Senior Care Center’s Advice on how to Reduce Stress by Saying ‘No’ When Caring For Seniors

“Just say no” was the slogan at the heart of an anti-drug campaign that ran in the 1980s. It is a phase whose words can be the perfect mantra for family caregivers who feel stressed-out.

As a caregiver, your duties to taking care of an aging family member can have you feeling as though you are being pushed to the wall. The pressures and strains of meeting your responsibilities can have you feeling stressed. If that is the case, then it may be the ideal time let go and “Just say no” to some of the situations you face. If you feel overwhelmed and would like some help contact Senior Care Center who will be able to advice you.

What Can You Let Go Of?

In the execution of our duties and with full knowledge of what is expected of you, you should be aware of what it is you can and cannot do. Ask yourself, “what can I postpone” Appreciate the fact that you cannot let go of everything. Some things will be mandatory for you to handle as a caregiver. In most cases, such things are connected to the safety and security of the aging family member.

Time limitation may be a factor that influences your decision on what you can postpone and what you can handle. Nevertheless, there are opportunities in your schedules that you can assess which areas of your life and work you can leverage to reduce your commitments and maximize your time and energy.

Simplify Your Life

When you are feeling stressed and overwhelmed, that is the ideal time to consider putting in some effort to simplify your life where possible. As you say no to some things and decide to postpone a few of your obligations, they should focus mostly on the outside responsibilities are you deem optional. Take a break and have a breather as you enjoy a few minutes of quiet time. Use that moment to review your schedule for the next few weeks.

Do you have to be the only one who organizes your church’s fundraiser or can you pass that responsibility to someone else? Is that contra dance an immediate necessity? Hopefully, you get the idea. The nature of your work may be demanding and forcing you to make several changes to your personal life. As such, you may find yourself having to juggle things on both sides without knowing that your work already has added caregiving responsibilities to your otherwise full personal life schedule.

How to Decide What Task Are Optional

You can make decisions about this by first asking yourself which are the things that you consider most important to you enough for you to make them your focus in life right now. But you should not focus on a lot of things; limit it to around three or four things with the inclusion of caregiving amongst these. So, one area of focus will be your job, your family in another, and personal stuff in another.

With such planning, you will not have much time or room for much else. You need to focus on taking care of yourself so that you can be in a position to meet your caregiving responsibilities and not be overwhelmed by your work that you cannot attend to your family’s needs.

What You Can Postpone

After you have identified the three or four things that you can focus most on, you can then proceed to review your calendar to identify the appointments that are outside of these areas and postpone them or let them go. Keep in mind that you still may come across a few areas in the three or fours things you have deemed of importance that you can let go of or postpone. You may need to get a second opinion from someone outside your caregiving situation to help you figure out what you can defer, hand over to another, or let go.

The 3 To 4 Most Important Tasks

It’s always a brilliant idea to pen down your thoughts. The same applies to the three or four things that you feel are essential to you. You should write them in that notebook that you carry with you all the time, or include them in your phone’s calendar. The goal is to ensure that you have some form of reminder and a reference point for when something else comes up, and you then can “just say no” to them.

It is okay to feel some sadness when you are letting go of some of your responsibilities or postponing them. Remind yourself during such instances that your job (caregiving) will not last a lifetime and that you still have more time in the days to come for you to prioritize some aspects of the demands of your work and life.

Assisted living for seniors is meant to help families overcome the stresses of caring for their aging loved ones. Moreover, most of these aged and aging people soon discover that retirement homes are a wonderful place, a home away from home.