Belief

"You can do only what you can believe you can do," Steve Biegler.

Coaches know this. Athletes training for the Olympics and other events know this, and use visualization and other techniques to help them believe they can achieve their goal. We need to know we can do this as dementia caregivers too. I mean really believe we can do this, even survive this. With statistics so bleak about the survival rate of caregivers, we must know we can survive this service we are providing. Then, even better than survive it, we need to know that we can come out the other side of this as better people, not bitter and bedraggled. So, together, let us believe we can survive this, and let us believe we can thrive within this role as dementia caregivers. One way to help our belief is to look for others who have done this and survived and thrived. I can think of a handful of people who can be models for me. Can you think of some?

Another way to support our being dementia caregivers is an example we heard in an inspirational talk yesterday: Cut from your lives those people who do not support your highest behavior. Or, conversely, keep among our friends and conversations only those people who support us to be the best we can be. I think if we look around at the people in our lives, we will see both those who support us to be our best selves, and those who do not support that. Let us consider during this time of considerable stress as dementia caregivers, spending time only with those people who support us to be the best we can be. And let us avoid those who drag us down.