Creating A Happy Home: How To Make Mental Health A Priority
When you become a parent, the ultimate goal is to make sure your children are happy. Life isn’t always rosy, and sometimes, we come up against challenges and it can seem like a roller coaster ride. To create a happy home, it’s beneficial to recognize the importance of prioritizing mental health. In this guide, we’ll discuss some simple steps you can take to boost and nourish mental well-being.
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Practice self-care
Self-care is a buzzword at the moment. It may seem like a new trend or movement, but it’s a very simple concept that involves taking good care of yourself. As a parent, it’s hugely beneficial to practice self-care and encourage your children to do the same. We can all benefit from using our time to actively reduce health risks, manage stress and increase contentment. Self-care is all about the mind and body and small changes can make a big difference. Try to set a positive example for your kids. Parents are often likened to superheroes because they devote all of their time to nurturing and caring for their children. This is great, but it’s crucial to make time for yourself too. Exercise regularly, enjoy the great outdoors, socialize with friends and family, take time to relax, and pursue interests and hobbies. If you look after yourself, you’ll be a better parent, friend and partner.
Encourage communication
One of the biggest problems we have when it comes to tackling mental health issues is a reluctance to talk and listen. Effective communication covers both talking and listening. Encourage your partner and your children to talk about how they feel, whether they’re happy or sad, and make sure you listen. Be open about how you’re feeling and make getting together a regular occasion at home. Even if it’s just a 20-minute debrief over dinner every evening or a chat before bedtime, it’s so important that you feel able to communicate with your partner or talk to your kids and vice-versa. Being open can help to reduce stress, prevent minor issues from snowballing and provide comfort and reassurance if you or your partner or children are having a bad day or you’re going through a tough spell.
Give yourself time to cope with trauma
We all know that being a parent is a 24-hour job. When you have kids, it can be incredibly challenging to cope with traumatic life events, such as bereavement, a divorce, illness or accidents. The default mode is often to try to carry on as normal, brushing emotions under the carpet as you try desperately to stay on the hamster wheel and keep everything going. In reality, we all need time and space to deal with trauma, especially life-changing events like losing a loved one.
Burying emotions for long periods and trying to carry on as though nothing has happened will eventually take its toll. Give yourself time to heal, understand that it’s natural to grieve and allow yourself to go through different emotions. When you feel ready, talk about how you feel and look for ways to process what has happened and remember and celebrate that person. Perhaps you want to visit a grave or order a cremation urn from a site like https://www.memorials.com/cremation-urns.php and take a trip to scatter ashes. Maybe you want to look through photos or video clips or meet with people who knew your loved one to talk about them and share memories. There’s no time frame for grief or recovering from any kind of trauma and there’s also no instructional manual. We all navigate challenges in different ways. Don’t feel that you have to fit in with a schedule or follow what others are doing.
Make quality time a priority
If the pandemic has taught us anything it is that time is the most precious commodity. For most of us, the greatest challenge was being apart from loved ones and the most significant silver lining was having more time to spend with those in your household. Make quality time a priority for your family. This doesn’t mean that you have to seize every day or live each day as though it’s your last. Simple pleasures like a movie night on a Friday evening, or a bike ride or a trip to the beach or the park on the weekends with friends and family create long-lasting, special memories. Have fun with the people who mean the most to you, make an effort to stay in touch with loved ones and enjoy experiences together. We tend to get bogged down in work and making sure our kids have got material items, but often, it’s the time they spend with us that they cherish most.
Support each other when times are tough
Everyone goes through tough times in their lifetime. Within your family, it’s important to support each other to create a happy, stable home environment. Talk about how you feel, reassure each other and ask questions if you’re worried about another person or you’ve noticed changes in their behavior. Be there to listen, offer advice if you’re asked for it and be a cheerleader. Whether your children are stressed about exams or assignments, your partner has lost their job, or you’re trying to deal with anxiety, if you have a strong unit, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to cope with challenges and setbacks as a family.
Make your home a relaxing, calming space. Our home environment can have a major impact on our mental health. If you have children, you want to create a home that is fun and exciting, but it’s also important to make space for calm and tranquility. Establish quiet zones to relax, unwind and de-stress. Use soothing colors, soft lighting and soft furnishings and add plants. For more ideas, take a look at this article https://www.bhg.com/decorating/lessons/basics/home-decorating-ideas-to-create-a-soothing-environment/.
Every parent wants their children to grow up in a happy home. One of the most important steps to take is to prioritize mental health. Communicate as a family, practice self-care and encourage your kids to do the same, create relaxing, calming spaces at home and make time to have fun. Support each other through tough times and give yourself time and space to cope with trauma. Don’t hesitate to seek help, advice or support if you’re struggling.
