I was the middle child of seven—four boys and three girls.
My neighbor recently wrote to me on Facebook to say that “Even though there were so many kids at my house it always felt peaceful.”
All the kids on the street wanted to be at our house.
We did not have a lot of money, but our home was filled with a vibration of love. My mom used to sing happy songs and say things like “one day we will look back at this and laugh.” She was more than just positive. She was happy—all the time. She vibrated love and all the kids could feel it.
I am not saying everything was perfect, but I was raised in a home where I knew I was loved just the way I was.
As a young adult, I began meditating and doing yoga. I realized while raising my kids that the combination of what my mother taught me and some other tools I had found had a profound impact on my children.
So how can we bring mindfulness into our homes? How do we teach kids to express their feelings, listen to their hearts and be grateful?
Incorporating a few mindful activities every day, consistently, will go a long way to creating a peaceful home. Just like diet and exercise programs, extremes rarely work. These six simple steps give you some practical ways to start incorporating mindfulness into your daily home life.
Along the way some will stick and resonate with you more than others. I invite you to try them, reflect on what works for you and at the end decide what to incorporate in your home on a regular basis. Have fun!
Let’s get started:
1. Intention.
Intention is everything.
It sets everything in motion. That is why it goes first.
Many of us never even think about an intention for our homes and yet it is the foundation. What is your intention? Your family’s mission and purpose? Have you thought about it at all?
Fill in the blank, in this home we are…compassionate to animals, grateful for nature, kind, positive, non-judgmental…whatever is important to you.
So think about your intention, then write it down, frame it and hang it where everyone can see it. Words are powerful. Having a home without an intention is like driving a car without a steering wheel. So before anything else, set intentions for your mindful household.
2. Planning.
I put this second because, like intention, it also sets the day and household in motion.
If you wanted to lose weight you would have a plan, right? I am going to eat five small meals a day. I will avoid restaurants and I commit to half an hour of walking every day. Whatever the plan is you would have to have it or you would end up starving and eating some garbage snack because you didn’t plan the day or the week.
It’s the same thing with a mindful home. Think about the week ahead. What is its rhythm? Will you have tech-free time? Will you have nature time? If the week is intense for some reason, how will you create a balance with some peaceful time?
3 Positive Feelings.
Everything is energy—what we put out there comes back to us. While we shouldn’t deny the challenging, the sad and the uncomfortable parts of our lives, we have the power to view all things in a positive way.
What we focus on grows, so why not focus on the good in everybody in the home? Focus on the good in your spouse, your pet, your children and they will do the same for you. It’s a win-win situation. Make a play list of happy songs and play it every morning. How easy is this? And it fills the house with happy words and happy vibes!
A mindful home has a vibration of joy as its foundation and this is one of the easiest ways to do it.
4. Rituals.
Rituals are my favorite things and a great way to include mindfulness as a part of your home. I am all about the ritual.
When you build something into the routine of the day and do it consistently it becomes powerful. What are some of the rituals that you would like to incorporate in your day, every day? Write them down.
Write something positive; say something I am grateful for; meditate five minutes; take walks; write in a journal; spend half an hour in nature; take a deep breath; do five sun salutations. These are just some of mine from over the years.
Write them on the smaller pieces of paper and like a puzzle decide where they will go in your day. Morning, afternoon, night or only on weekends. Wherever you can fit them in on a regular basis is the best way to do it.
5. Feel your Feelings.
Negative feelings are just as powerful as positive ones. When they are bottled up inside or pushed down they become more powerful, to the point of being controlling.
We can all feel when we walk into a home and the vibration is anger. To put it mildly, it is yucky. You can feel it in the pit of your stomach.
It is important to be able to feel negative feelings and express them in order to move past them.
Picture a wave of the feelings coming over you. Let the wave go out to the ocean. It can feel like a tidal wave, but eventually, by feeling the feelings and letting them go, they do subside.
6. Gratitude.
I saved the best for last.
I cannot, cannot, cannot emphasize this one enough! This is the string that ties everything in a neat little bow. This is the key to a joyful life.
And it is just a habit. Get up, brush your teeth and practice gratitude—every day. Just like playing happy music every day, an attitude of gratitude become the voice that plays inside your head.
Be grateful for your day, for your children, for your neighborhood, for the sun, for the stars, for your pet, spouse, friends, health, food and anything else you can think of. That good vibration will go out to the people and the places around you, they will feel it, and you will start to notice more things that you can be grateful for. Your children will model your gratitude and, little by little, the world will become a better place.
I hope these simple steps may be of benefit to you in creating a home that vibrates love.
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Relephant read:
For Happier Children: Be Happy First.
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Author: Kathy Walsh
Image: Courtesy of the author
Editors: Khara-Jade Warren; Catherine Monkman
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