Dr. Eboni Green
October 8, 2021
When you are caring for a loved one or client, it is not uncommon to feel like your time is not your own. You must be hyper focused on the physical, mental, and emotional needs of the person you are caring for, which means you may not have much time left to care for these things for yourself.
The good news is it doesn’t have to be that way! You deserve to have time to rest, relax and take care of yourself. In fact, you may find that a little time for yourself will help you to be a more effective caregiver.
Okay, but how do you protect your own time as a caregiver? The following are four suggestions that may help you practice better self-care:
If you want to protect your own time, you will want to frequently remind yourself that self-care isn’t selfish, rather, it is vital if you want to be as happy and healthy as possible. Acknowledging the importance of having your own time and space is the first step to enhancing your well-being long-term.
Perhaps, the best way to protect your own time as a caregiver is by ensuring that you have other people to help you when you need a break. Whether it’s a professional caregiver who you pay to help for a few hours each week or a family member who comes in to relieve you when you need a break, seek out others to help you and follow through by allowing them to assist you.
If it is possible for you to do so, you should look into getting your own space away from the person you are caring for or for them to find a space of their own, for example best granny flats can be an excellent option. When you live with the person you are caring for 24/7 it’s easy to fall into providing care for them 24/7 without a break, but that won’t do either of you much good. If you can’t live separately, then make sure you have a calm place, like a cafe or library, or maybe even a garden shed, that you can retreat to when you need more time out.
When your caregiving duties are really intense and it feels like you will never have any time to yourself again, the best thing you can do is to find those little moments where there is a lull in activity and use them to meditate, read a page of a book, walk around the block or whatever it is that you enjoy the most. Yes, 5, 10 or 15 minutes might not seem like a lot, but they can often be enough to refresh and keep you going when things are getting tough.
You might be caring for someone else, but you need care too, and doing everything you can to protect your time is undoubtedly one of the best acts of self-care. Time is precious, so spend as much of it as you can exactly how you would like.
