Category Archives: Miscellaneous

5 Ways to Add a Spark to Your Relationship

Add a ‘Love Spark’ to Your Relationship

Recently, my husband and I celebrated our 25^th anniversary with not one, not two, but 10 special events. That’s right. What started out as a two week vacation turned into months of celebrating everywhere we went. Including: renewing our vows and partying with dear friends, going out for multiple anniversary dinners and being showered with many free desserts and unlimited well wishes.

Why did we go overboard? Because being married for 25 years is a huge accomplishment and our love deserves celebrating!

We’ve learned a few things about relationships along the way. Every relationship goes through seasons and once in a while, it needs a spark to re-ignite it. If you’ve been in a relationship for a while, you may need to jump start things.

Here is a recipe to add a SPARK of love to your relationship.

S – Spiritually Connect!

Your love story is a grand adventure and God is in it with you. God is the glue and the ultimate power source to your love. Pray together and watch God bind you closer together than ever. Remember – a strand of 3 cords can’t be easily broken.

To Do: Ask your partner: “What is 1 thing I can do this week to be a better partner?” Then listen. Sit quietly and really hear what the other person said, without getting defensive. Then, as long as it’s not offensive to you, when you’re ready to step out of your comfort zone, try it.

P – Physical Touch.

Hug, kiss, hold hands and be intimate. All of these physical touches are critical to keeping you close to each other.

Research shows that hugging (and also laughter) is extremely effective at healing sickness, disease, loneliness, depression, anxiety and stress. Research shows a proper heart to heart hug builds trust and a sense of safety.

Virginia Satir, a respected family therapist, “We need four hugs a day for survival. We need eight hugs a day for maintenance. We need twelve hugs a day for growth.”

To Do: Ask: How many hugs and touches would you like each day?

A – Actively Grow

Spend time together & apart doing NEW things. Add novelty to your relationship.

Engage in New experiences. Try new things together. Whether it’s traveling to a new country, taking a cooking class, or writing YOUR love story, this too will help keep your relationship alive. Engaging in new experiences will allow both you and your partner to learn new things about yourselves and each other. It also provides room for excitement, and to support each other.

Do the Original Love Box tradition. Write each other love notes and read them aloud to each other. Try writing your love story in the Original Love Box book. Keep your love alive by reliving wonderful past experiences and creating new ones.

You can keep your love story alive for future generations as well by writing it in the Original Love Box book. It’s such a treasured keepsake.

R- Respectfully Communicate.

Respectfully express your love and appreciation for each other. As often as you can. Top regrets people have at the end of their life are that they didn’t do what they really wanted. #3 regret is “I didn’t express my true feelings.”

It’s vital for us to express ourselves. The good and the bad. Make sure you pour loving words into your partner and your kids.

What’s a good ‘Love Talk ratio’?

Say 5 ‘Love Talks’ to 1 correction. Pump 5 positive, uplifting and loving statements to 1 negative one. Your tone of voice speaks volumes.

Start the Original Love Box tradition and keep pumping love notes into your partners life. Write love notes to each other!

If you hurt the other, be sure to extend grace and forgiveness. Do the 3-H Forgiveness method. Kathrine Lee, creator of the Ultimate Source recommends forgiving with your head, heart and hands. Forgive logically by thinking about making the conscious choice to forgive. Then search your heart and spiritually forgive them. Then extend your hand to forgive them and ultimately, use your hands to help another person.

K – Keep On Keeping On!

Different ages and stages bring different changes. Each season has challenges and opportunities for growth. Keep working on your relationship. Remember; the only way you can lose is if you give up.

Relationships have ups and downs. Keep the faith and keep believing in the other person. Stay hopeful and add a spark to have a happier and more rewarding relationship.

Wish you a love to last a lifetime. You can add a fresh spark to your love at any time and enjoy a long and loving relationship.

Remember to:

Communicate daily
Date weekly
Adventure monthly

Spark challenge:

What’s 1 thing I can do to be a better partner this week?
What can I do that’s novel and different?

Sending Our Military Love!

Our soldiers work hard to defend our freedoms and their families sacrifice much. We decided it was high time to send them more love!

The Love Box Mission: To be ‘Love Agents’ for the Military Family by providing Original Love Notes® and/or The Original Love Boxes®.

Let’s give every soldier as many love notes as possible and give their families a Love Box too. The Love Box for Military Families includes the Original Love Box® plus unique patriotic items especially designed for military families.

Benefits: The Original Love Box® for Military Families is a powerful tool that will benefit soldiers and their families every day and keep them close, especially during periods of deployment when military marriages are the most stressed.

Sponsor levels:

Organize a Love Note Campaign to send military soldiers and their families more love now. Suggested donation: $1 per love note.
Sponsor an Original Love Box® for one or more Military Families – $39.99 each.
Provide extra Original Love Note Packs – 20 love notes – $9.95.
Donate seed money toward the creation of ‘The Military Love Box’.
______________________ Your idea here! Would love to hear it.

Who’s Involved: Christine Martinello, Inventor of the Original Love Box® & Jacqueline Arnold, Creator of Sweet Life USA (www.sweetlifeusa.com) are joining forces to send our military families more love.

The Braselton Rotary is hosting these keynote speakers at the Nov. 9^th meeting @7:30 a.m.

Contact:
Christine Martinello, P. O. Box 851, Braselton, GA 30517
Email: info@christinemartinello.com PH: 678-960-www.originallovebox.com

Let us know if you want to join forces and send love to Military families. Because of you, we can spread more love! You help educate & encourage military families so they can build foundations of love. Thanks!

Love & Freedom

Hope you’re getting ready for a very happy Fourth of July. We sure are!

The love agents (Cindy is above) and I will be in the parade in Braselton, GA starting at 6 PM. We’ve had such a blast getting ready for it.

Rather than throwing candy we’ve decided to pass out 600 love notes so people can write & read them to their family. Yes, there will be a little candy in there to weight them down. ?

The lady love agents and I are going to wear the heart T-shirts (above) and a red boa. How fun is that?! My husband and sons are coming too and we’ll see how much they get into it. I can’t guarantee my College agedboys will wear hearts.

It really is awesome to give through our business and bless so many families. The Original Love Box , books and love notes have brought families together across the world. We are thrilled to bring freedom to relationships and to help people to express their deep feelings.

It is our honor to help people give the gift of love, one note at a time.

On this Fourth of July we hope you’ll express your love and gratitude for each person that is in your life. We have such limited time together and today is the day to express what’s in your heart. Don’t hold back. Be free to express your loving feelings.

God bless you, your family, and America!

Hope you have a happy and fun 4th!

TV Time

Christine & Peggy Denny on the TV Set

If you’re a parent, grandparent & or a Military family, you’ll want to see this. ‘Love Your Family & America’ TV show (starring yours truly) is being released on the Peggy Denny Show. Colorado & S. Carolina aired the show last month. This week Georgia friends can see it on Wed., March 8th @ 11:30 am & Sat., March 11th at 9 am on WATC 57, channel 2 on Comcast.

We’re always looking for great ways to teach others how to love at home and work.

5 Ways to Love Your Work More

Do you wake up excited and anticipating the day ahead?

If the answer is yes on most days, great! Keep it up. For too many Americans the answer is NO. In fact, did you know the most common day of the week for a heart attack is Monday?

Here at ‘Love Box Land’, our mission is to teach people how to love their family, work and life more. As an entrepreneur and consultant for 22 years, I know there are things we can do to help us on our quest to a loving work life.

Let’s look at 5 ways to love your work more.

Build a Loving Team. Working with people you respect and trust is a whole lot of fun. Create respectful and kind relationships with a team of people who ‘have your back’. Make an effort to like co-workers or better yet, love them. You may not want to be married to them, but you do want to be ‘engaged’. (Yes, pun intended.)
Mix Your Talents with Meaning. Work at a position that matches your skills and talents with work that is meaningful to you. Change the way you work so you can enjoy the work itself and find it more interesting. If possible, explore cross training to see how the company works in different departments. Explore how your job is making a difference and fits into the big picture of the organization and your life. Keep in mind, the realistic expectation that you probably won’t like everything about your work. If you’re an entrepreneur and in charge of everything, delegate the work others can do.

3. Compensation. Make sure your pay and benefits are in line for you. Take advantage of the benefits your company offers including perks and 401 K matches. If you believe you are being underpaid, consider negotiating for what you’re really worth.

4. Check your Security & Recognition Levels. Security is about feeling safe and secure with your position and your future at the organization. 83% of employees are motivated by recognition so if you don’t know how you’re doing or have a tight-lipped boss, ask for specific feedback.

5. Be Grateful. Focus on the positive parts of your job and be grateful. The old adage: Count your blessings helps you be more positive. Change your outlook to appreciate of the opportunities and people around you. Also, look at how your job is making a difference and fits into the big picture of the organization and your life.

There’s plenty of good evidence that employees who love their work have lower turn-over rates and increased productivity. We spend a lot of time and energy at work, so let’s do our best to love our time there.

Here’s to you – growing in love at work and home.

If you are interested in training or coaching about this topic, please contact:

Christine Martinello, www.originallovebox.com

e: info@christinemartinello.com

Small Note – Big Impact

A love note doesn’t have to be long to make a big and lasting impact in someone’s life.

Original Love Box Notes

Why? Because a love note comes from the heart and touches another person in their heart. Yes, it’s a heart to heart connection.

“The Divine Voice is not always expressed in words. It is made knows as a heart-consciousness.” ~Unknown

Keep on creating cozy moments of love.

Love Box Land is Growing

2016 – what a year filled with new ways to learn and love.

One of the reasons I became an entrepreneur 22 years ago was so I could raise my 3 kids with lots of love and time. So, when my 3rd child flew out the nest in August, (My hubby & I are in the ‘Free bird’ phase.) I thought life would slow down (& it did for about a moment).

Quickly, it became clear that many people and families want to grow in love with their life, work and family.

Love Box event

‘Love Box Land’ is growing! It’s a land flowing with more ‘Love Agents’ & enthusiastic supporters. We hear many stories of families growing closer together, healing, hope and renewed relationships.

In Sept. we launched the Original Love Box – people write love notes & read them for every special occasion – from birthdays to baby showers, weddings to anniversaries.

Original Love Box Kit

We gave to 7 charities and gave a lot! Our giving focused on helpingwomen and children who are recovering from domestic violence or substance abuse. We also had love note campaigns for children battling cancer and victims and 1st responders involved with the Orlando shooting.

Love Your Neighbor

2016 has also been filled with bringing light into the darkness and showing that love unites us all. We have seen doubt, rejection, darkness & the enemy trying to thwart our efforts. We’ve faced new trials & worked diligently to grow in love rather than let strife take hold.
That means facing, entering into, exposing & forgiving the darkness. Always shining more light.

We’re ‘fired up’ about exciting plans for 2017:

– We’ll offer more education events and opportunities to learn.
– Partnering with sponsors.
– Sharing the Original Love Box with more non-profits and church groups.
– Expanding the team and our marketing efforts. This movement takes a team of merry ‘Love Agents’.

We’re going to be playing bigger next year. It has become clear – people need a lot more love!

We look forward to building a foundation of love for families, companies, and communities – one love note at a time.

What an exhilarating time! Thank you for joining us.

We’re all in search of a happy life. What if you knew just what to do, to have a happy and successful life?

Would you focus on it with all your time, money & energy? Probably.

Do you think the secrets are; Having plenty of money, a happy marriage, experience, your dream career, being a philanthropist, having a strong work ethic, or being raised in a happy childhood?

Some fascinating research reveals the secrets to a happy and successful life. The Harvard-Grant study was conducted for 75 years at a cost of over 20 million dollars to conduct.

Dr. George Vaillant, the lead researcher, notes there are two pillars of happiness:
“One is love. The other is finding a way of coping with life that does not push love away.”

The study directs us to a five-word conclusion:
“Happiness is love. Full stop.” Vaillant says.

Love means everything. A person can have plenty of money and luxuries, but if love is absent, they ultimately feel unfulfilled deep down inside.

“Our relationships with other people matter, and matter more than anything else in the world,” writes Vaillant in a 2009 Positive Psychology News article.

Your earliest relationships impact your long-term happeness, specifically the relationship you have with your mom. Business Insider highlights a connection to the fact that men who had “warm” childhood relationships with their mom we more likely to earn more money, have professional success and were less likely to develop dementia in their later years.

We know healthy relationships set a foundation for overall life contentment but also career satisfaction. Vaillant says that having a meaningful connection to the type of work you’re doing is more important than achieving traditional success.

This research confirms ancient wisdom.
“In as much as love grows in you,
So in you beauty grows.
For love is the beauty of the soul. ~St. Augustine

“Don’t underestimate the power of love, because it’s the key to happiness.” Vaillant writes. LOVE. Yes, we’re talking about loving relationships.

Value & cherish love above all else.
Grow in Love.

So, the next time you have a choice between going shopping for a little ‘retail therapy’ or indulging in other ‘escapism’ activities, take a moment to think of a new way to love. Ultimately, growing loving relationships and forgiving, will make you happier in the long run.

Does this resonate with you?
How do you value & invest in love?

National Love Note Day!

NATIONAL LOVE NOTE DAY BRINGS FAMILIES CLOSER TOGETHER

We all want a caring family and closer community, but with all the difficult happenings in the world, creating close relationships can be challenging. Fortunately, there’s something positive for families to do together to grow in love.

National Love Note Day is coming and we will celebrate by bringing families, friends and non-profits together at ‘Love Notes Live!’ events. Currently two events are planned. One event is in Flowery Branch, GA on Sun., Sept. 25th from 3 – 6 pm at Mocha Moes coffee house. The other one is in Dayton, Ohio.

People will participate in the Original Love Box tradition by writing love notes to family members, friends and 300 women in five local charities. Martinello says, “Let’s come together and celebrate love, peace and community.” The Martinello’s will speak about “How to grow in Love.”

Creating closer families and communities takes some time and effort. We’ll provide an opportunity for everyone to express their love at the ‘Love Notes Live’ event. We are excited to see the love flow and the lifelong impact that heartfelt notes provide.

The Original Love Box creates an experience for people to love one another in a new way and love their neighbor too. With everything going on in the world, don’t you think it’s time to invest in each other and love?”

We sure do! Hope you’ll join us.

It’s a complimentary event. RSVP: www.lovenoteslive2016.eventbrite.com

If you love what we’re doing and want to be a sponsor or get a ‘Love Booth’ visit: www.tinyurl/lovenoteslive2016

“The Original Love Box is the perfect way to lead your family in a tradition of love and gratitude for each other.” -Rachael Bodie, Mom & John Maxwell Co.

10 Ways to Not Feel Lonely

When you feel sad and lonely, the thing you want most is relief. Fast. You want to feel loved and connected again.

Know you are not alone. The National Science Foundation reported that unprecedented numbers of Americans are lonely. A study of 1,500 people in face to face interviews found that 1 in 4 people said that they have no one they can talk to about their personal troubles and triumphs. That’s a lot more than in the past.

Sharing isn’t always easy because we have different needs. One part of us seeks deep connection with another person who really sees and knows you. On the other hand we want freedom to be independent. America has always prided itself on independence and individualism.

Ultimately we need each other in order to:

Have strong families
Develop close and mature friendships
Have kind communities

Here are 10 ways to Not Feel Lonely

Pray. Ask God to bless you with friends that are good for you. Realize that God is always there for you and he promises to “Never Leave You or Forsake You.” Also ask God to clearly show you why you feel lonely and what you should do next.
Go out! Get out of the house one way or another.
Call or text friends and make plans. If you want to make new friends, go to Meet-up.com. Join a group exercise class, church group or club.
Limit social media. Too much social media makes you feel like everyone else has somewhere to go and something interesting to do. Realize you are only seeing mostly good moments from their day.
Smile! Smiling releases feel good hormones, increases your metabolism and reduces stress. Go out and smile at others and you’ll feel better.
Volunteer. Serving another person makes you feel connected and just plain good. It’s a win-win for you and the other people you’re serving.
Immerse yourself in a hobby or interest. Taking photos connects you to your subject. Looking at old photos makes you feel good because it reminds you of all the good times you’ve had. Reading fiction helps too as you get involved with the characters lives.
Dance. It’s helps to listen to music and get moving and groovin’.
Write Original Love Notes. It makes you feel closer and more connected as you write and read love notes to others.
Write in a gratitude journal. List as many people, places and things you are grateful for and before you know it, you’ll feel less lonely.

We hope this helps! Mother Theresa said it so well,

“Let us always greet each other with a smile – for a smile is the beginning of Love!”

How can you help yourself and someone else not feel lonely?

Save