The holidays are supposed to be fun-filled, joyous and a time for memory making. But for many of us, it can also be a hurried, expectation-heavy and stressful time.

This can be particularly hard on family caregivers who are providers for seniors and people with disabilities who need help with their activities of daily life. The question becomes, how does the caregiver manage when there’s only 24 hours in a day?

Often family caregivers provide care out of a sense of obligation, and sometimes even guilt. They want to provide the best, but during stressful times it’s hard for them to even take proper care of themselves.

Caregivers must remember that if they don’t stop to tend to their own needs, the care they want to provide is going to suffer. You can’t care for another if you can’t care for yourself.

Try these five techniques to revitalize family caregivers:

  • Schedule a massage – You may not feel you have time to relax, but that’s often when you need it most. Taking an hour to force yourself to relax can actually give you more energy in the long run. Schedule a massage, read a book, watch a funny movie or indulge in your favorite food. Force yourself to do something non-stressful and relaxing.
  • Eat your vegetables – When your body is stressed it requires more and better fuel. Unfortunately, when life gets busy healthy eating habits are often the first thing we abandon. Grabbing fast food or skipping meals all together means your body doesn’t have the raw material it needs to thrive. If you’re eating quickly, choose healthy. Keep fluids in your body. And, as your mother told you, “eat your vegetables”.
  • Ask for help – Providing care for another day in and day out can be physically and emotionally exhausting. Many agencies provide respite care, short term relief for the regular caregivers. Often this respite is more valuable to the caregiver than to the one receiving care, however an exhausted caregiver isn’t much good. Home health companies such as Allegiance Home Health and Rehab can provide a variety of care choices to supplement the needs of the family caregiver.
  • Quit your job – Being a caregiver is a tough job. In every other field it’s a good idea to give the job to the person with the most capability. In families, however, often the caregiver role falls to the person who feels most responsible, not necessarily the person who has the best ability to provide care. Sometimes the caregiver needs to know when it’s time to pass on the caregiving duties to professionals.
  • Take a class – Mental exercise is as important to your brain as physical exercise is to your body. Family caregivers need to keep both in shape. Find a way to stretch those brain muscles. You could go back to college, but it could also be much simpler. Online courses are widely available. Craft centers and art studios cater to your creativity. Community theatre stretches those with a flair for the dramatic. Even taking a break with a crossword puzzle or video game can rejuvenate the mind.

This time of year we think about gift giving. Sometimes giving yourself a change of pace of a bit of respite can be just what the doctor ordered.

Allegiance Home Health wants to encourage family caregivers to keep themselves healthy first. If we can provide support, long term or short, please call one of our respite coordinators.