UBC - Day 10 Carers Tips - & Gratitudes and Celebration - Week 60 - Release

Welcome to Day 10 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge, and also my Friday Gratitude and Celebration post.  It has been a busy week, and I have managed to slip with two of the days for the challenge. I had hoped to post as usual alongside the challenge, but I guess I bit off more than I could chew, and over estimated at how much I could fit in.

I have been finding that many emotions have been rising to the surface as I write about the things I have learnt from being a carer, and watching my mum change before my eyes.  I had been finding that the posts had been allowing me to express and share things that I had been putting on the back burner and subsequently the emotional fall out from that manifested in different ways.   I have so much that I want to share creatively and with regards to helping others who may find them useful. 

But I was missing something.  I have been spending so much time writing about what I do that I hadn't been taking the time to just spend being creative, as there didn't seem to be the time and then after a while you begin to feel as if the well is running dry.  I wasn't feeling the excitement of sharing as I had done at the beginning and it became a chore.

It is important to me to spend time being creative every day, and when that doesn't happen its like a drain just clogging up with stuff.  My creative process enables me to release that stuff and thankfully as we express ourselves creatively that stuff is renewed and transformed and turned into a piece of art or a journal page.

This page, for me was a simple reminder that we are unique, we have so many things about ourselves that are 'all that' and more and I, we, you need a gentle reminder every now and then, especially when things seem to be clogged up!

As a carer you have to find ways to work with the time you have and take that time out (and I will cover that more in posts to come), but you have to recognise that you may not always have it together and if you don't step back and take a breath things can get overwhelming and you end up dropping a lot of balls that you had previously juggled without a problem.  I made a conscious decision on Wednesday to release myself from the stress of posting, knowing that I set my pace and have to be realistic about what you can physically do.  We also have to be mindful about committing to too many things and spreading ourselves too thin, but as a creative there is so much that I am inspired and that wants to be expressed - it can get crazy up in here!

You are so unique

I have promised myself to keep it simple from now, and I will aim to post the Carers Tips in the morning and the other posts later during the day.  I am also posting some of the new work that I have been doing on my other mixed media art blog, so check it out.  I am grateful and celebrate the ability to step back from the chaos and release the anxiety, stress or what ever else needs to be let go of. Tomorrow is another day for us to tackle challenges and be inspiring, so take it at your own pace.

Amazing qualities surround you!

For now, take a moment to think about what it is that you have that needs to be released, if only for a short while to get you back on track, or is it something that you need to let go of altogether, and give yourself permission to step back from the routine.

You can click on the 'Celebrating life' image to be taken to the rest of the posts on the Journey of a Carer.

Quote Wednesday - Charles Kingsley

Quote Wednesday

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about..Charles Kingsley

Don't over complicate things..get out of you own way..get out some art supplies and get creative!

Each Quote Wednesday I share a quote with a photograph that I have taken. Quotes can be so inspiring and uplifting it is a good idea to meditate on the words and make a point of saying something encouraging about your life!  Do something great!  

Join me next week for the next inspiring quote and image. Blessings

UBC - Day 7 - Encourage - Tips for Carers

Welcome to day 7 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge, 

Tips for Carers

It can be very easy at times to loose your cool, you get frustrated and then annoyed at something that you need them to do that they are not doing, or appear to be sabotaging.  I must admit at times I have got angry at mum thinking that she is doing something on purpose, and I think that these things stem from fear, when you think about the thing that they were quite alright doing, suddenly the next day they don't have a clue how to do it.

I remember the day mum couldn't work out how to get out of her bed room.  This was in the early days and I had gone round there and my key wouldn't open the door as she had put the chain on the door.  I rang the bell and couldn't understand why she hadn't come to the door yet, I knew she was in, I kept calling through the door but didn't hear anything, so I started looking through the bedrooms thinking something must have happened.  

I was shocked when saw her through her bedroom window trying to find the door which was directly in front of her, there wasn't anything wrong with her vision but she just couldn't work it out, she kept feeling the walls and muttering to herself.  I was scared, for her and what it meant for me, as there would have to be things implemented to cope with this new change.  I called to her through the window and directed her to the door, and then when she got to it she came straight to the front door and opened it for me.

Over the years, I had to keep reminding myself that if we focused on what she could do for herself and encourage her along the way this took the anxiety out of the situation that was changing.  I am not saying that I don't get frustrated at times, but I have to  put it in perspective and celebrate all thing things that she can still do, and today being able to feed herself is something to celebrate.

For now, think about all the things that they can do and celebrate no matter how small.  The encouragement that you can give will mean so much to them, and help you put things into perspective as well!

Check out some of my A-Z posts on my journey as a carer, click on the links below

You can also click on the 'Celebrating life' image to be taken to the rest of the posts about my A-Z experience as a carer.

UBC - Day 6 - Tips for Carers - Family and Friends

Caring for a loved one can be such an isolating experience with dementia unlike say a broken leg, the leg gets better people can see that the leg is broken and so there are certain expectations about things that you are unable to do.  With dementia there isn't necessarily any outward sign, as it gets worse and ravages the memory and leaves its after effects on its unwilling participants

As the carer I have found that your relationships with family and friends can suffer, as you try and navigate your way around the changes to your routines and additional things that you need to do in order to manage the caring role, you can end up drifting from your social life, too tired to call friends when you've been up all night trying to get your loved one back in bed cause they think it is day time.  

This is the same for those with dementia, people don't know what to say, they feel awkward with the silences and stop calling or passing by.  Where possible if you can have a few people that you can call on and will call you every now and again even if it is just to say hi, it is important that you keep the connections going, and for your loved one hearing a familiar voice of someone they know can help both of you.  

You could ask friends and family to make a voice recording of things they have been doing that week and play it back.  It is a way that they can feel included in things that are going on around them. There is lots of technology that you can use to facilitate this and it is also good for those people whose family live abroad.

For now, get together with family members and a few friends and ask them to be part of a schedule where they call once a week to see how things are going, or even come round and give you a much needed break!