Four Tips When It’s Tough to Accept Help
Accepting help from other people, even when you know you need it, is difficult. It seems to be especially difficult for caregivers, who often feel they always must have everything together. But the reality is that you do need help and you can learn how to accept that help gracefully.
Start with a List
Senior Care Jenison, MI: Four Tips with Accepting Help
You do a lot for your senior. More even than you realize. That’s part of why you’re so exhausted all the time and it’s why you need to get better at accepting help. So, sit down with a pen and a piece of paper and start making a list. List out everything that you do, even if it seems ridiculous. This is a crucial step, because a lot more of those tasks than you realize can be delegated to someone else.
Change Your Habits
Turning down help is a habit. It’s something that you’ve likely been doing for so long that you don’t even notice you’re doing it anymore. In order to change that habit, you need to make a conscious decision to do so. When people offer you help, stop and think for a second. Is your first response to tell them, “no thanks”? If it is, consciously say yes to their offer. Their offer may not be exactly what you need, so feel free to modify in the moment. The key is noticing when you’re declining help.
Match People with Tasks
Take another look at your list of tasks. There are tasks on that list that can be handled by other people, not just by you alone. Highlight or put a mark next to those tasks. Your next step is to start matching up those things that need to be done with people who can do them for you. delegating tasks is not something that comes naturally to most people. It takes time and practice and matching up the right people with the right tasks. Keep trying.
Practice Gratitude When Your New Plan Works
As you get better at delegating tasks and as you start to see your personal workload shift, practice gratitude about your new process. This is freeing up time and energy that you can devote elsewhere, hopefully to self-care. That’s one area that caregivers tend to drop when they’re too busy because there’s only so much time and energy in each day.
Very often accepting help from others is also about being willing to seek that help. Hiring senior care providers is an excellent step, but then you need to let them do their jobs. They can make your life and your senior’s life so much easier if you’ll relax and let it happen.
Excerpt: Letting other people help you is difficult to do. These tips can make it easier.
If you or someone you know needs help with Senior Care in Jenison, MI, contact Gauthier Family Home Care. We provide quality and affordable home care services in our community. Call us at (616) 258-2300 for more information.
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