New Year, New You: 5 Ways to Have Healthier Relationships With Your Family This Year

When your body is feeling sluggish and full of toxins, you’ll detox, right? When you’ve been eating unhealthy you’ll replace that junk food with healthy food, right? So it’s safe to say that when our relationship with our body is unhealthy, we try to make it healthier. Well, just like dieting to keep your body healthy, sometimes you need to diet to keep your family healthy by cutting out those unhealthy behaviors and mannerisms that cause division and chaos. While mending broken relationships take time, it’s a great way to start the new year working towards healthier family relationships! We’ve listed 5 sure ways to cut out negativity and create better relationships with your family members in 2017:

1. Be a mediator/ appoint a family mediator – Wherever there’s egos, there’s bound to a clash or two every once in a while. You can become a mediator for your family, so whenever a disagreement does arise, you’re able to step in and resolve the conflict. If you’re not the type to be involved in family feuds, appoint another member of your family to become the family mediator. This won’t stop arguments or disagreements, but it will keep things more peaceful by eliminating the opportunity for grudges, the “silent treatment”, and resentment amongst the family.
2. Minimize the gossip – Face it, your cousins and sisters/brothers are your 1^st friends, so gossip is bound to occur. But instead of gossiping every day, try to steer everyday conversations towards positive talk, world events, music, etc. Anything besides gossiping about your other family members. If you MUST gossip, gossip about co-workers or old friends (we’re not encouraging gossip), but keeping the gossip outside of the family is the point.
3. Step up the communication – Not just text, but actually call…especially the elders! Set a designated time; you can make it a monthly thing, weekly, daily, or whatever your schedule permits. Get the entire family on board to make sure to check in on each other when they can, and not just when there’s bad news or to gossip. That way no one can say, “I never hear from her” or “She only calls when she wants something”. None of that negativity needs to be taking place in 2017.
4. Cut out prideful behavior – A lot of times, members hold grudges so long that eventually they don’t even know what they’re mad about anymore. Over time they’re not even mad at each other anymore, but pride stops them from communicating. If your pride is stopping you from speaking to another family member, this is the year to let pride go instead of becoming distant! This is the quickest way for families to grow apart.
5. Cut out competition– As a family you all should be rooting for each other! Invite your family to your graduations and company events where you can bring extras to avoid any feelings of competition. Most of the time, they just want to feel included in your busy, career focused life so planning a night of bowling, skating, or any event where you could possibly get the family together. Seize the opportunity! Regardless of what path you each decided to take, you’re all family and no one is better than the other. A family that succeeds together stays together!

Bring these 5 things into your 2017 and you will see how it helps mend your family. Broken families are becoming so common in this generation, but 2017 you’ll be the one to end this for your family! Once you see how better things can be for your family when you cut out negativity, come up with other things you can do to keep things positive all year!

Written By: Kahina Ray

Follow Kahina on Instagram: @_k.ray