It's an Honor - Learn how to reframe your caregiver role
Listen to this post on my podcast: Journal with Jenny
How many of you take care of others? Whether it’s your children, your coworkers, your friends, your teammates, your parents, your students, your pets, or even people in your community, I am guessing you are all caretakers in some sense if not many!
When you think about taking care of others, what beliefs are tied to it?
JOURNAL PROMPT
Take a moment to write down all the people you take care of and what you believe about it - even in moments of frustration or overwhelm.
When people found out my dad went into the nursing home, many of them reacted by saying with a wrinkled up face, “that must be a lot for you to take care of your parents”, or “that’s a lot for you to deal with all of this.”
I’m not going to lie, it can be a lot and some days are overwhelming because I have many people to “take care of” & things to juggle, but after several people had said things like this to me, I finally just said, “You know what, it’s an honor. I was given to these awesome parents, and it’s an honor that I get to be on this journey with them.”
I sometimes think this about my children. I love them so much, but parenting is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, but I also know that God chose me to be their mom for a reason. So when my kids are struggling, and I’m exhausted and don’t know what to do, I remember, “It’s an honor to be their mom” because it resets my brain to remember how lucky I am to care for them.
JOURNAL PROMPT
What about you? What do you say to yourself in those moments where you feel depleted or overwhelmed?
What do you say to reset your mind to a more positive attitude when a teammate or colleague is irritating you? What COULD you say?
Take a few minutes to write about this.
I don’t want you to think this always comes easily; there are still those days I have a quick cry or confide in a friend about things I’m experiencing, but it truly has helped me to think of caretaking as an honor especially on tough days. If I have a student who is “acting up”, I think, it’s an honor to be his teacher because I get to try and help him become better. A shift happens inside of me, and I’m able to have a more positive outlook.
JOURNAL PROMPT
I encourage you to write about what an honor it is to care for others in your life.
What are you learning about yourself from these experiences?
How are you growing from taking care of others?
I would love for you to write in the comments what words you use to shift your thinking and what you learned from this writing activity that helped you recognize new insights about yourself.
Writing helps us understand ourselves better - to live our values and create new habits & beliefs.
Until next time!
JT
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