Self-Care Is a Project
We already have one of life's most intense project -- caregiving.
Self-care is a project.
It requires time, a schedule, supplies, support, testing, researching, energy, diligence, commitment and tenacity. Its doesn’t just happen. You make it happen.
Of course, a caregiving experience requires the same.
No wonder, then, we struggle to integrate self-care during caregiving. The intensity of our caregiving experience leaves little time for anything but sleep.
It’s also overwhelming to think about adding in another project when the caregiving project already overwhelms us.
You may chide yourself for not being as committed to your self-care as you were before caregiving. You may feel like a loser because you just can’t take that daily walk or resist that Sunday morning pastry. Please know it’s not you. It’s the difficulty of managing one more project, especially a self-care project that feels like it must be a daily commitment.
When it’s impossible for a self-care project to happen every day, consider what’s possible. Your self-care project could be an hour on Saturdays or 30 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. When you do what’s possible, you win.
Resources
Our Caring Plans and Routines can help you create your own Self-Care Project.
Compassion for yourself can be an important part of your Self-Care Project. Our podcasts and blog posts offer comfort for you.
Thank you for sharing your perspective. What helped me with self-care during my caregiving was to think of it as a "tending to" instead of something more rigid. As a gardener tends to their garden daily, so must I tend to myself.