The caregiving truths–about your fears, your concerns, your heartaches–can be so difficult to voice. As important as these truths are to tell, it’s equally important to tell them to the right person.
The right person may be your support group, your best friend, or your journal. For now, let the right person be your journal (or just a pad of paper, if you’d prefer). In your journal, talk freely of your truth as it relates to how you feel about caregiving, what you worry about in terms of your care recipient’s prognosis, what concerns you in terms of your own future.
Telling your truths is important for a few reasons.
1. Hiding your truths saps your energy; telling them frees you. You can use your new-found energy to recruit your team members.
2. Your truths help you find the help you need to manage your experience. Hate taking your mom to the doctor? Well, that’s a task to delegate to a team member. If you could delegate just one task you hate, imagine how that would impact your day.
3. Your truths hold the key to unleashing the meaning of your caregiving journey. The truths can seem so ugly, but in freeing them, you learn who you can be in your journey.
Once we tackle your truths, we’ll work on finding the right team to help you manage them. We hope that your truths, ultimately, will set you free.
Telling the Truth Exercises
Take time to write your answers to these questions:
1. What’s your truth?
2. With your truth in mind, what do you want to change?
Finally, write your Caregiving Mission Statement. (Note: We recommend that you review your mission statement regularly. And, as you make changes to your mission statement, you’ll want to complete the exercises detailed here and in Forming the Team again.)
Staying Resolute in the Face of Rejection
