“Caregivers, Celebrate Your Wins!”
I’m J Smiles, comedian, Alzheimer’s and Dementia activist, and family caregiver. You may know me from Parenting Up™, where we’re a family of caregivers taking care of our family members together. Welcome to P.U.B. the Parenting Up Blog.
Frustration. Ugh! Who enjoys that emotion? Frustration is defined as the feeling of being upset or annoyed, especially because of inability to change or achieve something. Yes, we all will confront frustration at some point, so it’s good to have a shield prepared. The greatest shield that you can obtain to protect yourself from frustration is a solid and strong mind. No, we can’t ignore the emotion itself. It’s inevitable to feel it at some point in your life. But we can prepare ourselves for how to react when that emotion arises. Some people react with aggressiveness, oftentimes getting into a physical altercation. That could in turn become something much larger! Listen, I’m here to tell you right now that it’s not worth it. Not having control over yourself when you’re frustrated, or feeling any less than positive emotion, can be the difference between life and death. Of freedom and imprisonment. For this, I’ll recommend some form of quick meditation. The quickest thing that you can do in that instant is to take a deep breath. Count to ten. Think of something or someone that you love so deeply beyond yourself, that when it or they come to mind, you will feel a calm wash over you. Take that calm and that breath in. Because if you think about it, once that moment of frustration eventually passes, there’s only two roads you would have gone down. The negative road in which you reacted negatively. Or a positive road in which you overcame that initial negative thought that frustration causes.
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🎧Full audio podcast episode for this blog post: Caregivers, Celebrate Your Wins!
