A new survey reveals that one simple lifestyle change can go a long way toward reducing stress levels in your family. That change? Eating meals together.
The survey found that 91 percent of respondents reported having less stress in their life when they incorporated family meal time into part of their daily routine. 1,000 people were interviewed during this survey. Things like connecting with other people and being reminded to slow down were some of the things that respondents stated were important about family meals.
The research was conducted by the American Heart Association as part of the Healthy For Good movement. The goal was to shed a little bit of light on things that people can do to improve their heart health.
This can go a long way toward helping to improve the quality of care that you provide for your family. In fact, eating together can benefit your entire family. While this study focused primarily on adult parents, other studies have indicated that when children eat dinner together with their family, they tend to have fewer mental health issues, form stronger familial bonds, and have fewer problems in school.
Some families have always done this, while others don’t. There’s no right or wrong way to do dinner time, and sometimes meeting together as a family is downright impossible. However, if this research is accurate, eating together once in a while can be a really easy way to reduce stress and grow closer together as a family.
Stress reduction can be a good long term plan for your family as a whole. Stress can compound the issues that come along with heart disease, increasing the likelihood of a stroke or heart attack occurring. While family meals might not cure anyone’s heart disease, it can help to reduce some of the negative outcomes that can happen when this is a factor in someone’s life.
Putting other social supports into your family’s life can also help to reduce stress, both for you as a family caregiver and your older loved ones. In-home care can be a big part of this. An in-home caregiver helps to take care of the daily tasks that your older loved one might struggle with on a day to day basis. Transferring from one place to another, preparing meals, bathing, and cleaning up around the house can become difficult to the point of being dangerous.
That’s why we do what we do. A strong caregiver can help your family to relieve this burden, reduce the stress that family members are experiencing, and help you to live a higher quality of life as a result. In-home care is about more than just helping out around the house, though. Providing companionship and giving your older loved one someone to be with while you’re away at work is another benefit. This social aspect is often overlooked, but when it comes to improving mental health, it is a very big deal.
If you have questions about care, would like to learn more about what we do, or just are curious about what in-home care might look like for your family, please let us know. We’re here for you!
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