This month I’ve been encouraging you to put on your artist’s hat and create an authentic home—a home that supports, encourages, and nurtures everyone to be their very best. So far, we’ve talked about how to cast a vision for your ideal home and create an atmosphere to influence family members to be the best they can be. This week, I want to talk about love and warmth.
Fun and Laughter
Most people love their families (well at least a few members anyway!) but we can get so caught up in the daily tasks of home management, stress of work, getting homework and everything else done that we forget to have some fun and laugh along the way.
How to Get Started
To begin creating more warmth in your home, think about the following questions:
- How (and how often) do you show appreciation and gratitude in your family?
- When a family member comes home for the day, how is (s)he greeted? Is it with happiness and energy or barely a grunt in that direction?
- How often do you give hugs and kisses or touch each other in your family? When you kiss your partner, is it the pecking kind of kiss or the ‘let’s put the kids to bed early tonight’ kind?
- When was the last time you shared a really great side splitting laugh together? Or even a few chuckles?
Laughter is probably the most underrated medicine for relationships and improving the happiness scale in your home. It takes away stress and bonds you tightly together (ala the “inside joke”). Affection and appreciation also convey to your family how much you love and value them.
I challenge you this week to look at these areas and see if sharing a laugh, putting an arm around a family member, or expressing your appreciation doesn’t make things feel just a bit lighter and easier.
Do you have a favorite memory or story of how laughter helped bring you closer to a friend or family member? Share it with us!
Have a fun week!
