Happy Holidays and welcome back to Sip of
Soup, my bi-monthly E-sip offering a taste of insight and lessons to
add more joy and balance to your life. I hope the holidays bring peace,
happiness, and true gifts to your life, more than any box can ever hold.
~ Joyfully, LeAnn
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Sip of Soup - November/December, 2004
Positivity TM Power
November was National Caregiver’s Month,
a time to honor the nearly 50 million Americans who care for a loved
one. This holiday time of year brings joy to their lives, but it also
often adds increased stress and sometime sadness too. While most of us
are out and about shopping, caroling, wasseling, they are often
homebound and unable to fully engage in the holiday. Too frequently,
their loved one is unable to engage at all.
Here are five tips to help care for a family caregiver this season:
1. Offer to sit with their loved one for even a short time
while they take a walk in the snow, do some shopping, or attend a
holiday event.
2. Encourage them to care for themselves as attentively
as they do another. Remind them to get regular checkups, to eat
properly, exercise, and get adequate sleep.
3. Gift them with inspirational, encouraging books like Chicken Soup for the Caregiver’s Soul. (You had to know that was coming!)
4. Advise them to pay attention to their own feelings and emotions and to seek counseling and support groups if needed.
5. Listen.
For more tips see the articles on my website, published in major
journals. You will see that small efforts on our part will bring great
tidings of joy to those who so benevolently care for others.
Articles
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Soup for the Day; a healthy quote:
I was privileged to be invited by Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter
to speak at her caregiver’s conference a few weeks ago. (There is a
great photo on my website, Mom!) LeAnn Thieman Her quote sums up how caregiving affects us all:
“There are four kinds of people in the world: those who have been
caregivers, those who are currently caregivers, those who will be
caregivers, and those who will need caregivers.”
- Rosalynn Carter
Lessons from LeAnn
We all know a caregiver. Yet if you are like me, you’re thinking,
“There is no way I’m going to accomplish everything I have on my to-do
list this month as it is—how can I add another thing?" That’s when we
need to be reminded that no effort is too small. Remember the sign above the pediatric burn unit in Vietnam. “It’s better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.” You can make their season bright.
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A Sip of Soup is written by LeAnn Thieman, LPN,
professional speaker and co-author of the New York Times bestseller,
Chicken Soup for the Nurse's Soul and her latest book Chicken
Soup for the Caregiver's Soul. To have her inspire your team members,
or to order her books contact LeAnn at 1-877-THIEMAN.
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