Caregivers
Caring for Yourself While Caring for a Loved One
Caring for a loved one with dementia is a long and complicated road. It is a burden, a challenge, a joy, an evolving relationship, a time for insights and new understandings, frustration, and tears. Days drag on and months fly by. It is pain, and it is privilege. It is not a journey to be taken alone. Whether with the support of family and friends, a faith community, support group, or professional counseling, it is healthy and essential to practice self-care.
Caring for yourself while caring for a loved one is to hold empathy in one hand and boundaries in the other. Caregiving comes from an inner place of love, compassion, and concern, that is willing to care for a loved one in a time of failing health and increasing needs. Self-care comes from an inner recognition of personal limits, needs, and other responsibilities.
Self-care can include sharing activities with a loved one or participating in them on your own...
Self-care is the act of loving yourself— not in a self-centered, egotistical way, but as a beloved
person in the image of our Creator. Nurture your soul, your body, your mind.