Be good to yourself by:
• Knowing that you are doing your very best—and that’s the best you can do.
• Understanding that you will have bad days, but those bad days don’t make you a bad person. They are just that—bad days. The good days will return.
• Making room in your heart for forgiveness. Others have done you wrong—it’s true. Living in forgiveness means you take control of your life and move past those who cause you pain.
• Allowing yourself time to reflect. You’ve been through a lot—you need time (and as much time as you need) to process your changes.
• Surrounding yourself with those who love you. When in doubt, walk toward the love and let the rest fall by the wayside.
• Giving yourself time to breathe when you face difficult decisions.
• Taking your moments of happiness. They are sent for you.
Each new day is your very special gift. Make it good.
I try to start and end each day by being good to myself. Not in a selfish sense, but in a therapeutic way. With my own physical health problems overlaying my caregiver and full-time administrative work roles, I give myself enough time to rise early, enjoy some quiet time with my computer and catching up on any personal e-mails, doing some stretching and exercising, doing a little personal spiritual meditation, and affirming my gratefulness for the QUIET. We, as Americans especially I believe, always feel that we must take something that seems unoccupied and fill something in its place. Not healthy, people, and not always. The absence of more can be the gift of a lighter load. I relish my time and can think of and accomplish so much spiritually and personally in my quiet time. This lets me give the better part of my waking, work, and caregiving day to others. Then later in the evening after I’ve returned home, I charge down and sort of do a lot of all the same again. And I try to leave enough time to retire to bed not too late, with a book and some tea, to unwind and rest. We shouldn’t feel guilty about those times in our days when we’re not having to write some report, meet some deadline, answer some call, pay some bill, or attend some event. First and last: please attend to yourselves. Because no matter how much others do care or say they care, only you can be there for you when you come down to it. If we really care about ourselves and doing our best for others, we’ll make sure we do the best to take care of our own minds and bodies too! (Ice-cream also can help..)
This is beautiful! I love this sentence: “The absence of more can be the gift of a lighter load.” I already quoted you to my Twitter followers.
caregiver for a man who could be asbergers?add?depressed?
his family & friends blame me for his rage, depression & anti-social behaoviours
somehow i allowed myself to become isolated and fell into copying his behaviours instead of maintaining a safe boundary
need help to recover from burnout and healing of wounded places in attempting to give care for his questionable behaviour
thankfully there have been a few helpful books that describe how to monitor my own behaviour while caring for him
friends & family shun me lately
resources needed and welcome-available at zoomdots@yahoo.com-shelby