How Can You Avoid Unnecessary Stress as a Family Caregiver?
May 17, 2017
Caregiver in Aptos CA: How Can You Avoid Unnecessary Stress as a Family Caregiver?
Being a family caregiver means that you're juggling a lot of stress, but there are some stressors that aren't essential for you to deal with at all. Learning how to avoid those gracefully gains you some space in which to recover.
Trim Your to Do List as Much as Possible
Take a look at your to do list and your schedule. It's entirely possible that you're trying to do way too much on your own, which is a major contributor to stress levels for family caregivers. Look at what you can delegate and what you can permanently pass off to someone else. If a task isn't essential at all, look at why you're still doing it at all.
Learn the Art of Saying "No"
Saying "no" is indeed an art. Some people can't bring themselves to do it at all because it makes them feel too guilty. The fact is that you can't do everything all the time. As a family caregiver, you may find that you're having to choose between too many different tasks and activities. Start saying "no" to some of these in order to get them off your responsibility list. Then you have more energy for the items that you do have to handle.
Avoid Situations that Stress You out Too Much
Some people and situations exist simply to cause stress for other people. If there are situations like that in your life, look at ways that you can avoid them completely or work around them. Granted, you can't avoid every person or situation that stresses you, but you can look at whether you absolutely must deal with that situation yourself or not.
Take Control of Managing Your Stress Levels
As mentioned, some situations are in the list of situations you can't control. The ones you can control, however, you definitely need to control and manage. If watching the news at night makes you jumpy, you don't have to. Read the headlines on a news site you trust or from the paper, but only read the articles you want to read. You can control how you receive certain information and that can make your life easier.
As you learn more about avoiding stress that doesn't really belong to you, you'll find yourself becoming more adept at it.
