Caregivers, we are pros at helping others, but do we seek help when we feel it’s necessary? The answer is most likely no.  We thrive on being the helper and making the lives of others better and happier. From what I’m seeing working with myriad organizations during Covid, it’s not only others who need help. It’s all of us. Covid has robbed us of happiness, wellness, and optimism. We have lived in fear for the last couple of years and now, it’s time to kickstart our own happiness, wellness and optimism and share in life’s abundance. Living the Standards of Self-Care (eating nutritious food, sleeping well, exercising on a regular basis, supporting each other and mapping out our own goals for the future) need to be applied at the starting gate. After we have our Self-Care Plan to incorporate those behaviors and actions into our daily lives, it’s time to assess whether or not we need professional help to move us further along on the path to wellness. Contrary to what some believe, asking for help is a strength, not a weakness. Along with growing, changing and thriving, asking for help does the following:
 
Asking for help surrounds us with people who can help us feel better and promote our ability to heal and thrive.
Asking for help connects us to others, creating stronger communities and helps to build a healthier community, the workplace environment in particular.
Asking for help allows us to learn new coping skills to strengthen our resilience.
Asking for help shows courage and that we are strong enough to admit we don’t have all the answers.
 
Frank Oshberg, M.D., shared the following to help us understand compassion fatigue and how it takes hold of our body, mind and spirit: Compassion fatigue develops over time – taking weeks, sometimes years to surface. Over time, your ability to feel and care for others becomes eroded through overuse of your skills of compassion. You also might experience emotional blunting, lessening your usually high levels of compassion and empathy.
 
If this sounds familiar to you, take the advice of Pooh, the world’s most delightful bear, and head in the direction of getting the help you need to live your best life. You won’t be sorry.
 
 

​Caregivers, if you doubt that the beauty of the wilderness, nature in all its glory, is healing, consider the following quote from author Terry Tempest Williams. “Wilderness is an antidote to the war within ourselves. I return to the wilderness to remember what I have forgotten, that the world can be wholesome and beautiful, that the harmony and integrity of ecosystems at peace is a mirror to what we have lost.”
Was there ever a statement that hits at the core of what we have experienced during this pandemic? We’ve lost our world and our lives as we knew them. We've lost the beauty of our everyday rituals that keep us grounded and forward looking. We’ve lost the security of knowing that integrity and harmony still exist in the minds and hearts of those we expect to lead us. Simply put, we’ve lost our way.
Williams offers us a way back home. Nature, especially wilderness, beckons us to join in the beauty that is by definition, natural. Seeking out this truth leads to soothing our grief, returning to the roots of our wellbeing, and repairing the damage the pandemic inflicted on our body, mind and spirit.
The health benefits humanity receives from nature are well-documented. In her book "The Nature Fix," author Florence Williams takes it a step further. She wrote, “We don’t experience natural environments enough to realize how restored they can make us feel, nor are we aware that studies also show they make us healthier, more creative, more empathetic and more apt to engage with the world and with each other. Nature, it turns out, is good for civilization.”
Next time someone recommends you take a hike, do it! Could be the best thing that's happened to you in a long time.