Honouring Yourself Whilst Being a Carer and Working: Focus on Setting Boundaries

Sometimes those with a caring role will say nothing in their workplace, for others it is a space for all the emotions to come out. If you are someone in this situation or work with someone who has to navigate a caring role whilst also working you can support them in finding ways to avoid burnout.

Setting boundaries is an important self-care strategy that helps working carers maintain their well-being. It helps to:

- Prevent emotional exhaustion

- Maintain personal identity

- Ensure sustainable caregiving

- Protect your own health and well-being

Consider Sally, the mother with a heart of gold, loyal and hard working but empty on energy, had hit burn-out and daily life got a whole lot harder.

Sally was caring for her teenage daughter who had partial schooling and the rest of the week was at home where she needed to be supervised. She knew it was important to keep her job for her own sense of identity, however when I started working with her she was already in burn out. She gave all her energy to work, running the home and her daughter. 

Working together for 6 weeks we explored using visual prompts to find out where she was in relation to her own needs. The wheel of life diagram helped her to see just how dire this had become. Sleep, social interaction, relaxation time were compromised. Whilst she did eat it was in a state of stress so energy levels were depleted.

The break through:

Sally used the visual of the wheel to plan small steps to boundaries that helped with all the areas she was struggling in. By the end of the 6 weeks she was more energised, happier, felt her relationship at home was better as she was not weighed down with the emotions our bodies express when we neglect what we need. Her daughter honoured her mum's decisions to make time for herself as she was seeing a happier mum and their time was full of positive energy. 

Sally's practical tips she used:

• Started with setting aside 90 mins with me once a week and when our work finished she kept this up by keeping that time for herself.

• Communicated with her daughter about human basic needs, gaining insight together into what they needed and how to support each other.

• She agreed to request support from the local authorities to assist with supporting her daughter - using her wheel of life early diagram as evidence to say why they needed the support. Which was responded to well.

The positive outcome

Sally was able to be more energised in her day to day, she managed to balance both roles and as she became more relaxed and happy with her situation she felt she could socialise more, as felt she had positive energy to bring and no longer felt the resentment when she saw how 'easy' life appeared for others.

Contact me for a complimentary call if you are someone in this situation or pass onto someone who you feel may benefit.

# wellbeing #carers #workplacewellness # mental health