Family meal time often feels like the last thing we have energy for!
So much of life can feel like a frantic race to the end of the day… by the time dinner rolls around parents are often exhausted from the gauntlet they just navigated over the previous 12 hours. And, the children, too, feeling the overwhelming pace of the world, often arrive at the day’s end with a frenetic energy that needs grounding.
In today’s fast-paced world, where distractions chip away at the family life force, families often find themselves pulled in multiple directions, and this is why the ritual of sharing meals together takes on such deep importance for the energetically attuned family. Family mealtimes, at least once a day – but ideally more – are a key component for remaining in resonance with the hearts of our children.
Throughout history, families gathering around the table has been a cornerstone of human civilization, fostering not only physical nourishment but also deep emotional, intellectual, and spiritual connections, as families took time to gather in the energetic presence of each other and put all other things aside.
Nourishing the Body, Mind, and Spirit
The tradition of communal eating dates back to ancient times when meals were not just about consuming food but were also rituals of bonding, sharing stories, and passing down traditions. In most cultures, the family meal was a sacred time, often accompanied by prayers, blessings, and meaningful conversation.
The Spiritual, Emotional, Intellectual, and Physical Benefits of Family Meal Time
- Spiritual Connection: Sharing a meal with our children can be a spiritual practice, a pattern interrupt in our day, to express gratitude, and a time to reflect on the day’s gifts. Practices like lighting a candle, saying a blessing, or offering a moment of silence can set a reverent tone, creating a sacred space for connection.
- Emotional Nourishment: Meal times provide an opportunity for families to check in with each other, share stories, and re-orient on things that are important to us. It’s a chance to make eye contact, laugh, provide emotional support, and reinforce a sense of belonging.
- Intellectual Stimulation: Engaging in conversation during meals encourages critical thinking, communication skills, and broadens perspectives. Eating together is a natural setting to model discussing engaging ideas, sharing knowledge, and learning from each other’s experiences.
- Physical Well-being: Eating together promotes healthier eating habits as families tend to consume more nutritious meals when taking conscious time to gather. It also encourages mindful eating practices, leading to better digestion and overall well-being. Plus, slowing down to eat together helps to create an energetic reset for the child as they re-calibrate to their mom and dad’s frequency after a day often filled with many other over-stimulating inputs.
Creating a Sacred Mealtime Experience
To make the most of family meal times and enhance their healing/regenerative potential, consider these suggestions:
- Set the Atmosphere: Create a peaceful environment by dimming lights, lighting a candle, or playing soft, instrumental music. Take a break from loud music, or music with words. Reflect on how you can make the table centrepiece or settings feel special, like an magical invitation to something beautiful.
- Express Gratitude: Begin with a moment of gratitude or prayer, acknowledging the food, the hands that prepared it, and the company gathered around the table. Pause before eating, and giving the cook the honour of the first bite. Time at the table is a wonderful time to weave in some gentle education about manners!
- Minimize Distractions: Keep screens and phones away from the table. Have a no-phones policy during mealtimes. And, the TV in the background must be off! This fosters focused attention on each other and promotes the connection we need away from the technology that is so often attempting to pull us apart.
- Read Aloud: Incorporate reading aloud as a part of your mealtime ritual. It can be from a book that inspires, educates, or simply entertains – perhaps reading a chapter a night over a couple of weeks. Or often, we like to read a few simple poems, or discuss a short wisdom quote as a way to centre for a few moments.
Our Favourite Meal Time Resource
Even with the best of intentions, some days meal time can be a challenging time to harness all the scattered energy of the day and pull it into something meaningful. Turns out there are times when we just need something simple, positive and fun to uplift us for a couple of minutes.
Our family took this challenge seriously and we created a resource with this very thing in mind!
What if you could spend a delightful few minutes with your children chatting about something fun and interesting while connecting with their heart, without needing to prepare anything ahead of time?
This is why we created the book Mastermind Meals: Table Talk for Mealtime Magic, because we needed it, and suspect you will love it too! We know how challenging meal times can be sometimes and what better way to keep it positive than to be intentional about our time together.
Definitely check out this book that our 10-year-old son illustrated! You will love the bright pictures and the clever ideas to share with your kids.
The Sacredness of Dinner Together
In today’s fragmented world, where time feels scarce and distractions feel endless, the dinner table holds a unique power to anchor our family together.
It’s not just about food; it’s about nurturing the heart and soul of our sacred legacy on this earth – our children. Taking the time to gather, connect, and nourish ourselves and each other is a powerful act of love and intentionality.
This is the kind of conscious work we must invest in if we are to see our family sustain our connection through an era where agendas to pull the family apart are very real. We face this assault without fear, as we lay down daily anchor points of intentional connection with our children: the family meal being one of the most vital.