Finding Meaning in Caregiving

ALAN
Your journey as a caregiver may be challenging on many levels. Along the way, you may learn that you care about your family member with TBI beyond what you realized, and your reserves of strength may surprise you... even when you’re tired and feeling alone.
    
Take pride in your ability to be taking care of another human being. Think about the ways you have changed and grown through your caregiving experience. Finding meaning in your caregiving journey will enlarge your sense of yourself and your family, and will allow you to use your personal experience to give meaning to others.

Some caregivers find strength in religion or spirituality in the face of the challenges of taking care of a service member or veteran with TBI. You may find comfort in your religion or in the peace and beauty of nature. Nourish this part of your life, if it is important to you, because it will renew your spirit.

Your caregiving experience may change your life and your sense of self. Consider keeping a journal during your caregiving journey. Creating a journal will help you explore your own thoughts and feelings about what’s going on in your life.

You may find that you will want to look back on this period in your life at some point in the future. Your journal will be an important guidepost to what you were thinking and feeling. It may also help you to see the changes that happened so slowly that you didn’t notice them at the time they happened.

Thank you for joining us.