Caregiver Fort Mill SC
Being a family caregiver means that you spend a lot of time taking care of other people, but how well are you caring for yourself? Try some of these suggestions for adding more self-care to your life.
Keep Yourself at the Top of Your Priority List
When you’re a family caregiver, the majority of your time and attention goes to your elderly loved one because that’s who you’re most concerned about. The problem is that if you’re not a priority for yourself, your own physical, mental, and emotional health can suffer. You have to place yourself at the top of your list and then you can worry about everyone else.
Find a Way to Share How You Feel
There are a lot of different emotions involved in being a family caregiver. Some of them aren’t as pretty as we’d like them to be and that makes it even harder to share them. Find a friend who understands, join a support group, or find a counselor or therapist that you trust. When you can work through your feelings they no longer control you or your actions.
Ask for Help from Others
As much as you think that you can, you really can’t do everything all on your own. Learn to ask for help from other family members, home care providers, and anyone else in your loved one’s life. As you learn how to effectively ask for help, you’ll find it easier to manage.
Give Yourself a Break
While you do need physical breaks from caregiving, you also need to cut yourself some slack. You’re doing the best that you can with the resources that you have, so there’s no reason to feel that you’re not doing as much as you could or should. Allow yourself the room to have good days and bad days.
Do the Things that You Know Nourish You
What are the activities that really make your life worth living? Is it pottery? Running marathons? Whatever it is for you, make sure that you’re doing those things. The more that you’re nourishing yourself, the more you’ll have to give to everyone else in your life.
As you become more used to making yourself a priority, you’ll find some of these tasks easier to do.
