Recommit Don't Quit!
Back in January, we set an intention for our year. As we near the midpoint of 2023, we invite you to look back with reflection at that intention without judgment or shame. How’s it going? What have you learned? What’s working? What’s not working? Good news: You still have more than six months to work on that intention.
We are all about empowerment, which just happens to be our theme this month! Why? Because that is the key to making our solution to caregiver burden sustainable. It’s what makes preventing caregiver burden possible. It starts with an intention – your intention – that something needs to change. That the way you’ve been selflessly caring for someone else has taken a toll on your life and you want to make a change. We know we can’t change our loved ones living with mental, chronic, or serious illness, YET, we can find courage and compassion, and we CAN cope. You can find portable, sustainable tools for coping and managing stress that build and form lifelong habits. With practice, you can build a PRACTICE.
When we launched Courage to Caregivers in 2017, we were supported (and still are) by many incredible professional mentors, and we were asked what we were trying to solve for. We talked to many behavioral health and caregiver experts to identify the problem as “caregiver burden” – the burden of caring – defined by the National Institute of Health Research as “the level of multifaceted strain perceived by the caregiver from caring for a family member and/or loved one over time.” Caring for someone with a mental, chronic or serious illness, for a long period of time, in many cases for a lifetime, takes its toll on a caregiver's mental, emotional, physical, and financial well-being.
At Courage to Caregivers, we realized that we couldn’t solve the problem of the stress of caregiving. YET, what we are uniquely positioned to do is provide essential mental and emotional support – tools to support caregivers to better cope and manage the stress of caring. Our three programs – One-to-One Caregiver Peer Support, Breathing Meditation, and Group Coaching (Support Groups) – provide a caring community where caregivers can come to share their stories and experiences without judgment or shame. These are programs where YOU can be heard, understood, and believed. We validate and affirm each other for our stories of caring and work together to move forward with courage.
It’s NEVER too late to START – or to RECOMMIT. YOU matter. YOU are worthy of the same love and compassion you put out into the world! It just takes one small microstep to START. You’re worth it!
PS: Do you feel overwhelmed and exhausted? Being a caregiver is hard work and it’s understandable to struggle to find relief through all of caregiving’s anxieties and responsibilities. Fortunately, Psych Hub’s video “Prevent Caregiver Burnout” provides six suggestions for how to take care of yourself as a caregiver.