Caregiving and Difficult Feelings
When you’re a caregiver your emotions aren’t always neat and tidy. There are a lot of different feelings that crop up and they might make you feel as if you’re doing something wrong. You’re only doing something wrong if you’re taking those feelings out on other people instead of dealing with them.
Feelings Are Valid, Even When They’re Uncomfortable
It’s really difficult sometimes to accept that even negative or uncomfortable feelings are valid. If you’re angry or frustrated, you have every right to feel that way. What you don’t have the right to do is to take those feelings out on your senior or on other people. Having the feeling is valid. Misusing your response to the feeling isn’t. The key is to learn healthy ways to deal with what you’re feeling.
Don’t Ignore What You’re Feeling
If your response to some of those difficult feelings is to shove them to the side or to ignore them, that’s not going to work as well as you might hope. When you ignore what you’re feeling, those emotions grow instead of shrinking. If they’re feelings that you don’t know how to handle, ignoring them just makes it worse. So instead, acknowledge how you’re feeling and at the very least try to find ways to manage those emotions.
Lean on People You Love
You don’t have to do this alone and you really shouldn’t try. Talk to friends and other people you love who understand what you’re going through. If you feel as if you don’t have anyone you can lean on right now, consider a support group made up of other caregivers. They definitely understand what you’re facing and they can be there for you as you work through your feelings.
You Need an Outlet for Your Feelings
A healthy outlet for your feelings is crucial. Exercise helps a lot of people, but you might find that different emotions and different situations require different outlets for you to manage them effectively. Start keeping a list of what helps you when you’re feeling emotionally overwhelmed. Then, the next time something happens you can choose how you want to handle it.
Dealing with big feelings is not easy to do as a caregiver. But ignoring them doesn’t make anything go away. You’re going to need to dig deep and do the work so that you’re able to continue to do all that you need to do.
If you or an aging loved-one is considering hiring a Caregiver in Broomfield, CO, please contact the caring staff at Touching Hearts at Home today at 303-255-4071.
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