Valentine’s Week is the perfect time to acknowledge your spouse or significant other. Create a simple tribute that can truly uplift and transform the one you love–a card or even an e-mail that says what you love about your loved one. We received this interesting article featuring insights from Judith W. Umlas:

Picture this: you are sitting at your desk, disgruntled, frustrated, tired, perhaps you were yelled at during the staff meeting. Let’s face it, today is just not your day. Suddenly, an email pops up, brightening and uplifting your mood. It is a love letter from your partner – the person you thought was the least likely to write such a note. How would you react?

Judith W. Umlas says she experienced the mood altering power of acknowledgment first hand when she was having a down day at work. After hearing about her day, Judith’s husband emailed his wife a heartfelt love letter, detailing and acknowledging every positive aspect of her personality, actions, and looks. When asked where these acknowledgments had come from, as she had never heard most of them before, he confessed rather sheepishly that he has always thought these kinds of things but just did not bother to “get them from his brain to his mouth.” Once convinced of the authenticity of these acknowledgments, Judith was so thrilled with them that almost as a joke, she suggested that he write these kinds of communications about twice a week, since he obviously needed the practice!

The result? For the past four years, Judith has been receiving love letters from her hubby every Monday and Thursday via email. Both husband and wife are clear that these acknowledgments have positively transformed their relationship. 

She was so inspired, she wrote the book, “The Power of Acknowledgment (IIL Publishing, New York).”

Her goal: “To repair the world by improving relationships in every aspect of living. I have seen ‘the power of acknowledgment’ at work and throughout all parts of my life, because it is something that comes easily to me. I have also witnessed how many people can’t, don’t, or won’t do it – or don’t do it enough. Once they grasp the positive results it can produce, they can’t help but try it out and then immediately see the benefits: enhanced work productivity, better relationships and even improved health.”

Visit Judith’s blog for more information.