WHAT DO YOU VALUE THE MOST
This week we began a new session in our self-care Tuesday group. In this session, we will be exploring the Sustainable Caregiver guidebook along with touching into the emotional journey map.
Values
We contemplated what nourishes us, what we value in the present and is it the same as before becoming a Raregiver. These are important questions to think about when you want to create sustainability in your life.
Some things that nourish us include:
Time alone
Time spent in nature
Sharing moments with family and community
Our spiritual practices
Exercise
Journaling
Take a moment to contemplate what nourishes you...
Things change
Values may change over the course of your life, and once you have a rare child, everything changes. You asked to release your vision of what you thought your family and career would look like.
One of our group members said that after she had her son, "everything was up in the air, and the only thing she knew was that she was going to be his mom for the rest of her life." Little things that seemed important took a backseat to the fact that she was dealing with something much bigger.
Solitude
For many of us, solitude is tremendously important. It gives us the time to process things you've heard and learned. Being alone can give you space to examine how you feel about something that has happened or something that's been said. Taking time to sit alone or perhaps right and reflect can be very useful. Many of us take time to process things and solitude gives us that time.
Connection
For others, it's being with people that nourishes us. If you are someone who drinks from the well of other human beings, make sure to attend groups (like our Tuesday and Thursday morning groups) and schedule time with friends and family. You deserve to be nourished.
The most important thing is to align with your core values. Determine what is nourishing and what sustain you. Is it quality time alone or with others? Whatever it is, it's important to be fully present which invites you to slow down and connect with yourself.
Coming up next week: Noticing Changes (Stage 1, Emotional Journey Map)
From the appearance of first symptoms to the point of diagnosis can be a long, painful journey for raregivers. The raregiver’s journey often starts with a gut feeling—something’s not quite right—that leads to questions. What’s wrong? What’s going on? How do we fix this? Who do we talk to? Let’s come together and talk about what it was like when you first noticed something wasn’t quite right with your Rare child. Sharing your personal experience with others who can relate to you in a disease agnostic environment can be deeply healing.
Please Join Us
You may not realize how much you need the Raregiver community until you find it.
Zoom Link: Click Here
We look forward to being with you soon.
