Does your blood pressure soar once you finally finish filling your cart with groceries, only to find just one checkout lane open and a line of irritated shoppers in front of you? Or when you arrive 5 minutes early for a doctor’s appointment, simply to need to wait 45 minutes to be seen? Many people just seem to exude a natural sense of patience, whatever the circumstances. Wouldn’t you love to know their secret, specifically to improve caregiver patience when it comes to caring for someone you love?
Thankfully, it is possible to increase your level of patience in much the same way that you increase your endurance in exercising – through practice. Try these strategies to strengthen your caregiving patience muscles:
How Do I Become More Patient?
Make a conscious effort to really listen when others are talking. It is easy to begin formulating your response before the person has finished speaking, but make an effort to place all your focus instead on everything they are saying.
Try to channel your inner child. Let yourself laugh more, be silly, and remind yourself not to allow the small things that irritate you become big things. A little lightening up and letting go can go a considerable way towards eliminating stress.
Take the time to simply focus on your breathing and to be in the moment. When your thoughts start to wander, acknowledge the distraction, but gently guide your thinking back to your breathing.
Resist the desire to immediately fix or problem-solve. Allow something that is broken to remain broken for a period of time as opposed to pressuring yourself to quickly take care of it.
Purposely put yourself in circumstances that require patience. Let someone go ahead of you the next time you’re standing in line. Make yourself wait a couple of minutes (or more!) prior to checking your phone. Strike up a conversation with someone who tests your patience.
Accept your present circumstances. Perhaps the person you’re caring for is taking considerably longer to get dressed than you would like. Remind yourself that your job is to provide care but to also enable the person to stay as independent as possible, and often that will call for allowing some extra time and a good measure of patience.
When time is of the essence, however, it becomes all the harder to stay patient. Let a caregiver from The Care Company, the leader in elderly home care services in Etobicoke and the surrounding areas, help. We can provide a comprehensive range of in-home care services that will help you free up the time you need. Call us at 416-422-2273 to find out more and to ask about a complimentary in-home consultation.
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