It’s tough to think positively as a caregiver sometimes. Your elderly family member might be experiencing health issues and the paperwork may seem never-ending. Having a more positive overall attitude can help you to deal with those daily challenges much more readily.
Work on Your Anger
Anger is far more common than you might think as a caregiver. In fact, you might be angry and not even realize it. Often anger expresses itself as frustration with a specific situation or with people who aren’t even connected to your senior’s situation. Displacing that anger onto other people can help you to go about your tasks for a time, especially when you’re angry at someone you can’t express it to, such as your elderly family member.
Kick Worrying to the Curb
Worrying is much like anger for a caregiver. It saps your energy and doesn’t really offer anything productive back at all. You can worry all day long about a situation and yet not prevent that situation from taking place. When you find yourself worrying, look for something productive to do instead to keep your mind occupied.
Start Noticing Negative Thoughts
The best way to reduce your negative thinking is to start becoming cognizant of when you’re having negative thoughts. Often this is so automatic that you don’t notice them on a conscious level. But your subconscious mind does notice these thoughts and that’s the difficulty you run into with positive thinking. Pay attention to your thoughts and work on turning them around.
Set Some Goals
Goals give you something to focus on. As a caregiver, you might set some goals around your senior’s routines, helping her to make her home safer, or even around managing the tasks you handle for her. All of these different goals allow you to assess how you’re doing and the progress you’re making.
Look for Another Way
A little bit of creativity can go a long way toward solving this problem for you. If you keep approaching caregiving the same way you always have, you’re going to get the same results. Look for different ways to approach common situations and you may find that it’s much easier to develop a positive frame of mind.
As you start to shift to positive thinking as a more automatic reaction, you’ll start to see benefits from it. Your life isn’t necessarily changing, but your approach to your life definitely will. That can help you to reduce your stress levels and manage what you’re able to manage as a caregiver.
If you or an aging loved one is considering Elderly Care in Falls Church, VA, please contact the caring staff at Access Home Care Inc. Proudly Serving Northern Virginia and Surroundings for over 12 years. Call Us: (703) 765-9350
“My desire to enter into nursing started when one of my older sisters died of kidney disease due to lack of care. At age 15, I decided to enter into nursing so that I could provide quality care to patients.Upon arrival in United States at 21 years of age, I enrolled in T.C Willliams School of Practical Nursing while working as a nursing assistant at a nursing home. I also worked as a part-time home health aide to take of the elderly. After completion of my practical nurse education, I worked in geriatric psychiatry unit at Dominion Hospital and Arlington Correctional facility mental health unit.
I completed Marymount University in 2001 and entered into Home Care as a field case manager.
I held that position for 2 years and as an Administrator, and for another 2 years until Access Home Care was found in 2004."
Today, Access Home Care has over 300 employees and 286 clients.
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