Journaling for Caregivers: Rediscover Yourself
At some point during your caregiving journey, you may find yourself in a rut. The awareness may come with a birthday, a change in season, an event or the beginning of a new year. Whatever the reason, the sameness of each day can, at times, seem overwhelming and permanent.
Yes, you experience adrenaline rushes when your loved one has an emergency. Yes, you have frequent medical updates and handle other changes in their care. But what about you? What about your need as a person to look forward to something fresh and exciting in your own life every once in a while?
Sadly, new beginnings for caregivers are far easier to suggest than to accomplish, especially since they tend to come after significant endings. Yet, with some effort, you can still find small ways to refresh your life if you are willing to push yourself outside of your comfort zone.
One route of exploring new possibilities and rediscovering yourself is journaling. Writing in a journal can be a useful exercise for examining where you were before you took on the caregiving role, where you are now and how you envision your life in the future.
Benefits of Keeping a Caregiver Diary
For many, feelings of loneliness and isolation are an inescapable part of caregiving. One of the key benefits of journaling is that it can give a family caregiver someone (or something) to talk to. While it is important to continue nurturing social relationships, sometimes your best buddy may be a non-judgmental piece of paper.
Lynn Goodwin, former dementia caregiver and author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers, found the blank pages of her notebook to be an invaluable resource during the six years she cared for her mother.
Goodwin says that keeping a journal was “like having a best friend that didn’t talk back…
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