How To Be The Best Caregiver

 

As a caregiver, you know you want to do the best job possible for your loved one. Of course, you want to be the best caregiver possible. And it’s hard. Maybe you have an aging parent and you have a job and/or a family. Yet, it could also be your spouse or your child who is losing autonomy. But however many demands on your time, if you want to be that best caregiver you can be, your self-care is not optional. Specifically, the only way you can do your best work and keep going is you incorporate some self-care. Hence in this article, I’m going to show you several tips to find time to fit your self-care into your schedule.

 

The first key to be the best caregiver

The first key is to make a decision that your self-care is essential, even for your loved one who is losing autonomy. Clearly you will be more effective at everything if you take time for your self-care. I’d love to know if you feel ready to make that decision. If you are not ready to make that decision, we need to talk.

This key is essential because when have you ever made a change in your life that you hadn’t decided to make?

 

Key #2

The second key is to look at how much time you spend “distracting yourself” every day, on average. Your phone can probably tell you that. I understand the temptation to distract yourself but the more you do that, the more dependent you become on the dopamine shots you get. And while there is nothing intrinsically wrong with that, it makes it harder to redirect your attention and be the best possible caregiver. 

Once you’ve done your audit of “distraction time”, see if you can carve out 15 minutes for self-care. If you are not spending 15 minutes a day on distractions then see if the next three keys give you some more ideas. 

 

 

 

Watch the video of this article HERE

 

The third key

The third key I have for you is to batch your meal-related tasks. If you plan meals you can prepare extra for another meal when you do cook. You’ll spend less time shopping, cooking and cleaning that way. Home cooked meals have better nutritional value. So if you’re not cooking for yourself, maybe you can start with one meal that you double the recipe for. That way you can have it for dinner and lunch the next day. Or another day altogether if you have a freezer.

I’d love to know if you are already batching some stuff and how you are doing it. I could make sure this benefits my clients. 

 

To be the best caregiver possible, a fourth key

The fourth key I have for you is to take 10 minutes for a centering practice. If you do it today, that will be something you did to take care of yourself. And if you don’t have a go to centering practice, I have one for you. I recorded it for “Your Support Within Your Reach” the community of caregivers that I run. I am gifting it to you and the link is eudokima.com/letting-go. You can click on the link, it will open in another tab and you can read the rest of this article

And one more thing, to be the best caregiver…

The end of that fourth key is to go listen to that meditation right when you’re done with this video, it’s less than 5 minutes long. After you listen to the meditation you may have other ideas of time you can carve out for self-care.

 

The fifth key to find time for self care

The fifth key I have for you is to open your calendar and start blocking off 15 minutes each day. Maybe it’s before you go to bed, maybe it’s when you wake up in the morning, maybe it’s at lunch or whatever it looks like for you, just put a 15 minute block of time in your calendar for Your Self Care.

On a scale of 0 to 10, 0 being not at all and 10 being completely, so on a scale of 0 to 10, how certain are you right now that you can carve out 15 minutes a day for your self care ? I’d love it if you could let me know what that number is. That way I can tailor my content to where you are. 

And unless your number is a 10, you’ll really want to read next week’s blog. Because I’m going to go over the biggest reasons WHY it is so important to carve some time out for your self-care. That should motivate you to do it so 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”.