Sometimes the big picture helps makes sense of what we are experiencing. This is certainly true for caregivers of aging parents who feel overwhelmed and exhausted from the complexity and uncertainty of their work.
The Caregiver’s Context Mind Map offers adult children an integrated overview of the unavoidable challenges that come with the role.
Change Compass
Adult children can use the Caregiver’s Context Mind Map as a “change compass” by exploring the following questions about their caregiver role:
1. Which of the contextual factors is currently the most challenging?
2. Why is it so challenging?
3. What needs to change to improve this situation?
4. Why does it need to change?
5. What choices and resources are required to make the change?
6. Who can help with any aspect of the change?
7. What is the first step required to initiate the change?
8. If not now, when?
9. What’s possible in the next 30 days?
Framing an oppressive aspect of the caregiving role in terms of why it’s so difficult and why it needs to change helps mobilize the brain’s deep creativity and resilience tor finding answers from both inner and outer resources.