Burnout

It’s a topic of great interest to anyone who is caring for another human being.

Family caregivers have a dose of extra responsibility. There’s the physical caring, which seems like a lot.

It’s not all. We also make personal decisions about the healthcare of our loved ones. Financial decisions fall to us as, often, do the costs of care.

Burnout is on a long list of mustn’ts. It behooves us to stay positive; to stay healthy; to remain cheerful; and to continue with “self care.”

So we mustn’t harbor any negative thoughts or attitudes.

Mustn’t get ill.

Mustn’t take the smile off our face or out of our voice!

Mustn’t deny ourselves that moment of quiet or time for a manicure.

Of course, we expect the mustn’ts to add up so we won’t burn out.

Maybe we should just acknowledge that burnout and sadness are part of the experience.

This was my comment to my friend D.:

As for burnout, everyone advises self care. I say, “Yes, and with that, we still get burned out because this “labor of love” as you put is hard. It’s a lot, it’s work.” I think that reminding ourselves of love is a big component of self care.

And I think that congratulating ourselves on 😣 persevering can go a long way to mitigate the hard parts.

Myself

Acknowledging the challenges today brings can only help. For instance, today, it’s the physical needs of care that are hard for me.

Tomorrow, it might be the emotional or a complicated mixture of things. I will find a way to cope. And I will let love lead.