Why Take Up a Challenge to Help the Care Givers?

The Prendre soin challenge is back and aims to raise money for the Monastère des Augustines respite service program for care givers. All the raised funds will help us offer them respite stays in our peaceful building.

Last year, the campaign helped more than 100 care givers benefit from a respite stay.

Here is the simple definition of care givers that people often know: a person taking care of a loved one experiencing a disease or a disability. For many people, it implies cooking for the care receiver, care for his personal hygiene, accompany him to his meetings, etc. Even though those organizational aspects are perfectly true, many people forget the huge mental and emotional loading related to this kind of commitment.

Even though care giving is based on a strong and sincere love relationship that includes many teachings on life and gratifying moments, this mental loading is caused by the overlapping of the care giver’s responsibilities. The care giver must manage several parallel lives: his personal, professional and care-giving life. It is possible that he feels deeply divided in between his three lives, wanting to be present and well-performing at every level, which is difficult and sometimes even impossible to do.

The mental loading often leads to a feeling of guilt towards the person receiving the help, and this is why the care giver sometimes forgets to take time for himself and feels guilty to have limits of his own. It is important to understand that he unconditionally loves the care receiver, so much that he doesn’t approve his care giver status. His engagement seems totally normal to him, and the last thing he wants to do is attribute his personal difficulties to the care receiver.

Furthermore, the loading gets even more intense when the care giver’s engagement becomes so huge that he forgets to care for himself. In many cases, the helper focuses on the person’s condition, forgetting to acknowledge his own emotions. The more he unconsciously neglects to express his emotions and piles up his responsibilities, the more he can experience intense fatigue and distress. These emotions are often linked with difficult mourning, such as the mourning of the life before the disease or the mourning of having a healthy child. In these circumstances, respite becomes essential to continue his engagement.

Because care giving is a mental and physical challenge, it is important that care givers have access to respite services. These restful moments help them boost their energy, analyze their situation and take the time required to express their needs and feelings.

If you want to support them, we invite you to take up the Prendre soin challenge! The challenge is simple: adopt a health care wellness practice in November and find sponsors to fund Le Monastère respite service program for care givers, which offers low-cost respite stays for care givers ($30 + tax).

Choose between 5 challenges:

– Meditation
– Digital disconnection
– Silence exploration
– Mindfulness movements
– Caring gestures

Once you chose your challenge, you must add it to your November daily routine and get sponsored to collect money.

We chose to host the challenge in November because it is a greyer month, in which it is even more important to care for ourselves!

During the challenge, you can attend Le Monastère Movement and wellness activities for free, offered every day. You will also get a supportive email every week to encourage you and give you tips to continue your challenge.

Even if you are not a care giver, it is important that you care for yourself! Thus, the Prendre soin challenge can help you develop long-term tools to make you feel good, or simply help you discover a wellness activity in November.

For more details and to sign up, visit défiprendresoin.ca.

On behalf of the care givers, thank you!