You love your family, and your family loves you, but sometimes busy schedules and technology can give a feeling of disconnect. With everyone running around, doing their thing, or constantly on their phone, it can be hard to feel united. So, here are six ways you can easily build your family’s sense of unity.
Share Stories
One great way to build connections is to share stories. Whether they’re your childhood stories or your kids sharing something funny, exciting, or sad that happened that day, getting together and sharing experiences can help you all feel connected.
Humans naturally make personal connections, so when someone shares a story, it’s a way for everyone to identify with something in that story emotionally. This, in turn, builds a connection between the storyteller and the listener.
Get Everyone Involved
Families aren’t dictatorships. They’re actually the perfect place to teach responsibility and leadership. Giving each family member a chance to lead and take responsibility for something can help you feel more connected. Whether they’re in charge of planning a family activity or leading the family meeting, they will love the challenge. Take turns leading, and you guide them in the process.
Work Together
Families that work together are more united. Whether you’re weeding the yard together, cleaning the house, or washing that new Ford for sale you bought, you’ll be learning how to work as a team and accomplish big things together. Work doesn’t have to be boring, either. Make it a game or a race.
Set Goals
Families should have goals, and they should set them together. Whether they’re financial, spiritual, or physical, goals give everyone a common purpose and unity. For example, goals could include saving for a vacation, maintaining good health, making time for family activities, developing talents, or serving the community.
Show Appreciation
One great way to increase unity is to be better about showing appreciation. When people feel appreciated, love grows. Make it a habit to tell your family what you appreciate about them. You could make it part of a weekly meeting. You could also have one day a week where everyone writes a note of appreciation to someone else in the family and leaves it with a small treat on their bed. No matter how you do it, the more genuine love you express, the more unity will grow.
Eat Together
Studies for years now have shown that family dinner is a massive determinant of family unity and strength. So don’t pass up this opportunity. Busy schedules can make it difficult, but it is worth it to try and always eat together.
Family dinner is a shared time where people can decompress, enjoy food, and talk about their day. It’s also a chance to teach basic manners and to learn to listen to others. This can extend to cooking dinner and cleaning up afterward. Make it a family affair to boost self-esteem, enjoy time together, and learn that everyone should contribute to the family and home.
Start Building Unity in Your Family!
There are many ways to help build up family unity, and these are just a few. Choose one to implement and then see how it goes. Feel free to modify it to fit your family situation and watch as your family becomes more and more united.
