Heal Your Family Relationships...
Commemorating International Day of Family, May 15th
Family is important for many reasons, including:
Identity: Family can help shape our identities through traditions, values, and beliefs. Family also provides a sense of belonging and identity through love, support, and guidance.
Emotional support: Family offers a safety net for emotional well-being.
Role Models: Family provides the first role models in a child's life.
Stronger Relationships: Spending time with family builds strong emotional ties that can help you overcome life's challenges.
Improved Mental Health: Spending time with family helps construct principles and improves overall mental health.
Better Physical Health: Spending time with family boosts physical health.
Greater Life Satisfaction: Spending time with family boosts life satisfaction.
Financial Support: Family support often start financial stability.
Educational Support: Family's involvement positively impacts academic performance.
18 tips on how to fix a broken family relationship
Depending on the person, whether a partner or relative, broken family relationships often start due to differing mindsets over a firm belief.
A disagreement doesn’t need to escalate into something unresolvable.
Unfortunately, there are times when the situations grow severe, causing communication to break down and affection to be strained. Conflict strikes every family worldwide once in a while.
What’s unique is how each opts to handle the effects of a broken family. Some families allow emotions to get in the way as problems arise, while others acknowledge healthy boundaries and constructive communication, encouraging healing.
No particular way is necessarily better than the other. It’s genuinely a matter of what method helps you repair family relationships.
1. Acceptance is KEY
For broken family relationships to heal, the first step is to accept that a conflict is happening but that you want to repair the damages.
That doesn’t mean accepting and moving on with no course of action to resolve the disagreement. Instead, working through the reason for the conflict with the optimum goal of finding forgiveness.
2. Look within yourself
Before attempting to repair broken family relationships, you need to sit within yourself and consider whether you’re genuinely ready to take this step.
If you’re premature, it could result in more conflict, making it even more challenging to make repairs down the road.
3. The approach should be slow and gradual
For those attempting to make the first move, you must take it especially slow and ensure not only that you’re ready but that the family member you’re approaching is up for attempting reconciliation.
A suitable method for checking a reaction would be to send a short message or email to reach out and see if you receive a response.
4. Don’t expect too much
In that same vein, don’t hold onto expectations that the other person will be receptive to your first attempt. Ensure that you carry a sense of optimism, albeit with realistic expectations, so no disappointment or possible frustration can seep into your mind if there’s no response. It could take some time for a family member to be ready to reconnect.
5. Acknowledge your role in the broken family relationships
In any family relationship where there is discord, each person is responsible for that outcome. While you see the individual’s opinion and behavior as misguided and inappropriate, that’s their take on your position as well.
It’s vital to recognize your role. That doesn’t mean self-blame or judging; merely see each side and understand that you’re equally responsible.
6. See the other side of the coin
In that same vein, look at the flip side to see your family member’s perspective. Taking the time to understand other opinions completely lets you see that not everything is necessarily as cut and dry as you might have anticipated.
That will allow you to identify how you hurt the individual and focus only on the pain you suffered. Putting yourself in another person’s “shoes” can help you in your effort to determine how to deal with having a broken family.
7. Allow yourself time to heal
Broken family relationships take time to heal. Just because you work through the issues and find forgiveness, the hurt takes time to heal. Damages or wounds will require sensitivity, understanding, and a gentle hand.
One of you might find a faster path to a healthy place before the other. Each needs to be given time and space to find reconciliation.
8. Don’t bite off more than you should chew
The problem that brought you to the point of broken family relationships exploded into something massive to break the bond into shambles.
It could take substantial time to do that when working through the issue in one sitting. It’s wise to break it down into manageable moments with space in between to rejuvenate and consider what was discussed.
9. Take the opportunity to initiate the discussion
When you care enough to make the first move, that speaks volumes to the family member that you have a genuine desire to resolve. Your idea is to open the line of communication to see where the individual stands with fixing the issue.
In some cases, you might be met with obstinance, but most often, when there’s conflict, each hopes the other will reach out first to repair the relationship.
10. Find common ground
Find a place where there are comparables to which you can relate. Perhaps there were similar issues with a friend or coworker; maybe you have things in your life, stresses that are alike, you can share.
These can act as a safety zone if problems begin to flare and there’s a need to work yourselves back to a comfortable zone.
11. Active listening is a skill to implement
Studies have shown that actively listening to others can help you improve your relationship with them, including the ones that you may share with members of your family.
When hearing someone, you’re looking in their eyes, nodding in agreement, saving responses until you take in every word to indicate you’re paying attention. The action shows respect and can encourage a faster path to healing.
12. Avoid acting from a place of defensiveness
When you present with a defensive demeanor, it can create more significant conflict. It speaks to you still feeling right with no intention of listening to the other person instead of stewing.
Your mind is closed, not receptive to anyone else’s opinion, nor willing to communicate openly.
13. It’s okay to assert yourself
While it’s okay to assert yourself to show your confidence, it shows that you believe in yourself and can find it in yourself to respect the family member and their thoughts. A difference is bashing the other person with aggressiveness. These are two very different approaches.
Aggression implies superiority and dominance, while an assertive person is more self-assured, treating those around you courteously, with clarity and respect.
14. Allow yourself to let go
Regardless of whether you’re unable to work through the problems satisfactorily to reconnect as a family, it’s okay to let go of the anger and forgive, even if you do need to walk away.
That’s encouraged so that you can progress forward with closure and be healed and healthy. It’s essential to let the person know that you forgive but that the relationship is toxic for you, and it’s time for you to move away from it for your greatest good. And then do that.
15. Therapy is a wise choice
When you experience broken family relationships, individual therapy is essential to learn how to maneuver the stages of loss. These can be traumatic depending on the type of relationship and how close the two of you were.
16. Create a safe space for conversation
Establishing a safe, neutral environment where both parties feel secure to express their feelings and thoughts can significantly aid the healing process, particularly when navigating the complex terrain of broken family meaning.
It’s important that this space is free from judgment, interruptions, and external pressures. This encourages open and honest communication, which is crucial for resolving deep-seated issues and misunderstandings.
17. Compromise and negotiate
Finding a middle ground where both parties can agree is essential in resolving conflicts, serving as one of the effective solutions to broken homes. This doesn’t mean one side has to give up everything, but rather, both sides should be willing to make concessions and find solutions that are acceptable to everyone involved.
This approach demonstrates a commitment to the relationship and a willingness to work together for the common good.
18. Celebrate small wins
Recognize and celebrate progress, no matter how small, as this can provide motivation and remind both parties of the progress being made towards mending what is a broken family. This can be as simple as acknowledging a positive change in behavior or successfully having a difficult conversation without escalating into an argument.
This International Family Day, Make the Students at your School/University to
Record on Video their Ode to Parents !!!
Faculty Coordinators may Shortlist 3-5 Opulent Odes; Upload those Videos on one of the Social Media Channels and Share the links of the same over email to editor@rethinkindia.in along with the introduction of the concerned Student and their Parents to be felicitated on Global Day of Parents June 1st in a delightful digital ceremony.
The participation fee of ₹ 1008 can be paid at https://razorpay.me/@rethinkindia and its payment reference number attached alongwith.
For any assistance, faculty coordinator may feel free to ping Dr. Surbhi on 9910050597