Things in Erin’s Head
On Monday this week I did a pre-recording interview with the host of the Fun is Fundamental podcast (we’re recording our episode in August – stay tuned). We chatted about caregiving, Taking the Pause, and Celebrating (HELLO! I just completed my Celebration Series! Coincidence? Ahhh I think not #DivingTiming).
Midway through our chat, the host asked me one of the hardest questions there is about caregiving,
“How do you get a Caregiver to ask for help?”
I closed my eyes and exhaled, “You can’t.”
But I explained, “Not only is it hard for some people to ask for help because they want to believe they can do it all, but they are literally so overwhelmed and so tired, they can’t even THINK about what to ask FOR.”
People would ask me all the TIME if I needed help. “Just let me know if you need anything…” they would say. I’d nod. I knew I needed something, but how do you say, “I just need HELP,” and not have anything specific to ask for? It can feel really needy, icky, and like you’re failing at everything.
And so I told the host (with exponentially large hand gestures – thank goodness for Zoom), “That’s why in addition to sharing everything I could think of from my own caregiving experience (I have full “In Hindsight” sections in my book, “Welcome to Caregiving: The Things Caregivers Never Talk About“), I’m also creating resources for the people surrounding the Caregiver.
- The Body Scan Checklist to connect caregiver with patient, and patient to themselves, before meeting with the medical professionals.
- Ten Ways to Support a Caregiver – exactly BECAUSE Caregivers don’t always know what to ask for.
- Five Ways to Celebrate (without cake or champagne), to help celebrate the small wins in life for everyone, and…
I recently made available to the public the once exclusive workshop: Taking the Pause: Redefining Self-Care. This workshop offers exercises and insight to help participants consider how they feel about self-care (REALLY), and ways to start thinking about self-care differently.
All of these resources and MORE are available on my website at www.ErinCopelan.com/Resources. New tools and resources are being added regularly and I have a few partnerships on the horizon that I’m very excited about… the first of which is announced in today’s OTHER Hump Day Newsletter (I did a *thing* this week and one newsletter went to y’all and a DIFFERENT newsletter went to my massage peeps… If you wanna check it out (you can benefit from the new partnership no matter where you live!)? >>CLICK HERE<<
Because every pause we take helps us soften the caregiving journey. It helps us stay human. It helps us share the love…
Because it’s all about love…
