher and one of the people who shaped me into the woman I am today.  I was terrible at math, and Ms. Carroll took me under her wing and proved to me that I was not “stupid” – in math or anything else.  She believed in me and, more importantly, taught me to believe in myself.  Her lessons and her friendship remained with me for almost 40 years.  At her wake, I was amazed by all of the stories and notes from all of people she influenced.  All along I thought I was the “special one,” but I realized that she had made all of us all feel “special.”

The purpose of this blog is to talk about all the shapes and sizes that expressions of love can take on.  I decided to take my exercise to a different level this month; I am personally going to email or call every single person in my contact list, to update their information and to reconnect with them.  I am only on the C’s but I am determined to reconnect with every one of them!  So far people are pleasantly surprised and happy to hear from me and I love the exercise.

What I leave you with is this: check your ‘heart-o-meter’ and make it move hard and fast until it’s FULL!

Love,

Alex

P.S. Here’s a small tried and true way to show your love: drop a Hershey’s kiss on the desks of each one of your team members.  Watch them smile when they find the sweet treat you left for them.