Are You Sabotaging Your Self-care Plan?

Even if you’ve got a self-care plan in place, you might find that you’re accidentally sabotaging it. If your plan isn’t an effective one, you’re doing yourself a disservice and you’re limiting what else you’re able to do as a caregiver.

 

Elder Care in Highland Park IL: Sabotaging Your Self-care Plan

Elder Care in Highland Park IL: Sabotaging Your Self-care Plan

 

Making Excuses

You might have seen this in motion with other people you love, but making excuses for not doing something is a potent coping mechanism. Your excuses around self-care might be things like not having enough time or not really needing to do something anyway. If you tell yourself these things long enough, you can start to believe them, which is not a great plan. Avoiding things like eating right for too long can leave you way too run down.

 

Feeling Guilty or Embarrassed for Taking Time Away

You’re not likely to feel embarrassed for eating healthier meals, but downtime is a big part of self-care and it’s one that inspires guilty feelings. Often being a caregiver translates to being on call all day and all night, so if you’re taking time away, you’re being irresponsible. But that’s not really true. You need to be able to have the time of your own so that you can come back refreshed.

 

Worrying that You Don’t Deserve Self-care

When you’re being really tough on yourself, you might even start to think that you’re never doing enough. That translates usually to you believing that you should always be doing more, not less. And that translates to not deserving to take time away or to take care of yourself. But that leaves you at a deficit as a caregiver. Everyone deserves to have their needs met and to feel that they can take time away when they need to do so.

 

Fear of What Might Happen

If you’re someone who worries a lot, you might start to worry about things happening when you’re not around, too. But you’re not singlehandedly able to keep bad things from happening just by denying yourself what you need. Hiring experienced home care providers can give you the peace of mind that you need to know that you really can take time away.

When you notice that you’re sabotaging your own self-care, you can do something about it. Then, once you do, you’re going to see a difference in what you’re able to do as a caregiver. Taking care of yourself gives you a huge boost in what you’re able to do for other people in your life.

If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring Elder Care in Highland Park, IL, call the caring staff at LifeCare Home Health & In-Home Services. Call (888) 606-4199 LifeCare serves all of the Chicago Metro Area.

LifeCare Home Health & In-Home Services