Important to spend quality time together. It is international day for families on Friday 15 May 2015 and the purpose of the day is to highlight the importance of a healthy and well balanced family. “Families are the core of our society and some of the most important, informative years of our lives are spent growing up with our families. This period is where we gain our values that drive us and beliefs that motivate and sculpt the decisions and choices we make in life, whether they are good or bad. So it is important to have happy and healthy relationships with our families, if we are lucky enough to have them, or at least learn how to best deal with them and manage our own emotional attachment to them.”
Life is busy so it is vital to spend as much time as possible with those you love and let them know how much you love and appreciate them. Love, including cuddles, makes our body produce the hormone ‘oxytocin’ which has several health benefits such as lowering blood pressure, protecting our heart and even helps repair damaged blood vessels.(1)
It’s too easy for everyone to be doing different things at different times and often in different rooms in the house! Therefore you don’t always spend time together, so try one or all of these ideas to help everyone to focus on the importance of your family unit, as like most things, you have to work at family life and getting the right balance.
Family Mission Statement
Setting goals as a Family Encourage everyone to think about and discuss what being part of the family means to them and write their thoughts down. You can then display them so everyone knows their part in the unit and it encourages you to also think of ways to spend more time together, like going to the cinema or bowling once a month or spending one night a week together. It doesn’t matter if you don’t always manage to stick to the goal, it’s about reminding you that you didn’t go to the cinema last month, so let’s make sure we go this month.
Family Meetings
Just 20 mins a week can iron out any problems before they become an issue. Putting aside 20 minutes a week to discuss:- what worked well this week; what annoyed someone and ways to put it right; and what you can all work on in the coming week? The children can also pick a reward if they achieved their goal and if they didn’t then it’s worth discussing the reasons why and how to get back on track. Great way to set good communication skills for life.
Family Meal Times
Encouraging everyone to talk together It doesn’t have to be specifically dinner time as any meal spent together is important in getting children to socialise with others, and also helps encourage better manners, healthier diets and increases confidence in children. Encouraging children to start up conversations first rather than leaving it to the adults is also good for self esteem as it is easy for the adults to do the majority of the talking! Time to listen (2)
Stress Free Parents
When children were asked “If you were granted one wish about your parents what would it be?” The parents thought it would be to spend more time with them, but it wasn’t that, they just wanted their parents to be less tired and less stressed. (3)
What's Great about Your Family? “I believe relationships can get better with each passing year, although I know that they need to be worked at with good communication to stay on track and to be relaxed within the family I can help you learn new skills to help you communicate more effectively, align yours and your families values and teach you how to cope with everyday stresses and be more relaxed when you are with your family, as the children clearly wish for. Clients call the coaching process I use “a more constructive and empowering alternative to counselling, with life changing results.
I also help clients to achieve stress-free relationships and life by offering a more thorough ‘Breakthrough’ package that gets to the root of the problem by removing all your negative emotions, limiting beliefs and installing positive values and beliefs aligned to being stress-free, happy and achieving your dreams, personally and as a family.
For more information check out http://www.mind-bodywellness.co.uk/family-relationships.html and if you are interested in £200 off a Premium Breakthrough Package quote IFD.
I also help clients to achieve stress-free relationships and life by offering a more thorough ‘Breakthrough’ package that gets to the root of the problem by removing all your negative emotions, limiting beliefs and installing positive values and beliefs aligned to being stress-free, happy and achieving your dreams, personally and as a family.
For more information check out http://www.mind-bodywellness.co.uk/family-relationships.html and if you are interested in £200 off a Premium Breakthrough Package quote IFD.
Reference:
1. http://drdavidhamilton.com/7-ways-that-love-is-good-for-your-health/
2 . http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/10/how-to-have-a-happy-family/ PSC. Population Studies Center, University of Michigan
3. Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs, Ellen Galinsky, 2010
1. http://drdavidhamilton.com/7-ways-that-love-is-good-for-your-health/
2 . http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/10/how-to-have-a-happy-family/ PSC. Population Studies Center, University of Michigan
3. Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs, Ellen Galinsky, 2010
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