Caring for Your Family's Wellbeing
Every parent wants the best for their children and themselves, but what does this mean in your family and everyday life? Does it mean education and getting a good job, or does it mean living the healthiest lifestyles? In this article, we look at some of the ways you can optimise your family life to make it more healthy, wholesome, and successful.
Healthy Eating
It’s one of the most obvious things to consider when thinking about your family’s wellbeing, but as the old adage goes, “you are what you eat”. If you tend to eat processed foods a lot, your health will suffer; you will have fewer nutrients in your diet, less energy, and more mental fog.
On the other hand, if you mostly eat vegetables and fruit, your family will get all the nutrients and vitamins they need, which translates into better general health and fewer sick days. And there’s more good news, buying vegetables is super cheap and they can be cooked deliciously as well.
Active Life
Like healthy eating, an active life is super important for your family’s health and wellbeing. The human body has evolved to require exercise to maintain its muscles, organs, and brain functioning. You will not a difference in the quality of your life when you ease off the pedal.
While children might be naturally active and require less formal exercise, it’s still good to build up healthy living patterns from a young age. In addition, ensure they have plenty of opportunities to run around outside; encouraging an interest in sport is always recommended.
Avoid Sleep Regression
If you have a new baby, your family might experience sleep regression. Sleep regression is when your baby’s sleep pattern changes suddenly, so they wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep. Naturally, this disturbs the infant and the household.
Thankfully, coping with sleep regression is easier than you might think. First of all, you want to make sure your child is comfortable in the room and in their clothing. Next, make the room dark and cool and wrap them in temperature appropriate clothing. It’s also good to keep toys out of the crib for the first year.
Reduce Screen Time
These days there’s a lot made of screen time reduction - no wonder with so many digital devices at our disposal - but the advantages of reduced screen time go beyond protecting the eyes from long-term damage and improving sleep patterns; there are clear social benefits.
Sure, television can bring a family together, it’s nice to joke about what’s on or gossip in a healthy way, but devices are a bit different, there is less of a social element to them, and they can consume free time easily. Set up healthy patterns in your home for using devices.
Family Gatherings
On that note, consider family gatherings to bring your family together at least once a week and connect in a new way. It is not just eating a meal together or watching the television together; your family gathering should be age-appropriate and offer the chance to learn new skills.
Boardgame nights are an excellent way to bring your family together with an enjoyable activity, but board games also offer some excellent opportunities to learn about problem-solving and how to handle losing; it also encourages creative thinking, stress reduction, and socialising.
Time and Space
It’s important to bring your family together for the purposes of health and wellbeing, but it’s also important to give your family members time and space to explore their interests, decompress, and re-energise on their own. This is especially true for introverted people.
Talk to families nowadays, and they will tell you they are super busy with their hectic schedules; even kids are super busy these days. But when you look at your schedule, you will find that much of what make you busy and stressed is self-imposed, and you can free up space easily.
Reduce Toxins
Our lives are full of toxins. They are hard to avoid since even healthy things like fruits and vegetables have them. Toxic build-up in our system over time and eventually cause some adverse health conditions. Toxins affect our DNA and cause ageing and cancer.
Fruits and vegetables have toxins, they are normally used to ward off predators, but these toxins are normally safe for human consumption. However, the toxins you find in processed foods - such as trans fats - can be detrimental to your families health and wellbeing over time.
Stress Reduction
How your home is organised can also have an impact on your stress levels and the wellbeing of your family. Junk mail and bills piling up on the countertops might not seem like a major issue, but if it creates a sense of disharmony, it can contribute to a stressful home with you realising it.
On the other hand, a neat and linear home can make you feel more secure and relaxed. Of course, this isn’t always achievable, especially when you have children and pets, but it’s something to strive for. Training your household in this way is also beneficial for their future.
Create Community
Where possible, create community. Of course, your family is already a small community that you can cultivate and make wholesome. This is the first priority since it’s so important for your children to grow up in wholesome and secure homes. But community is also broader.
It’s good for your wellbeing and your family’s wellbeing to be connected to a larger community that shares the same values as your smaller community but extends it a little bit. This brings new influences into your home life and provides healthy content to live and grow.
Live Mindfully
Finally, mindful living is super important if you want to live a life of wellness. Being mindful means living in the present moment without judgement and without thoughts, concepts, and ideas. This isn’t always easy to do, but you can learn to live more fully in the present moment with the training.
The reason that living in the present moment is so special is because it is your natural place of contentment and self-awareness. The more fully you can inhabit the present moment, the more enjoyable and wholesome your life becomes. Try taking your family on a mindfulness walk.
