What is wellness? Health gurus and motivational speakers rave about the importance of self-care and wellness. But how can we attain family wellness? How do we make sure that our family achieves a state of being healthy in mind and love? What can we do as parents to emphasize preventing discord, and increasing love and care for one another.
Implementing these 3 powerful approaches will help you to achieve family wellness.
1. Family Night
Life is hectic. Especially with ever changing schedules and responsibilities. Added to this is the distraction and isolating effects of computers, phones, and gadgets. Don’t let these things get in the way of your overall family wellness. Find time to establish a family night so family members can reconnect.
Having a designated family night is essential to achieving family wellness, and the options are endless. While your young children will probably excite at the idea of family nights, your tweens and teens may feel as if they have better things to do. But family nights done right will get everyone interacting and building memories that all will look back at and remember long into their adult years.
2. Family Meetings & Check Ins
When you were younger, did you ever wish you had a say in some of the family decisions? I know I did.
Children love to be a part of the decision making. Just like adults, children like to feel as if they have some autonomy over their own lives. Having them participate in age-appropriate decision making will not only help to accomplish a healthy family bond but it will also teach them life skills regarding communication, respect, and patience.
During family meetings and check-ins you can plan out your week, organize an event or outing, or determine rules and consequences regarding behaviours that you’ve noticed. I would also recommend talking about finances. When children talk about and deal with finances from an early age, they develop a positive attitude towards money and it encourages them to care and show more appreciation for their belongings. That’s a win win situation.
And remember, you can still do this whether you have two children under 5, or if you have three teenagers! The most important thing is to actually get them done, and create a routine. For your littlest ones, be sure to make it age appropriate so that you give them lots of opportunities to participate.
3. Volunteering
Volunteering as a family can be one of the most powerful things to do to improve your family wellness. It is an effective way to strength your bond and to increase love and care for one another, while becoming active members of your community.
As a family, you will strengthen your communication skills and perform tasks that require team work. Use these opportunities to have meaningful interactions with your children, and to encourage the development of moral responsibility, self-esteem, and empathy.
Volunteering on a consistent basis will leave a lasting impression on your children, and on your family as a whole. The more you give as a family, the closer you become, the more you achieve family wellness.
We all live busy lives. But busy lives are not always enriched lives. There are ways in which we can live a happier and healthier life for ourselves, and for our families. Implementing these 3 powerful, yet simple, strategies to achieve family wellness is just a start.
