In stressful global surroundings families are more susceptible to mounting pressures from finances and work issues.
Raising a family can be rewarding and demanding task even in healthy social and economic settings. Stressful routine can make things much more challenging for family members.
Children model their parents’ behaviors, including what they are doing in managing stress. Elders, who have deal with stress through unhealthy ways, are channelizing these behaviors in young family members. Following are some ways to deal with stress properly for the well-being of your family.
- Every day living
Being a parent or elder one in family it’s important to model healthy behaviors for your children. Children are more likely to adopt healthy lifestyle and less likely to associate stress with unhealthy behaviors if the whole family practices, healthy living and good stress management techniques are necessary to practice. So evaluate your habits, how do you respond to stress? Do you tend to overreact or engage in other unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking etc when you feel stressed?
- Talk about stress triggers
If you notice that your children or some family members are looking worried or stressed, ask them what’s occupying their minds? Regular conversations can help a family works together to better understand and address stressors that children are experiencing frequently.
Low levels of communication have been associated with poor decision making and self-esteem between children and teens. Talking with children regularly and promoting open communication and problem solving is just as important as eating well and getting enough exercise and sleep for better health.
- Tips to create healthy environment
Home environment, work space and even social surroundings can influence your behaviors. Altering your environment can help in control the stress levels in your family;
- Plan little family events
- Set a family conversation on a daily basis
- Plan monthly picnic outings
- Create sympathetic harmony among family-members
- Teach healthy stress coping strategies to your children
- Take little steps
It’s not adequate to be rushed to fix the stressors. When you and your family are experiencing stress, make a conscious decision to take care of yourselves and family. Get adequate doses of nutrients, physical activity and hygienic sleep. When you feel overwhelmed it is easy sometimes to get into cycles such as eating fast food, plugging into electronic activities like playing video games or watching TV all time, not getting enough sleep. Researchers found on sleep effectiveness that shows children who are sleep-deficient are more likely to develop behavioral problems.
Parents have an extraordinary amount of influence on their children’s living choices. A healthy dinner followed by an activity with your family, such as walking, bike riding, playing catch or some board games, and topped off with a good night sleep can do a lot to manage or to lessen how to cope the negative effects of stress in your children.
- Fix the stressor
You may seek for your family to make multiple important changes at once to fight with stress such as;
- Eating healthier foods
- Being more physically active
- Getting a better night sleep
- Spending more time together
However, if you are already overextended from juggling many different responsibilities, doing all of this at once can be impossible. Efforts can generate more stress. Changing behaviors always takes time. Start by changing one behavior at a time puts you and your family is more likely to experience success. Such stance can then encourage your family to tackle other challenges to continue making additional healthy changes.
If you or a family member continues to struggle with changing unhealthy behaviors or feels that it’s not working consider seeking help from a health professional like psychologist or social worker. Such professionals are trained to help you develop strategies to manage stress effectively and make behavioral changes to help improve your overall family health.