3 Ways To Show Your Family The Love

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, for better or worse, the family of origin you grew up with — or the one you created by bringing kids into this world — is yours.

Here are 3 easy ways to show your family the love – and take action from the heart (while resisting the impulse to knock your mother-in-law over the head)

• Love Yourself First and Give Away the Rest
  We can’t give what we don’t have ourselves. Practice self-care — be it exercising, eating right, growing your community at home or taking up new hobbies. By taking care of yourself, you’ll have the foundation to shower the ones you love with the same type of care, support, generosity, and kindness.
• Set Limits
  Loving your family doesn’t mean showing up for them whenever they ask. Setting boundaries — be it a day spent together or an hour—  lets you give love more fully and from a more genuine place. Not to mention, setting an example to your family about your commitment to them – and to yourself.
• Remember the Five Languages of Love
  Quality time. Words of affirmation. Receiving gifts. Acts of service. Physical touch.

  They are pretty simple to remember — but far harder to live. Remembering these five basic buckets for expressing love – be it familial or romantic — can have a profound effect on relationships with any loved one.

  And better still, they provide a great lens to take personalized and specific action for every person in our life. Maybe your thoughtful mother would far rather get a handwritten card that she would anything else. Or the neurotic teen or younger sibling in your life would prefer your words instead of a 30-second long hug. So tell them you love them and how much they mean to you.

  Use these languages — and your intuition — and you can make any action a heartfelt, generous and personal act of showing your love.

No matter how you do it — setting limits, loving yourself or implementing the five languages in your relationships, showing love to your family is totally possible by starting small.