What can you do to promote world peace?
Go home and love your family.
- Mother Teresa.
How does your home feel right now?
Keeping our homes peaceful is difficult when we are simultaneously battling all of the pressing issues we are all so aware of right now. Working from home, schooling from home, staying healthy, fighting for equality, helping others in need, and on and on. When everything feels so heightened, it's hard to find peace within ourselves, with each other, and in our homes.
With so much on our plates right now, how do we maintain a peaceful home? How can we make this a priority? And how to we help our children find that peace?
Think about what it means to have peace in your home:
Deciding on what having peace in your home means to you is a great place to start. Does it mean speaking kindly to each other? Does it mean getting through your morning routine with joy? Does it mean everyone contributing to making a healthy dinner? It's impossible to have every single thing, but it's wonderful when we become clear on what truly is important in our home.
Set a peaceful intention:
Having an intention for the day is another great tool. Is it to take a deep breath before reacting? Is it to extend kindness to your children? Is it to remind yourself of the humanity of others? Choose an intention for the day and write it down. Use this visual to help, and even let your children use it, too!
Use tools and make it part of your routine:
Using tools that are already out there is a huge help. Both of the below resources have lesson plans that are fun and easy to use. By choosing something like these resources, they can be integrated into your family's routine, even just once a week, to allow you all to learn and practice peace skills.
This is a free resource offered by the Metta Center for Nonviolence. Lessons are geared towards families with young children, gently guiding them through the life of Ghandi and how to instill peace and nonviolence in ourselves and within our families.
I've mentioned this resource here before, and it's one that is worth mentioning again. The Sitting Together Curriculum is a set of books that can bring the practice of mindfulness and meditation into your home in way that does not feel overwhelming. It's easy to get started, and easy to maintain. And when it falls out of practice, easy to jump back in.
No matter how you bring peace into your home, it's important to remember to be kind to yourself; when making a mistake, when figuring it out, when needing a break from it all. Our children learn from our examples, and what we model for them becomes a part of them. Be kind to yourself, and bring peace.