How to Manage Caregiver Stress by Choosing Your Attitude

Manage stress by choosing attitude of Compassion As a caregiver, it helps to know that you can manage stress and reduce the likelihood of burnout when you realize you have the power to choose your attitude toward any person, situation or event.

After WWII, Dr. Viktor Frankl, who was a survivor of a Nazi Concentration Camp, wrote the book, “Man’s Search for Meaning”. The Nazi’s had taken Dr. Frankl’s family, his home and his business. All he had left when he arrived at Auschwitz was a suitcase in which he was carrying the manuscript of a book that he’d been writing for 10 years and the clothes on his back. They took his suitcase and then they tried to rob his dignity by taking his clothes and shaving every hair off of his body.

About two years into Dr. Frankl’s captivity, he noticed the primary difference between the people who survived and the people who died was not age, general health or physical strength. It was attitude. He wrote, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

We cannot choose how our care receiver’s disease will progress. We cannot choose how other people will behave or feel. We cannot choose how long it’s going to last, how bad it’s going to get or how much it’s going to cost, but we can choose our attitude toward every day, every event and every moment. The attitude you choose will have an impact on you and everyone with whom you come in contact, so choose it carefully and knowingly.

If you’d like to read more inspirational quotes from Dr. Frankl, click on the link below:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/v/viktor_e_frankl.html#JQ5sWPlPwQTTlD2R.99

Caregiver Help Word of the Day is written by author and caregiver speaker Elaine K Sanchez. Contact her directly at elaine@eksanchez.com