with Maria Thacker
“Happy Holidays!” That’s the phrase that we say during this season. How can we really be happy when we are out of our minds with shopping, wrapping, writing cards, baking and decorating? Oh yeah you can’t forget about the husband, kids, pets and taking care of one or both of your parents, or a seriously ill family member. If that’s not enough to give you gray hair, now maybe you can add YOURSELF to the list; the one person I always forget about or push to the end of the list. The most important person you need to take care of first is yourself. If you’re operating on pure adrenaline how long can you keep that up before you're the one in bed ill? Not the
Stress the silent killer - It has been documented that stress contributes to such life threatening problems as heart attacks, stroke, depression and infection as well as to chronic aches and pains.
You're not alone- more of our parents are aging.
According to the
• Currently, 36 million Americans are over the age of 65 (12% of total population)
• By 2030, 71 million Americans will be 65+ (19.6% of total population)
• Starting in 2006, a Baby Boomer turns 60 every 7.7 seconds!
• What can you do right now
• Prioritize: What has to get done starting with the minimum you must have to be healthy and productive; Getting a good seven to eight hours of sleep a night, working out for 30 minutes 3 times a week, drinking eight cups of water and eating six well balanced meals a day.
• Create a timeline. Write it down and start planning.
• Energy conservation. With this list you can preset your stops, not wasting time or energy going in and out of to many places and even picking up things at one place, saving time.
• Eat Healthy. Stress can make us eat more of what won't help us. Keep a cooler in the car filled with healthy veggies and water.
• Reward yourself. Don't just do something special for yourself. Celebrate your decision to do so!
• Ask For help. This is the most important advice. The best way to control this situation is to learn to give control over to others and delegate. Not so easy when you pride yourself on always having it together, but you need to get over it and pull your friends and family into the equation. You may be pleasantly surprised that most are thrilled to help and that you even asked. The more you ask the better you will get at it. If you don't have a support system, you will need to find one with your church, community groups. If you want professionals that cater to these situations, more and more of them are popping up, but do your homework and look for the company that will pick up the slack for you in the way you would. Look up Home Care agencies. See what services they offer, do they have a time minimum on hours, what’s the cost? Check out how they screen there employees, what kind of training they have, and what kind of insurance does the company carry.
Contact Maria Thacker with any questions at justalittleassistant@fuse.net
