Avoid Caregiver Exhaustion
Don’t delay your self care
To avoid caregiver exhaustion is hugely important for you as a caregiver. You know you need to take care of yourself but you’re busy, you’re caring for your loved one and you’re dealing with your life and there’s no time at the end of the day for self-care so you put it off. I’ve been there. But there are 2 big reasons WHY you need to be making time for yourself, if you want to make sure you care for your loved one in the best way possible.
The first reason to prioritize your self care
The first reason to prioritize your caregiver self care is called Compassion Fatigue. If you haven’t heard about it, it’s when caregivers – also professionals in the medical professions – give so much, that they start losing their capacity for compassion, for empathy and for caregiving altogether.
The reason this is so dangerous is that you risk starting to see your loved one less as a person and more as an object. I know that sounds nasty, and it is. It is really something you should avoid at practically all costs.
The other reason it is risky is that it is not natural for us humans to not feel empathy. When that happens, it means that we have gone way past our healthy limits.
Avoid caregiver exhaustion
So the way to avoid compassion fatigue is by building in self-care routines for yourself. And I know your time is tight, that’s why I keep these articles and also my videos short. But it is essential that you keep some time for your self-care, for your sanity.
In “Your Support Within Your Reach” I can help you to come up with a plan that works for you, if you’d like to know more about that you can check it out here: Your Support Within Your Reach
A quick self-care activity to avoid caregiver exhaustion.
But for now, I’d like you to take 5 seconds to blow out all the air in your lungs, and blow some more and when you are out of air, just open your mouth.
That was really short. I hope you felt a difference. I’ve also recorded a special meditation for that, for the members of my community and I record a new meditation every month.
Watch the video of this article HERE Rajouter TNAIL
The second reason to take care of yourself and avoid caregiver exhaustion
The second critical reason that you need to prioritize your self care is that right after compassion fatigue, the next step is burnout.
That’s when you simply are not able to do many of the things you were previously doing. So if you think you don’t have time for selfcare, imagine being in a state of burnout. I’ve had clients in therapy who took 2 years to recover from burnout. It’s really not something that is compatible with the life of a caregiver.
So how convinced that you need to take some time for your self-care. Can you put self-care in the comments if you are already convinced ?
And if you are not, I’d like to know what is between you and being convinced ? You can email me if you want, I’d really like to know because my mission is to really change the way caregivers prioritize themselves !
Delaying your self care, it’s scary!
So Listen, I’m not trying to scare you but the consequences of not taking care of yourself ARE scary. And I know it can feel like you don’t know where to start when it comes to finding that time.
So, I want to give you some concrete ways that you can take care of yourself that don’t take a lot of time. That’s exactly what I’m going to do next week. So go ahead and subscribe to my YouTube channel if you want to be sure not to miss it : https://youtube.com/@SoniaWeyersCaregiverSupport.
Sonia Weyers
Gestalt-thérapist – Supporting Caregivers
Dare The Freedom To Be Yourself
PS: For more tips for caregivers of loved ones with a loss of autonomy you can check out my blog , from 2024, my YouTube Videos or my book “The Sundown of Life”.