Mornings can be a stressful time. You’re forced to deal with the reality that you have to get out of the most comfortable place you know, your bed, then rush to get yourself and your family ready for the day and out the door.
Between the forgotten lunches, search for the car keys, and running out of hot shower water, mornings can lead you to become a little testy with your loved ones.
Which is unfortunate because mornings set the whole tone for the rest of your day. But you can turn that hectic morning around and make sure that you set a positive tone for the day before your children and/or partner departs.
Here are some tips to salvage the rest of your morning with love and compassion:
1) Pause before responding to a quickly deteriorating situation. Stop and think about how the first three seconds of your angry, critical, or sarcastic respond will play out. Most likely it will just end up making the situation worse. So, the time you take to think about this could prevent even more of a meltdown.
2) You can help turn a grumpy frown upside down by letting your child do something they normally wouldn’t do or that an adult does like add the sugar to your oatmeal or write a note for a family member’s lunch.
3) Stop and look at the person you’re having a problem with as a human being. Think “that’s someone’s baby” “that’s my baby.” This might help to give you a boost of patience and perspective to help you reconcile.
4) Remeber a story about when your kids were little or when you and your spouse were dating to bring back some good memories to stamp out the negative ones you are having.
5) Ask for forgiveness and a new start. Don’t be scared to say,” Can we start over?” Don’t be afraid of the do-over.
6) Open your arms and ask for a hug. There’s no better way to start over than with a hug.
7) Wait a few minutes then get at eye level and rub their back for a bit. You always have time to console someone you love.
8) Ask yourself if the situation is worth fighting over or something that you could just forget about and move on from. If not, take a deep breath and speak in a tone where you are heard and make sure they know that you are listening and that you care.
9) Give up. Sometimes y0u need to give up control over a situation and ask how they would do it or like to see the situation resolved.
10) Always try to see the good in the situation. Even if it’s just that you’re happy that you get to spend every day with them.
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