Caregiver Burnout Recovery

Are you feeling tired? Maybe even burnt out? I am.

Over the last few weeks, over 300 families joined me for the live Life Plan Workshop, and it was incredible! Thank you to all of the families that played a big part in the workshop and made it a success.

I gave it everything I had, and your energy and desire to learn is the only thing that was keeping me going. I was burnt out, interestingly enough, in a live coaching session with the families in the Empowering Ability (EA) Club Membership one of the caregivers said, "I'm feeling burnt out. Is anyone else feeling that way?" And almost everyone on the call shared their experience feeling burnt out or tired.

So, today I thought it was essential to check in with you to see how you are doing and talk about what caregivers are doing to rest and recover from feeling burnt out. In this short video, you will learn what you can do to prioritize your rest and recovery.

Below is the written article:

Hey there, Eric Goll here from Empowering Ability. And I just want to send a heartfelt thank you and deep, deep gratitude for you. And especially for all those families that joined me in the Life Plan Workshop. We had over 300 families join for the live workshop, which was just incredible. So many wins and takeaways and small steps are being taken forward in life planning and future planning for our loved ones. And the energy that y'all brought was amazing. So I just wanted to send a deep level of gratitude out to you and for all those families that showed up. And, you know, your energy and presence and questions and desire to move forward with creating that awesome ordinary life with your loved one is really the driving force for me to do this work. And, to be honest, after doing that workshop and creating this brand new Life Plan Coaching Program, which was previously was called the Plan My Future Coaching Program, and I revamped it redesigned, it made it even more incredible to help really families make progress. I was just completely exhausted, I was, you know, on the point of burnout, and it's, you know, week and a half, almost two weeks later, just recovering from it now. And in conversations with the families that I that I'm working with now in the lifeline coaching program, but especially the families that I'm working with, in my ongoing coaching program called EA club, Empowering Ability Club, families have just been feeling burnt out, like feeling really, really tired. And, you know, just going through that experience for myself, maybe not from the caregiving perspective, I mean, there have been a lot of things that we've been working through as a family, with my sister and her supports, and as well, but you know, I'm not doing a lot of direct caregiving right now. So it's a little bit different, maybe of a burnout experience, maybe what you're experiencing, and I completely understand the intricacies and differences of that from the time that I was living with my sister for over two years. But you know, just this burnout feeling that you might be experiencing, I want to talk about it for a minute, and maybe normalize it a little bit for all of us because you're not alone. I think many families are feeling this way right now. And there was a comment on, you know, from one of the families in the Life Plan Coaching Program came from Barbara, and Barbara, I think you'll be okay to be sharing this. The comment Barbara posted on somebody else's comment was to allow yourself some grace; you have a lot on your plate. I think there's a lot of wisdom in Barbara's comment here. You have a lot on your plate. Allow yourself some grace. So, Barbara, thank you for those words; I think they're words that many of us need to hear right now. And we're having this conversation around burnout and feeling overwhelmed and stressed in EA Club and the ongoing coaching group that I have, with an amazing group of families. And a suggestion was brought up of how long is your to-do list or your priority list? And if you have one, um, many of us do, and it just keeps getting longer, and it can feel endless, right? And somebody brought up the point; I think it was Carol or Karen, of how often do you put yourself at the top of that list, how often we put ourselves on the priority list, right? And we need to put ourselves on the top of that priority list to ensure that we've got that recovery and that rest that we need. So I want to offer that to you; this week of coming, at least once, put yourself at the top of that priority list. Give yourself what you need. Because I know as caregivers we're so giving and putting other people at the top of our priority list, but if we do that too often, we will burn out. So put yourself at the top of your priority list at least once this upcoming week. And give yourself that gift. And this also reminds me of the need to give ourselves some space, and I remember hearing a caregiver share a story in their own home. they felt like they didn't have that space and couldn't get it way to give themselves that time, and they had to resort to going and hiding in the closet for five minutes to give themselves that peace and space they needed. So there might be a space in your home where you got that privacy in that space; maybe it has to be the closet, I don't know. But, just the point is to take that time to create that space, give yourself that space and to give yourself that self-compassion, to allow yourself to have that rest and recovery that you need so that you can be there to care and support and provide for those loved ones that you have. So I think this is just an important message that we all need to be reminded of. And for some of us, we need to hear right now. So I hope this was helpful for you feel free to scroll down, leave me a comment. And maybe you can share what's helpful for you in terms of your rest and recovery or what was helpful for you in this video. I'm Eric Goll. Together, let's take a small step forward this week.