The problem: the odds are stacked against us

Thriving isn't easy. The odds are stacked against parents and families who want to not just survive but thrive.

For hundreds of thousands of years, humans have lived in vastly different food environments, sleep environments, social environments, and physical activity environments.

Our modern world – with tedious office work, long and stressful commutes, grocery stores full of industrial, processed food-like substances, nuclear families cutoff from larger communities, artificial light at night that disrupts sleep, anonymous and individualized social relationships – is not built for human flourishing.

In fact, it runs in the opposite direction of human flourishing. If we just go with the flow of our modern environment, then we are guaranteeing physical, emotional, and psychological illness.

It's not easy going against this flow. Not only does our economic, entertainment, food, and built environment make us sick, it makes us lonelier and more isolated.

But we obviously can't go back to the land! The counterculture of the 60s and 70s tried that with little success. The answer is not a total rejection of the modern world. It's learning how to thrive even when the odds are stacked against us.

The Family Thrive solution: learning from experts and practicing together

Our modern world is so complex that there is no single trick or solution to fix the problem. Instead, we need to look to the best evidence and research in all the different forces that are impacting our families' ability to thrive: nutrition, mental and emotional health, stress management, sleep, exercise, environmental toxins, and, most importantly, social relationships.

"Our modern world is so complex that there is no single trick or solution to fix the problem."

To organize all of this research and evidence, we've worked with dozens of experts to boil it all down to four areas--what we call Thrive Pillars--that truly matter for families:

Every day, we're making countless food choices for ourselves and our family, from what we buy at the store, to how we make it, to what we eat, when we eat, how much we eat... It can all be overwhelming and exhausting (not to mention expensive!), and so the pull is so strong to just go with what's cheap, fast, and plentiful.

But the science is clear: when we slow down and choose whole foods over ultra-processed, nutrient-dense over nutrient-poor foods, low-sugar, high-protein over sugary, low protein foods, our bodies get stronger, our minds work better, and our moods improve. And we can learn from experts about how to make these choices easy, less expensive, and absolutely delicious.

Our modern world is not designed for human flourishing. Our hectic schedules, isolated family lives, long commutes, anxiety-producing social media, and unstable economic environment all contribute to us parents running on empty. But it doesn't have to be this way.

Over the last several decades, mountains of research have shown that there are many simple mental and emotional health practices that we can weave into our lives to help us flourish in the face of our modern anxiety-provoking world. From mindful meditation to gratitude rituals to journaling to emotional processing tools, the research-backed resources are out there. At The Family Thrive, we work directly with experts to make the simple, easy, and doable for busy families.

Between our car-based environments and our ever-present phone, tablet, computer, and TV screens, we live in a world that is practically demanding that we barely move our bodies. And our daily routines run opposite to how humans evolved for sleep. Instead of getting plenty of light, exercise, and food during the daytime (which is how we evolved), we're now inside most of the day and exposed to a lot of artificial light at night, we don't much during the day, and our busy schedules push us to eat later at night. No wonder our sleep suffers!

All this leads to our bodies being sicker, more fragile, and more fatigued. But research in exercise physiology and sleep over the past 20 years has produced dozens of simple, easy, and doable strategies that families can incorporate into their daily lives. Our expert team at The Family Thrive is dedicated to bringing all of this science and all these strategies down to earth and into the lives of busy families.  

Perhaps the hardest part of raising a family today is how fragmented and isolated our social worlds are. Long gone are the days of the village where raising kids was a responsibility shared by extended family and a larger community. And on top of that, research shows we have fewer friends than in the past and lack the emotional support we need.

At the same time, researchers and practitioners have learned so much about how to communicate and relate between parents and kids, and between partners in a committed relationship. We work with psychologists, therapists, and relationship coaches to bring parents practical skills that build deep, loving, connected relationships in their family and the larger community.

How we support your family's thriving

None of the science and expert wisdom matters if we can't bring it into our daily lives. So, we've developed The Family Thrive app to support parents in a variety of ways to fit different schedules, time budgets, and interests.

First, we provide a weekly stream of articles, recordings, recipes, podcasts, and conversations that are focused on various aspects of family thriving. You can dip in and out of these, save them to your profile to read later, share with friends in the app, and comment on them to start a conversation. But remember: to see this content on a daily basis, you have to sign up (it's free!) to the Thrive Pillar Pathways you want.

Second, we have deep-dive masterclasses and workshops for when you're ready to make bigger changes in one of the Thrive Pillars. Whether it's our Nourish Masterclass for nutrition or Connect Masterclass for social relationships, we've got you covered with the latest science and most practical tips for bringing these pillars deeper into your life.

Third, we have a variety of ways for parents to directly access expert advice on health & wellness. We have our topic "Ask the Experts Anything," where parents can ask a question and we'll track down the right expert to answer it. We also have live, online Q & A's with experts (Ask Me Anything) in each Pillar Pathway, where parents can submit questions for specific experts. We also follow up on any questions in comments to articles, podcasts, or workshops.

Above all, we're building a community around family thriving. Because our modern world works against thriving, we all need a community of parents working together to thrive against the odds.

Thank you for letting us join you on your family's thrive journey!