3 Creative Tips for Carers: Nurturing Yourself in the Caring Role

Introduction

Being a caregiver is a role filled with love, compassion, and dedication, but it can also be incredibly demanding and emotionally taxing. In this blog post, we'll explore three creative tips for carers that not only encourage self-care but also enhance the caregiving experience.

As someone who has cared for a loved one with dementia, I understand the importance of finding moments of respite and self-expression. As we look at these tips think about how you can incorporate creativity in your own journey.

Tip 1: Embrace Creative Activities for Self-Renewal

As a caregiver, it's easy to get caught up in the daily routine of providing care for your loved one. However, it's crucial to remember that taking care of yourself is just as important. One way to achieve this is by embracing creative activities that allow you to express yourself and find solace in the midst of your responsibilities.

During my time as a caregiver for my mother, who battled dementia until 2022, I discovered that creativity became my sanctuary. Engaging in activities such as art journaling, and writing provided an outlet for my emotions but also allowed me to step away from the constant demands of caregiving even if it was for 5 minutes. These moments of self-renewal were essential for maintaining my own well-being.

Whatever time you might have available there is a creative activity that you can try out.  Find a creative pursuit that speaks to your heart. Dedicate time to this activity regularly, even if it's just a few minutes a day. It will help you recharge and bring a sense of balance to your life.

Tip 2: Share Creative Moments with Your Loved One

Caring for someone doesn't mean sacrificing all the activities you love. In fact, involving your loved one in creative endeavors can create meaningful connections and beautiful memories. Consider sharing your creative moments with them.

For example, if you enjoy painting, set up a space where both you and your loved one can create together. Even if their abilities have been affected by their condition, the act of creating art can be a source of joy and connection. It's a wonderful way to engage with them on a different level and create lasting, positive experiences.  

This is exactly what I did with my mum, I asked her if she would draw something for me, got out a few supplies and we both sat at the kitchen table enjoying our creative activity and each other's company.  I had some music playing in the background and a light snack for when she wanted a break, but she spent the next hour focused on her activity.

Be patient and adapt the activities to their abilities and interests. These shared moments can strengthen your bond and offer a welcome break from the routine of caregiving.

Tip 3: Connect with a Creative Community

Caregiving can often lead to isolation, making it essential to seek support and connections outside your caregiving role. One fantastic way to do this is by joining a creative community or group. Whether it's an art class, a writing workshop, or a local crafting club, these communities can provide you with a sense of belonging.  I joined an Art Therapy group run in a local community center and you were able to attend for 6-12 sessions.  There may be initiatives being put on in your area that you can check out and they may have resources to help you.  You can join our online creative community as well HERE

Interacting with others who share your passion for creativity can be therapeutic and uplifting. It allows you to step away from your caregiving duties, even if temporarily, and focus on your own growth and well-being. Additionally, these creative communities often offer a space for self-expression and learning, which can be immensely beneficial for your personal development.

Next Steps

Being a caregiver is a demanding and selfless role, but it's crucial to remember that your well-being matters too. By incorporating creativity into your caregiving journey, you can find moments of solace, foster connections with your loved one, and build a supportive community around you. Whether it's through painting, writing, or any other creative pursuit, nurturing your own creativity can help you maintain balance and find joy in your role as a caregiver. 

Join me on my Realityarts Course Platform where I have a series of FREE courses and digital projects that you can access.  Find out more HERE

So, what creative activities do you do to help you unwind and relax? Share your experiences and ideas with us in the comments below, and let's inspire each other to embrace creativity in our caregiving journey.

On the Blog

Check out my Tips for Carers and A-Z of Dementia, Carers Journey

Figures in Charcoal - 5 Minute Challenge.

Figures in Charcoal – 5 Minute Challenge

I spent two weeks investing 5 minutes creating with my supplies. I wanted to use charcoal and reintroduce myself to the supply - I have 4 different varieties from hard to soft and different brands. So the challenge a 5 minute sketch would achieve several things, get me creating daily and use the charcoal.    It took a few days to get into the swing of things but once I had done it I really enjoyed it. 

You can start a challenge at any time, think about things that you want to get done and give yourself a taster, you will not regret having spent the time in the activity. 

I think I might try and do these challenges every month, it can be as short or as long as you want.  I was thinking about what I wanted to do next with them and I would like to do something with stitching. 

You can see the full video on my Patreon - https://patreon.com/realityarts -  

Here are all the selection of shorter videos for you to see how they came together.

Blessings! 

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Day 14

Creativity - 5 Minutes Every Day

Is Being Creative Every Day achievable?

When you look at the time that you have to be creative, what is it that you constantly find yourself saying.  My words would be I don't have enough time, or I want to create for a whole day, but I will never get a whole day so what is the point!.  When I started Caring for my mother who is living with Dementia I didn't think there was any chance of me finding the time to be creative, but I was wrong.  I realized that I needed to see my creativity from a different perspective. 

 It is important to keep creating every day, especially if you have limited time.  When you say 'oh I will do something tomorrow', it never comes  so you need to find ways to  create some quick activities that are your 'go to' ones, that enable you to spend some valuable creative time on yourself.

Those 5/10 minute slots that come up need to be looked at as valuable resources that can add to your health and well-being, and over time make up those hour slots that you want so badly - just broken up.  Think - if you took two 10 minute slots a day to be creative over 7 days that is 2.5 hours of creating!!  Think about the other things that you do with that time say when you are flicking the channels to find something to watch, why not have a art journal beside you to do some sketching, papers to create a collage - or sort through your collage papers - that's being creative, and you can do longer activities when you have more time.

What I have found is useful is to have a selection of activities that I can do, don't think about activities that you have to finish but ones that you can dip into when you get the chance.

Here are some of my 'go to' activities that I can do when time is limited.

You can also check out some of the videos below that may help spark your creativity and give you some ideas for what you can do with your limited time.

Creating with your Non-Dominant Hand

I always have an art journal handy, and I do a range of activities depending on the time - A great exercise is also to create with your non-dominant hand, doing everything with your non dominant hand gets you to just focus on play and will take your mind off things if only for a moment.  

If you need to break it down you might decide to create the background with the time just laying down colours, another activity might be creating a figure, finding words or encouraging phrases to add to the journal, and just spend 10 minutes at a time.

Creating a Mini Art Journal

Having a mini art journal means that you don't have to worry about filling a large page, but you can do a series of mini pages in 10 minutes, these really do lend themselves to working with limited time.

Doodling

Who doesn't like doodling, OK I guess there are a few, but this is also another great way to spend some time being creative.  In this Video I broke this activity down, I had spent the initial time creating the bird and using the bird to add some journalling.  I then added some paint and colours in my session of the video, and I still left room to be able to come back and do some more work.

I hope that you will have found some ideas to get you going on your creative journey, remember treat those minutes as precious and see how you can take a creative activity to fill them for nurturing yourself.

Check out some of the classes on CreativeLive they have a series of Free online and on air classes that will spark your creativity and give you even more tips to get going!  Let me know how you get on with your time

Stay blessed and be a blessing.

Fear, Regrets, Life, Reflect...Begin - Life is still too Short

What you going to do with the life you have left?

Why are you hiding yourself away, are you caught up in your thoughts, are there things you are going through right now that you want to to talk about but can't speak to anyone until things pass? Is there someone that you can talk to and share your thoughts? what do you do.  

I sometimes have these spells where things don't make sense, things happen and you're not sure how to address them, or get a handle on them.  You might have previously been on a roll, and in the flow but then you get knocked for six.  We had another friend die.  Out of the blue, sudden, no sickness or anything.  Last year 2 of my cousins died - mother and daughter within 2 months of each other 2 other friends died and 2016 saw me at a total of 4 funerals.  

When I am 'feeling it' I don't feel like writing on my blog and I retreat somewhere that I can gather thoughts and reflect, wanting to share, but, you know how it is...... it can be hard to say how you really feel, try and keep it all sweetness and light and carry on as if business was as usual. 

For those who came back for the 31 things, I am sorry, but I dropped the ball for a moment, we all do sometimes don't we, nothing to feel ashamed about, forgive yourself and move on. I had to step back and allow the process to run its' course, or something.  

No Regrets

When you think about your life what is it that you would most regret not doing?  Think about those things that you currently take for granted, the things you wanted to try, the places you said that you would visit, the relationships that you wanted to make better or spend more time in, and ask yourself just what is stopping you at this very moment and what would it take for you to be able to put those things in place.

If you were told that you had a year, month or week to live what would you do with the time that you had left?  How would you spend each and every moment knowing that you would never see the faces of those people that you loved one last time.  

With so many family and friends passing away suddenly, we cannot make head nor tail of it, and each year wonder when there will be a break in the heartache that ensues, when you will get an ease - then another one goes.  We are now our parents position of going to yet another funeral, but it seems more frequent now, people dying younger, hidden agendas? conspiracies?!! reaching out for an answer, a reason, why...why?

Each year I say to my sister; we have to get fitter' healthier, stress less, value our time more. It is something that we all have to do - take our health and well-being in our hands, live and love more, appreciate, and look at those things that we are grateful for... don't wait till someone gets sick before you tell them how much you appreciate and love them.  

Express Yourself

As an artist I express myself in my art, but sometimes I don't want to share - worried at what people may think is the long and the short of it, but no more.  We are all given something to say, to share, to encourage, motivate or bring about laughter and more.  Who am I to play small, to shut down my voice because of what I think someone else thinks about what I am saying?

I want to encourage you that whatever it was that you were thinking of doing, sharing, creating, playing that you share it anyway, that you don't wait for approval, acceptance, or anyone else to tell you how you should do it. You don't know when you will breath your last breath, or the last time you will ever be able to tell someone you love and cherish them, don't wait for the 'right time' or 'when you retire' make plans, sow the seeds, put something in place .......do it now!

See the adventure in life, the joy, possibilities and things that you can do, the little things that mean the world to someone, that brightens their day and helps them to feel like maybe they could shine their 'light' as well.  

Don't waste another minute 'belly button gazing', feeling sorry for yourself, YOU CAN DO IT.  Life is too short to play it small, you will never get another chance to use the minutes that you just wasted so what you going to do with the life you have left?

I decided to go for it, to share, express, and live the life I want to live, be the person I want to be and share my joy, peace, encouragement with the world, and the bits in-between.  In some corner of the world someone is waiting for my words,  who will read to the end of this post and get encouraged when I write and inspired by my art, and I will not hide.  2017 is the year for being All I was called to be, and use the time fully not waste another moment being fearful about who might be watching a using each and every moment like it was my last, no regrets....  

Over to you..

So what are you going to do?  If you are living your life and being the person you want to be I congratulate you, if you express your love to others and are ALL you know you can be, well done.  If you are living fearlessly, grabbing hold of life grateful for the minutes I applaud you!  

If there are parts of you that you want to work on, you want to live life to the full and you are going to go for it regardless, I am in your corner and I am one of your cheerleaders who knows you have the ability and I will be there alongside you as we make the changes together....so come back on the blog tomorrow, sign up to the mailing list, let me know what you are going to do/say/try..  we got this!  Who else is with me?

Saving Yourself - When you feel like your disappearing

Saving Yourself When you feel like your disappearing addresses the need for us to make sure we think about our own health and well-being on a daily basis.

Have you ever found yourself doubting your own feelings and emotions, or that your feelings didn’t matter? Do you even know how you feel right now?  You sometimes hear people talk about how you should be feeling based on their own needs, but they never really ask you, and never seem to have the time to listen to what you might have to say.

It is easy to feel as if 'you' don't matter, you’re not used to shining the light on yourself and you really don't want to make a fuss when people don't acknowledge just how much you have done for them.

Lots of us go through this problem, we've spent years caring for others, whether it is our children, someone else’s children or we've cared for an elderly relative.  We often find it difficult to think of what it is that we do like and it seems as if we have slowly eroded who we thought we were.  Often not being able to answer the question 'what is your favorite......?'

I can totally relate as I found that when I was caring for my mother with dementia and when my son was little I often felt that I didn't know who I was any more.  I spent the majority of my time trying to cater for the needs of another that I didn't know what I wanted, or how I felt and it has been a long journey to rediscover the 'me' I know I can be.

I found that when I didn't have some 'me' time whether it was 5 minutes or 2 hours, this was when I was more likely to feel undervalued emotionally drained and stuck just longing to be rescued somehow!

The easiest way to ensure that this feeling of stuck-ness doesn't happen is finding that much needed time, even if it is 5 minutes you need to schedule it and put it in your diary.  Let others know that you are taking the time, set your watch and go do something creative.

I have 5 easy things that you can incorporate into your day you can do all 5 or just one and this will help you fit creativity into your day and jump start your creativity

1.  Write down your ideas, you know you have them.  Find yourself a set of index cards, or write in a journal and list them, things that you might want to do, try out, go see.  When you start writing things down it helps take you to the next step of putting them into action.  Dust out those corners of your mind and see how many you can come up with in 10 minutes – you can give yourself 10 minutes right?

2.  Identify all the things that you can do in a short space of time say 5 minutes for you, list them, and these are the things that you will take the time out to do when you have shorter pockets of time to spend on yourself.

3.  Take your time – whenever you schedule time for yourself focus on what it is that you are doing, don’t try and do a whole range of things, value you in that space at that moment and really enjoy spending time on you!

4.  Where can you go for inspiration?  Think of places you can go, it could initially be around your neighbourhood, the local park, a garden, you might be able to incorporate a once a week trip to a museum, or gallery.

5.  Try something new! Think about the art supplies that you have and try something different, you might use them in a different way, or try a new technique, just allow yourself to play.

Once you start giving yourself this much needed time you will find that you’re not so stressed, and you can breathe again.  You might even be able to hear the birdsong outside your window!

What one do you think you will try first?

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Stay blessed and be a blessing

Amanda