Are You Present With the Family?

Family is a deep value for us. It is a giant value in all American Culture and it especially is in our culture here at HouseOfInks. The only problem is, even though we know that family comes first, we all at times find ourselves not fully present around the people we love the most.

Sadly, this is the way of most people. Especially in a more digital world, we are more victim to distraction than ever before.

But therein lies the core of the problem. We are in the headspace that we are victim to the world and situations around us. To an extent we are, and of course it is something to be empathetic towards. It’s difficult to not be so tired after a stressful day of work. It’s difficult to not get distracted by the escapism that comes with TV or online surfing. We believe although those are valid arguments there is still no reason to allow that way of thinking to dictate our actions.

We firmly believe that we can control our impulses and we can control our actions.

A lot of the times, we come home from work but we have never left work. We are still thinking about the stresses that came with that day (thinking about the past) or we focus our attention on what has to be done the next day (thinking about the future). Both are unnecessary; focusing on the past or future, takes us away from the present moment. Not only are you suffering, but the ones who love you have lost you to your own thoughts.

Our excuses to watch TV, check our mobile device for new texts, tweets or other notifications at the dinner table, or inertly washing the dishes all come from a lack of awareness on ourselves and the present moment. The change comes from shifting our focus from “how can I feel good?”, or “how can I get what I want?”, “what do I feel?”, to “how can I make the best of this moment for others?” and “how are others feeling?”

It is not the easiest thing to do, but now we can snap ourselves out of our sluggish states after work and focus on how we can make the best of the moment we are currently in. By practicing a change in awareness, you will see a positive transformation not only at home, but in al your endeavors. At home, you will likely engage in deeper conversations, fill empty moments with laughter, and create a more intimate time between you and your family.

Clearly, at HouseOfInks we are not experts on mindset because we all fall into this trap too, but to conclude this blog our advice would be to believe it is possible to make the time you spend at home much better, and even though it can be tough at times, we think anything is worth improving ourselves for those closest to you.

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