After the Crisis, We Need Our Recovery Plan

After our caree’s hospitalization, we create plans for their recovery. Their recovery plan could include a short-term stay in a long-term care facility, home health at home or outpatient physical therapy.

We need a recovery plan, too. A caregiving crisis, including our caree’s hospitalization, takes its toll on us, too. We think the toll ends when the crisis ends. “Phew!,” we may think. “The worst is over so I can go back to my intense, exhausting, normal day.”

Without time for our own recovery, the toll adds up. As we power through our crisis and talk ourselves into going straight back into our demanding day, we start to ask too much of our mind, body and soul.

The crisis is hard on us. It’s stressful, emotional, worrisome and frustrating. After a crisis, we often feel depleted. We need time to receive.

The truth, of course, that we wonder how we’ll find the time for our own recovery plan. The reality is that without time to recover we’ll simply wear out. Our own recovery is a priority we must take seriously.

Our recovery plan can be a few moments at the end of the day to relax. It can be simple meals for as many days as we need simple meals. It can be a pass we give ourselves on cleaning or laundry. It can be beginning the day with the promise to move slower because we need a slower day.

To help you create recovery plans, I’ll post ideas every day for the next 30 days on Caring Our Way beginning tomorrow (May 16). I’ll share specific situations which call for a recovery plan and then share what that plan could be. Join us on Caring Our Way to receive the support of our 30 Recovery Plans event.

Let’s recover.

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Resources

• We experience so much in our day. You deserve support to manage all those experiences. Download A Workbook for Your Workplace Wellness so you can keep going.

• Enroll in our two-hour workshop, Building Workplace Resilience, which costs $29. Our workshop takes place monthly on the first Wednesday at Noon ET; you choose which Wednesday to join us after you enroll. Initial data from this workshop shows that participants have more tools to bounce back from difficult days, have tools to manage their difficult emotions during the work day and have coping strategies to manage their stress during a difficult time.

• The Daily Healing Plan, Support for Your Worries is now available. Create plans to manage your worries, which can be so painful. You deserve healing for the worries.