C-A-R-E-G-I-V-E-R Part 6

Welcome to Caregiver Friday!!

We’re passed the mid-way point on our exploration of caregiving.  I hope that as you read about this qualities or characteristics, you’re able to take the information in and see if you identify with it.  The amazing thing is that you may have already thought about these aspects of your personality or character, but seeing them in the open and connecting to it is something completely different.  You’re giving yourself the gift of compassion.  The ability to accept praise, honor, and value for who you are both as a person and as a caregiver.  Today we’ll explore a more internal facet of caregiving.

I is for Intuitive

As I’ve met with caregivers over the years the one thing that arises time-after-time is your experience of utilizing your intuition.  You may not even be aware you’re using your intuition, but as you, caregivers, share your stories, your level of intuition is heightened.  There’s a saying, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?  Practice…Practice…Practice”.  I believe that’s why caregivers have a heightened utilization of your intuition; it’s because you tap into it more often and pay attention once you tap into that source.

Using your intuition may have been subtle at the beginning.  It may have started off as something visceral like a knot in your stomach, or a queasy feeling.  After a while I’m guessing when the physical manifestation emerged you were better able to connect it to something emotional or spiritual about yourself and the person you’re acting as caregiver. 

You begin/began to pick up thoughts based on tone of someone’s voice or their movements that alerted you to whether someone was safe or not, the person you are caring for is hiding something that they should be sharing, or a sense of something looming or pending.  The longer you serve as a caregiver the more in touch you become with these inklings.  Others may dismiss them but this intuitive nature is what can save the life of the person you love.  It’s a gift that when used can make caring for someone with a chronic or life-threatening illness less fearful.

When I talk about intuition I’m not discussing telekinetic ideas.  I’m exploring the internal GPS that gets alerted with frequent updates about what’s going in the life of you and the patient.  It’s another level of information you can use to help the patient make more informed decisions.  It’s possible that some may call it a vibe, think of the cat in the nursing home who would lie on the bed of the person who was going to die.  Aside from the fact that I wouldn’t want that cat on my bed; the cat had an intuition…a sense of what was ahead.

Your intuition can also serve to instill sanity in your role as caregiver.  It can help you determine what things need immediate attention and which you can set aside for a time so you can take better care of yourself. 

I hope you utilize this gift of intuition.  If you have stories about when or how intuition has shown up in your life as a caregiver I’d love to hear from you.