The Creative Caregiver… ideas for creating a successful journey     By Joyce Marie Sheldon

                       BE A COMMUNICATOR

  • Learn to listen.
  • Learn to speak clearly, with honesty and kindness.
  • Put yourself in the shoes of your loved one who is ill.
  • What would you want, need, and long for?
  • Speak of love to those who await your tenderness and your touch.
  • Speak of faith and hope and joy to those who await your encouragement.
  • Speak of kindness and understanding to those who await your compassion.

 BE RESPECTFUL

  • Everybody’s different!
  • Practice being understanding and compassionate.
  • Yours is not to judge, but to love.
  • Yours is not to fear, but to accept.
  • Yours is not to question, but to answer.
  • Yours is not to follow, but to lead.

BE A VISIONARY

  • Replace your fear with faith
  • Replace your tears with visions of triumph
  • When the power of the virtue surges high above the doubt -that is when the heart shall fly – and soar -and feel the freedom.

BE AN ENERGY SAVER

  • Prioritize your tasks, ask for help, and be accepting of your limitations.
  • A Creed – to know where I must go and those who will come with me;  to work, to accomplish, to contribute;  to know what must be done and find the courage to do it.

BE FLEXIBLE

  • Practice bending and swaying to the needs of the day; give up rigidity.
  • Measure your time in the quality of the task and not the quantity of what is done.
  • Look not to what needs to be done, but the value of what has already been accomplished.

These principles can help create a serene environment and more compatible relationships with others.