Denial’s not a River
We live in a time of tremendous cultural denial of aging and end of life issues. That’s why the Caregiver Revolution is so valuable. It goes right to the heart of the issue. To start, you don’t need to change what you’re doing, you only need to change your attitude.
Acceptance is the key to better caregiving.
Caregiving is usually relegated to being a secondary activity, a burden, and the end of life is seen as a depressing, difficult time. We have found the opposite. Caregiving can be a positive, life changing experience. The end of life can be a time of spiritual growth.
The Preliminaries
You can benefit from caregiving if you’re able to:
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accept the reality of your present caregiving situation
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realize the importance of the work that you’re doing
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make efforts to manage your caregiver stress
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apply a few simple tools and techniques of mindfulness
It’s that simple. You can succeed with it. That’s our premise…and the promise of our book.
The 5 Steps to Better Caregiving
The methodology is simple. We’ve broken the revolution into 5 simple steps. We help you to get organized, give you the tools to work with stress, and then help you to strengthen your caregiver attention. With this attention you can help others in transition because you know how to stay focused on the direct needs of the present moment during a crisis. In this way you can really be present for those who are dying.
We’ve divided the techniques into five steps. They are outlined below:
Step 1 – Get Organized and Take Care of the Basics
Step 2 – Manage the Stress Associated with Caregiving
Step 3 – Strengthen your Caregiver Presence
Step 4 – Help Those in Crisis and Transition
Step 5 – Provide Spiritual Care and Support for the Dying
The goal of eventually helping others may seem very ambitious to you at this time. It is our sincere hope in writing this book that you become more confident in your ability to handle crises, to deal with end of life issues and to support others at the time of death.
The tools and techniques used here were chosen because they are time-honored and effective. No religious affiliation, creed, doctrine or belief is implied or necessary. Our view of spirituality is that the expression of God (the creator, Allah, Yahweh, the highest power…whatever you want to call it) is in the details. In the beginning we advise that you stay very detail-oriented. In any situation you can intensify your focus on the specifics of that situation and that will serve as a window to a higher spiritual energy entering your work.
