The Seven Habits of a Highly Effective Caregiver Series
#4 They Take “Me Time”.
Make time for yourself. Make sure you take care of your own healthand mind.
This means, proper diet, exercise, spiritual needs and sleep. Make sure you feed your body with not only good food, but emotional and spiritual food as well. Sleep helps refresh and restore, so even an afternoon nap works.
Take breaks through the day, have this in the care plan. It is a known statistic that primary caregivers break down and become ‘the patient’ in 84% of the population of care providers. This happens more when, the caregiver is of the same (or close to the same) age as the patient.
Exercise could be something as simple as, a walk around the block, going outside to water the garden, climbing the steps inside if there are any. Don’t think you need to go to the gym to do exercise. Although this is an excellent idea and could be part of a care plan, especially if the care provider is an adult child.
– askjaynie.com