Mission for Happy Home

Make a Family Cheer Song!

A song has the power to make people closer together. The sense of closeness increases while all sing along the rhythm and melody in unison. Sports supporters and marching soldiers become one in mind by chanting together. What about a family song at home just like sports chants in the stadium and a military song in the army? Your precious family is always with you whether you are happy or sad. A family song in harmony, though imperfect, has great power in itself because the love and encouragement contained in it become infinite energy to each other. Make a song for your family this month and sing it together, so that your home can be full of happiness along with…

Express Your Mind with a Pen!

Handwriting is one of the cultures that gradually disappear due to the popularization of computers and smart phones. As keyboard or touch screen enables you to easily send messages and letters, people rarely use a pen or a pencil these days. However, handwriting with great care will move the other person more than using convenient digital letters. A handwritten letter has a positive effect on the writer as well as the recipient. A research shows that a person who frequently handwrites letters has higher affection for the other person. This month, let us take up a pen for our precious family. A letter, card, note, postcard, calligraphy, and anything is good. While writing a letter word by word, you will…

Become a Hidden Assistant of Your Family!

How will you feel if someone cares about you, pleases you, and is willing to help you when you have a hard time? You will be happy, encouraged, and reassured as well. You know that? You already have that person. It is your family. However, you may often forget that. Even after receiving love from your family, you might not appreciate it but grumble and complain against them. This month, rather than expecting something from your family, why don’t you become a “hidden assistant” doing good deeds secretly for your family? You will know that giving love brings greater happiness than receiving it. Tip Decide the mission period. Write each name of your family members on each paper and pick…

Respect Your Family’s Emotions!

We have many emotions-joy, sadness, anger, expectation, fear, gratitude, etc. We want to express these emotions in any way, and we feel stable and happy when our emotions are respected by others. Expressing our emotions in a healthy way, and understanding and accepting each other’s feelings are the basics of conversation. Even if you disagree, you can have a pleasant conversation if you understand the other person’s feelings first. How much do you listen to and care about your family’s emotions? Respect their diverse emotions and actively empathize with them this month because their emotions are as precious as your family.   Tip Read your family’s emotions. (“You look happy, today,” “Aren’t you tired from work?”) Listen carefully and understand…

Say Good Morning!

In the past in Korea, there were manners in which children greeted their parents with regards every morning. After washing and dressing neatly, they greeted their parents and arranged their bedding or brought water for their washing up. In this busy modern society, such customs have already disappeared, but the value of greetings remains unchanged because it is a way of expressing love and care, wishing each other good health. This month, let us gladly greet our family in the morning. “Did you sleep well?” or “Good morning!” Saying good morning with a smile can help you start your day with happiness. Let’s get ready for a happy day with a good morning greeting! Tip Wake up a little early…

Set Laughter Devices at Home!

Your smile makes those who see you as well as yourself happy. It’s also the best way to express your love to the people around you and to encourage them and support them. Set laughter devices all over the house to laugh more. Laughing out loud for more than ten seconds will increase the effect of laughing even more. Make good use of various laughter devices to laugh aloud together with your family. Unhappiness will run away and happiness will fill your house. Tip Laughter zone: Laugh whenever you’re in the zone. (Put up a sign, “Laughter Zone” or “LOL.”) Laughter line: Laugh whenever you cross it. (Put up a sign, “Laugh when you cross it.”) Laughter time: Laugh at…

Change Family Habits for the New Year

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit,” said a philosopher. You make habits, but later habits make you. While good habits lead you to the right path and make you a better person, bad habits become an obstacle to your path. Moreover, a small and trivial habit may lead into conflict with your close family members. Everybody has a plan for new habits whenever a new year begins. Why don’t you decide what habits you want to correct or what new habits you want to have and share them with your family? And encourage each other for success. Small changes can make big changes! Tip Talk about habits to change. Listen to…

Pay Off a Debt of Gratitude

A debt is something that you must pay back to someone. The sooner you pay it off, the more you feel relieved. When you repay it, you can keep your relationship smooth. Isn’t it the same with a debt of gratitude? In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that we always live in debt to our families. We receive love without any condition, and hurt them or cause anxiety to them unknowingly. Nevertheless, we may take it for granted with a thought, ‘That’s okay because we are family.’ Greeting the end of the year, why don’t we settle our debts of grat-itude we have owed for a year to our family? Expressing gratitude and soothing pain one another, let…

Treat Your Family to Tea!

Tea is a favorite food loved both in the East and the West. To enjoy a deep taste of tea, you have to be careful in every step from preparing the tea water to steeping it in the cup. As you need time and effort to make it, you can enjoy tea if you drink slowly, savoring it. Tea is sometimes a medium of communication among people. When you have a cup of tea, a conversational atmosphere will be naturally created, and you can get to know each other while talking. This month, enjoy a cup of fragrant tea with your loving family. Treat your family to tea, regarding them as valued guests, and enjoy a friendly talk. Then, fragrance…

Respond Enthusiastically for Lively Conversations

How do you respond when you talk with your family? Aren’t you listening inattentively or putting off a conversation with an excuse that you are busy? Having a conversation with your family is important to understand each other. This also becomes the foundation for a harmonious family. If you respond enthusiastically while conversing with them, you’ll have a more joyful conversation. Showing your interest and respect will please the speaker. Thinking you are empathizing with him/her, the speaker will open up. Of course, love will overflow during the conversation. This month, listen to your family and respond to them actively! Tip Listen attentively when someone is speaking. Try to understand the speaker’s feelings by saying, “Yes,” “I see,” or “You’re…

Make the Entrance Full of Love

“I am home.” “Have a nice day!” “Welcome back! You’ve done a good job, today, too.” It is the entrance that you go through first whenever you come home, and that you pass through lastly when you go out. It is the place where you meet or say bye to your family for their daily schedules. It’s where your guests will get the first impression. Although it’s a small area in the house, its role is not little at all. While you see off your family with encouragement and welcome home, the entrance becomes a place of communication and harmony, not just a gate for entry and exit. This month, why don’t you make the entrance full of love so…

Give the Thumbs-Up: “My Family Is the Best!”

Praise can make even a whale dance. Praise makes the listener feel better and lift up those who are in despair. Praise is another food people eat. “Good!” “Excellent!” “You are the best!” If you raise your thumbs with the words of praise, the effect doubles. Sometimes, a powerful gesture of thumbs-up makes the other person more pleased than many words. Dale Carnegie said, “There is nothing more touching and moving than praise. We may soon forget how we praised someone else, but the person who was praised may keep it in his heart all his life.” This month, praise your family generously with your thumbs up. The listeners can feel energy surging up when they are exhausted, and happiness…

Every Family Member Is the House Owner!

If the strength of a person pulling a rope is 100, theoretically it should be 200 for two persons and 300 for three persons. However, the result of an experiment with a tug of war showed that the power of an individual was used by 93% when there were two persons, 85% when three persons, and only 49% when eight persons. As the size of a group increases, an individual’s contribution to the task decreases. It is called the Ringelmann effect. It happens because of the thought, ‘Someone else will do it, though I don’t.’ The same thing happens at home. Your home is where all your family members live together, but sometimes they tend to pass the house chores…

Give a Cheerful High Five!

High five is an action to celebrate victory or to express happiness in which two people raise one arm each and hit their open hands together. Sports players often do high fives to improve teamwork during games. A study says that the teams with good results often had a light physical touch like high fives, handshakes, and hugs among the players. Another study says that the students whose teachers patted them on the back or arm to encourage them participated in class activities nearly twice more than other students. Just as you clap your hands unawares when you’re excited, clapping makes you feel positive, refreshed, pleasant, and even confident. Clapping hands is good for health, too! Tip Do high fives…

Find a Family Resemblance

When you look in the mirror, do you think you look like your parents? Have you been surprised to see your child talking or acting like yourself? When you went out with your brother or sister, did people recognize you as a family? Do people say that you look like your spouse? Family members resemble each other in appearance, habit, taste, palate, voice, and emotional expression. Of course, the genes play their roles, but people also get affected by the surrounding environment. So it’s natural that the family members in the same environment resemble each other. Above all, when you love someone, you want to follow whatever he or she does, and while following the person, you become alike. This…

Make a Heart-Shaped Gesture

You smile when you’re happy, give thanks when you are thankful, and apologize when you feel sorry. Emotions in your heart are passed on to the other person when you express them. Family love is the same. Sometimes, however, you may think they know how you feel even though you don’t express it. Or you may express even positive feelings like love with negative expressions. Family members love one another naturally, but wouldn’t it become more meaningful when it’s shown directly? Please express your love by making a heart shape with your hands to your family this month. You might feel a little shy but when you express your love, you will become happy and gain new strength! Tip 1.…

Give a Glass of Water with Love

Water has a great influence on health that people even say, “If you drink water properly, you can have good health and longevity.” Water releases toxins out of the body, helps blood circulation, and promotes metabolism. In addition, it plays a variety of roles, such as increasing the level of immunity and improving the skin condition. The American Institute for Cancer Research reported that people who drink more than four glasses of water a day have a fifty percent or less chance of developing colorectal cancer and cystitis than those who drink less than two glasses of water a day. If you do not drink enough water, waste accumulates in your cells and you easily get tired. This month, give…

Call Your Family with a Voice Full of Love

How many times do you call your family members a day? If you can call someone and have someone who calls you, it is a joyful thing. Calling is to seek. This means that we are not alone but are having relationships with others. A poet said, “When I called its name, it came to me and became a flower.” But what determines someone to be a beautiful flower or a dying flower is the way how you call the person. It is easy to respond nicely when someone calls you with a cheerful voice, but it is not easy if someone calls you with a sharp and irritated voice. The mind of a person is contained in his voice.…