There might be a good reason that nurses ask patients, “How are WE doing today?” The caregiving relationship is one that consists of two people who are ‘in it’ together. So why do we find it so difficult to understand that both of these people need care, not just one?
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THE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: A Cool Tool For Balancing Caregiving With…LIFE
There is so much talk about self-care in the online caregiving discourse that it’s just plain exhausting. What we need is a simple and realistic way to think about how to meet our own physical and emotional needs while we give care to another. I think I found a good
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: The Caregiver Easy But Effective Exercise Routine
I always feel SO much better when I move my body, even it’s just five minutes of stretching. And I have always loved sports – my favourites as a child were riding, skiing and dancing. But then caregiving entered my life and I became mostly homebound. My exercise became cleaning
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: CAN CARING EVER BE A FORM OF SELF-CARE? MAYBE!
This afternoon I pulled our daughter close in a long embrace as I whispered “goodbye, I love you”. Natalie and her partner Alex were with us for a week at the cottage. Watching the sunset from the sofa at the lake, I massaged her feet. I made her favourite spice
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: SELF CARE? YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING.
Last evening I presented a workshop on self-care for caregivers in my city of Ottawa, Canada. Going in, I knew that this group had huge challenges at home and that they were pretty cynical about the standard ‘just have a bubble bath’ approach to self-care. These were parents who need
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: National Caregivers Month Part 1: Bullet-proof
November is National Family Caregivers month and I’ve decided to write a series about resilience. When I think about my own resilience, I am only half-joking when I tell friends that I’m bullet-proof. What I mean by that is this: I experience a full range of emotions, but another part
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: Taking Care of Yourself As a Long-Term Caregiver – Guest Post
Recently, someone asked me what medications I was on. “Umm…wait. I can tell you my son’s medications and my mother’s too. Gee, I can’t think of my own!” That’s the typical response of a long-term caregiver. We are so busy caring for others, we forget to look after ourselves. Well,
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