Family Fridays: Acceptance

Family Fridays are a chance for us to look at how personal expansion plays out at home. I started to focus on expanding myself because I felt out of line with my values, often upset and not really great to be around. I began learning and growing so that I could be a happier person and find ways to get what I had always expected out of life. I had no idea about the level of harmony it would bring to my home.

You may notice with life coaching that everything starts with you. This may seem like a burden until you experience the exhilaration that comes with things like bringing joy to your family. This was one of my greatest desires. We have good days and great days and other kinds of days at our house… we are all on the same page when it comes to our commitment to making life work for everyone.

Acceptance is good place to start. To have the greatest impact on your family you would be able to fully accept yourself first. This means accepting everything you do, everything you say, and who you are. In truly giving yourself the benefit of the doubt you can also give this gift to the people you are in relationship with. You can never give what you do not have.

Life begins to make sense when concepts are internalized. By internalizing the feeling of acceptance you will also be able to accept those around you.

Have you ever registered your child for an activity that they are not interested in? Have you ever asked them to invite a child over to play when they don’t want to? Have you ever told them that everything is okay? Would you like them to treat you this way? You may answer yes or no to these questions and there is no right or wrong answer, only the chance to be aware of the decisions you make for yourself and others. Are your decisions communicating that you are being accepting or are they telling someone that they are not good enough?

When you know and accept yourself you are able to respect your own needs, you are able to communicate clearly and you are more peaceful because there is not so much pressure on you. This feels so good that you want to pass it on and it is easy to do so because you can feel what is needed for others to feel respected.

If you are curious about how to accept yourself more please call or email me. I love to talk about personal expansion but since this is an article for families I will focus on an activity that you can do to bring more acceptance into your home.

ACTIVITY:
Get every member of the household to decorate a part of the house. They could each have a wall to decorate or each take a corner of the house to furnish, or each take turns setting the table in their own way. This part is up to you.

After a couple of days come together for a family discussion.
1. Choose one member to show their decoration first. (They don’t say anything about it.)
2. Each other family member takes turns reflecting on why the person chose to decorate this way.
3. The person then tells why they chose to decorate this way.
4. Discuss the differences in what the person thought and what the family members thought.
Give everyone a turn to present their decoration and then use this opportunity to look at how your home reflects each person and how accepting it is of each individual.

Part of acceptance is the understanding that each person has their own way of going about the aspects of their life. Embrace the differences in your family and enjoy the feelings that come along with being respectful and accepting.