Caregiver Survival Tip #1
Learn Something New
Being a caregiver can be extraordinarily confining. When you feel like you can’t leave your loved one home alone, and when he/she doesn’t feel well enough to enjoy company, it’s easy to become isolated. Lack of socialization often creates feelings of boredom and loneliness, which can quickly lead to depression.
If your care receiver is in pain or suffering with a long-term, progressive and degenerative disease, they probably don’t provide a lot of stimulating companionship. So how do you keep yourself from slipping into an abyss of emotional desperation?
This week I’m going to be writing about strategies that can help caregivers can survive the emotional stress of caregiving.
Today’s tip is to learn something. If you have a computer, you have access to unlimited free or relatively inexpensive education.
I’m a big fan of Ted Talks. Experts speak for 6 to 18 minutes on topics that will entertain you and expand your mind. The theme of Ted Talks is “Ideas worth spreading”. Click on this link to visit the website:
http://www.ted.com/
Another fascinating opportunity can be found on the Edx website. The world’s best universities offer online non-credit courses absolutely free. You can audit courses that range from “Introduction to Global Sociology” from Wellesley to “Introduction to Solid State Chemistry” from MIT to “The Science of Happiness” from Berkeley.
Click on this link to visit the website:
Yesterday I subscribed to lynda.com, a website that offers courses in technical skills. I have a new Mac computer. Through the years I have achieved an intermediate level of knowledge and skill, but I still feel like I’m stumbling around in the dark in a number of areas. This website offers more than 2,700 video courses, and for $25 a month I can learn as much as my mind can absorb.
Click on this link to visit the website:
http://www.lynda.com/member.aspx
If you have ever wished that you knew something or could do something, switch off the television and search your computer. Just for the fun of it, I searched “course on basket weaving” and I got 552,000 results. So if you could use an emotional boost today, try learning something new.
