How much of family time is quality time?
With social gatherings halted, many activities on standstill and travel still off the cards with the ongoing pandemic, it’s natural to have dampened spirits, we were all hoping the new year would bring a lifted energy and the end of these restrictions, but it seems like 2022 has other plans for us.
How can we make the best of this situation? Many are stuck languishing, low morale, waning motivation and just trying to get from one day to the next, how do we inject more zeal and enthusiasm into our lives again? How can we resurrect our spirit of adventure? Yoga philosophy teaches that to positively transform we first need to accept the current situation, that means stop complaining about it, stop wishing it were different by now, stop commiserating about how tired/bored/frustrated you are. All that this will do is sap your energy further. Notice how you feel reeling through news feeds, hopelessly speaking to your friends and colleagues about how things should be another way, negative talk is exhausting.
We need to see it as it is, we are in this situation where we are spending most of our days at home, with our families, what are the possibilities we can create from this? We can eat fresh, healthy, home cooked meals, we can spend more time with our children, we can involve our family in our workouts, we can learn a new skill together, we can have more time to really understand each other. We spend so much of our lives being ‘busy’, racing from one appointment to another, whether that’s business meetings or social engagements or both. Now that we have more time, how can we spend it intentionally? We glorify being busy all the time, like it’s a proxy of importance, give yourself permission to slow down and be mindful, how much of what you do running around is actually meaningful? It has been cited that the number one regret that people have at end of life is not spending enough time with their loved ones, we have this golden chance to re-write our future, where you can have your actions reflect your priorities.
We all crave connection, make it a point to schedule time together, you may all be in the same house but are you really spending quality time with each other? Put your devices down and be present, give you full attention and energy, this is the foundation of creating lasting relationships. Don’t feel that you need to measure equal amounts of family time and work time to be balanced, it’s more the quality than the quantity that counts, if you have decided it’s time to be with the kids make sure you’re not multitasking. Children need to have a sense of belonging in their home as a safe place to be themselves, not that they must go incognito or be ignored so they don’t get into trouble or interrupt you on what’s seemingly more important, they are looking for a chance to be heard and understood. Get involved with a game, or an activity together. We have had lots of fun cooking meals together, learning languages together and having a family dance party in our pjs on Friday nights!
If you are looking for more connection at home, our family yoga classes and couples yoga classes are very popular as they provide a sanctuary at home for self-care, we can host in person where the teacher comes to you in Hong Kong or live on zoom for those in outside of HK. Depending on your objectives we can structure the classes for some quiet time to wind down, playful time to have fun together or active time to work out together! If you’d like to support your teams at work, we offer corporate wellness programs in mindful parenting, compassionate communication and mindful mentorships to provide greater levels of engagement at home and at work.
