Does your blood pressure soar once you finally finish filling your cart with groceries, simply to find only one checkout lane open and a line of aggravated shoppers ahead of you? Or when you arrive five minutes early for a doctor’s appointment, only to have to wait 45 minutes to be seen? Some people just appear to project an inherent sense of patience, regardless of the circumstances. Wouldn’t you love to know their secret, particularly when it comes to learning to be a more patient caregiver and provide better care for a loved one?
Thankfully, you can increase your level of patience in much the same way that you increase your endurance in exercising – through practice. Try the following tips to strengthen your caregiving patience muscles:
How Can I Become More Patient?
- Intentionally put yourself in circumstances that require patience. Let someone go ahead of you the next time you are standing in line. Make yourself wait a few moments (or more!) before checking your phone. Strike up a conversation with someone who tests your patience.
- Make a concerted effort to really listen when others are talking. It’s very easy to begin forming your response before the person has finished, but strive to place all of your focus instead on everything they are saying.
- Accept your current circumstances. Perhaps the person you are providing care 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 loved one to remain as autonomous as possible, and often that may necessitate allowing some extra time and a good measure of patience.
- Try to channel your inner child. Let yourself laugh more, be silly, and remind yourself not to let the small things that annoy you become big things. Just a little lightening up and letting go can go a long way towards eliminating stress.
- Take some time to simply concentrate 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 for a quick fix. Allow something that is broken to remain broken for some time instead of pressuring yourself to instantly take care of it.
When time is of the essence, however, it becomes all the harder to stay patient. Let a caregiver from the leading Windsor, Ontario senior care team at Amy’s Helping Hands help. We can provide a comprehensive range of in-home care services that can help you free up the time you need. Contact us online or call 519-915-4370 for more information and to request a complimentary in-home consultation.
