Self Care Looks Different For Every Family Caregiver
Self-Care
the practice of taking an active role in protecting one’s own well-being and happiness, in particular during periods of stress
I like to say that anything that supplies energy, offers peace of mind, or infuses pure joy is self-care. Self-care isn’t about bubble baths and weekends away. Those can be great and yet are not sustainable ways to practice self-care when there are so many competing demands.
Do You Need Permission to Focus on You?
I used to say that caregiving felt like feeding a nest of hungry birds. Your nest may have all kinds of hungry birds- each representing career, kids, friends, care recipient(s), pets, home, etc. Each bird has their mouth wide open,n begging for nourishment and your time. No matter how many worms you bring back to share, no one is ever satiated. And, suddenly, you realize, if you don’t take some of the nourishment yourself, you won’t have the energy to keep venturing out looking for the worms. This analogy helped me learn to prioritize my health and happiness as a family caregiver.
Here’s what else I have to offer as tools to help you eliminate the guilt around self-care.
- Believe your life has value, too, and give yourself permission to put some attention on your own health and happiness. Need some help? Check out the Happy Healthy Caregiver Manifesto.
- Guilt is inevitable because we want to be able to do it all. We care about the people and things we care about. When the ‘G’ word starts to pop up, replace it with another ‘G’ word – GRACE. You are doing the best you can with all that you have on your plate.
- Create a Self-Care Plan. Or, schedule a 1:1 complimentary coaching session with Elizabeth to brainstorm what real self-care could potentially look like for you.
- Check out the encouragement we have waiting for you on the Happy Healthy Caregiver Instagram page.
- Learn to become intentional about infusing self-care in your daily life by purchasing a copy of my journal that I wrote with family caregivers in mind: Just for You – a Daily Self-Care Journal.
Eight Categories of Self-Care
When I was deep in my caregiving season, I thought self-care was all about the physical stuff – good nutrition, exercise, and adequate sleep. As I have learned more about self-care and practiced it, I now know self-care for caregivers is much more than physical things. There are actually 8 categories of self-care! Click on the image if you’d like to explore a specific category.
Digital Course - Six Steps to Infusing Self-Care Into Your Caregiving Life
Self-Care didn’t come naturally to me. I had to become intentional with how I would live differently than my parents did. I feared repeating the same unhealthy situation for my children and knew I had to change the trajectory. Life is messy, and while self-care is essential, it can feel that something else always takes priority. In this digital course, I share six steps I took and have coached others to take to prioritize their health and happiness.
Find Accountability through a Caregiver Community
Now that you are committing to invest in your health and happiness and have gained a few tangible examples of how to infuse realistic self-care in your busy life, you are ready to connect to others in the caregiving community.
