Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
SOUTH JORDAN — If you find yourself feeling lonely during this holiday season, or if your family and friends are stressing you out to the point of tears, yells, or anxiety, there is a number to call to help you feel a little bit better.
As a part of its "Be Loving" campaign, the South Jordan-based Western States Lodging and Management operates a free hotline that provides callers with a positive and inspirational statement to help them feel better.
The hotline may not solve the root causes of any caller's feelings, but the statements are intended to allow someone who is struggling to listen to something positive at a time when positive thoughts seem so far away.
"It's not every day you hear of a real estate company creating a hotline like this ... but this and the Be Loving campaign are ties to our mission, of 'serving you like family,'" said Jennifer Knecht, the company's chief revenue officer. "This is imparting love to someone who needs it. It's a part of 'our personal touch' culture, where we actively connect with another human being."
The Be Loving Hotline allows everyone who makes the free call to listen to different positive messages every day between now and Jan. 31, 2025.
Callers can also record their own inspirational message for others to hear — if they'd like to do so.
The number is 855-303-LOVE, or 855-303-5683.
The hotline is available 24 hours a day.
The free hotline is a segment of the company's Be Loving campaign, a movement to do exactly as promoted: Commit a loving act for someone who could use it. And there are many people who could.
In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy labeled loneliness as an epidemic, with his office and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services noting that half of the American adult population state that they presently suffer from loneliness.
"Loneliness is far more than just a bad feeling — it harms both individual and societal health. It is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death," Murthy wrote in his office's advisory, "Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation."
"The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day and even greater than that associated with obesity and physical inactivity," the advisory states.
The leadership of Western States Lodging and Management, whether aware of the surgeon general's advisory or not, took the practice-what-you-preach model to heart and reached out to staff and community, also a surgeon general suggestion.
With approximately 5,000 associates working in its hotels and senior living sites in 13 states, a people-first mission was a way to keep employees connected to the company, each other and the work, the company says.
The Be Loving campaign allows them to stretch out into their communities to create "reverse adoption" programs where seniors living in their sites "adopt" a young person in their community to participate together in Christmas activities. The "personal touch stays" offer foster families a complimentary "staycation" at one of their sites.
But the hotline allows everyone to use it, if needed, and also to help others by leaving an inspirational message of their own. People who are stressed this time of year due to family coming to town, shopping that needs to be done, and money being spent, can also use a positive message to keep going.
There is no need to keep loneliness, depression, anxiety, stress and more to yourself. The Western States Lodging and Management program operates the hotline to give everyone time to pause.
"It's a great thing to take a minute, listen to a kind message and then leave a kind message," Knecht said. "Sometimes you just need to step away ... and pause, then listen to a positive message and then make someone else's day."
