Caregiver Connections

Good morning, you guys. Happy, happy caregiver. Thursday, I am coming to you from Savannah, Georgia. Here. It is a lovely day today. I have my cup of coffee with me today. And for those of you who were with me last week, you guys know that I like to call my cup of coffee my. My hug in a mug. In the mornings. It is my little sense of peace, my little warmth to start my day and gives me a minute to just take a deep breath and prepare for the day. Today, I have. I have my snoopy cup. Good morning, Jules.

Because, you know, y'all, it's Christmas in July, so it's a nice way to start the day. For those of you who I have not met yet, I am Stephanie, also known as Steph Irwin, and I live in Savannah, Georgia. I am a mom of two kiddos, one of whom was diagnosed on the autism spectrum. Professionally, I have worked with hospitalized children for many years, and I now work for a nonprofit who supports children with cancer in their families. So I want you all to just take a minute with me or take a second with me and just take a big, deep breath and just feel that sense of peace and calm.

Good morning, speak, wonder. Good morning, jewels. So just by coming into Cadre today, you guys are showing that you want to care for yourself. You are showing love to yourself just by being here. And I know that as a caregiver, that can be really hard sometimes because we tend to put other people first. Here's the thing. Connection with ourselves helps us to form a better connection with others. I'm speaking to myself here, too, and I just want to know what are some ways that you guys are able to connect with yourselves?

What are some ways that you help foster your own self connection? I know for me, I need some quiet time, which is hard to find at my house because my kids are home this summer, and it is quite wild. But just finding that little piece of quiet, whether it be with my morning cup of coffee or sitting outside, just taking a deep breath and centering myself and trying to get to know myself better is really important. And, you know, sometimes we lose sight of that. So it's really important to remind ourselves to just take that time to have that self connection and think about the things, you know, what bring us joyous.

Okay, so I'm going to share with you guys a story. So, a long time ago, when I lived in Tampa, Florida, I worked at the hospital with a young. A young boy. We're going to call him Jerry for privacy sake. Hi, Audrey. Oh, yes. Speak, wonder walking for me walking. Oh, yes. You guys, thank you for that reminder. Speak. Wonder. I think I'm going to go take a walk after this live today. And, Audrey. Yes. Sitting on the porch and listening to nature, I feel that connecting with nature is so vital for all of us.

And I remind myself of that sometimes when I get caught up in work and my family. And sometimes I just have to remind myself, hey, get outside. Go be in nature. Oh, Jules. Yeah? 30 minutes to have your cup of coffee overlooking the lake. That sounds lovely. I want to come be where you are right now. Yeah. Those are all wonderful, wonderful ideas, and we just have to remind ourselves of that sometimes, you Guys. So, yeah, this patient who I worked with in Florida, he taught me more about self connection than I have learned from anywhere else.

And so he lived his Life to the fullest. And he was also in the hospital for the majority of his Life. He was confident, eager to meet new people, eager to try new things. We called him the mayor of the hospital because he was so friendly with everybody. He was always grinning ear to ear. He knew what he liked. He was able to connect with himself and therefore connect better with others. He brought so much joy to everybody who worked with him. He loved crafts and yoga and games and sports and, my goodness, fishing.

The hospital I was working at was on the water, and so we used to go down and take him fishing at the side of the hospital, and that just made him so happy. He really just taught us how to connect with ourselves and to love ourselves and to love one another because he loved himself and he loved everybody who he came in contact with. So I'm pretty sure he made a bigger impact on all of us caregivers than we did on him in his entire 13 years of life. Oh, Jules, you're in Canada. Oh, my gosh. Sounds lovely.

Thank you. Thank you for the compliment on my earrings. You guys, I need to come up north and visit some cool, crisp lakes because it is hot here. Hot, hot. Okay. So how can we connect better with ourselves so that we can connect with others, just like Jerry did? And what are the things that light us up? What are the things that bring us that type of joy so that we can connect better with ourselves and, you know, find the authentic, unique version of who we truly are. So just finding that, you know, taking that time and thinking, who am I?

Let me connect with myself. Let me find what is lighting me up and bringing me joy. And I know sometimes that's hard, because to find the time as a caregiver, you know, we can often lose sight of that. I know I do. I get wrapped up in my family, and. And I have to take a step back and say, you know, it's important that I squeeze in even just a couple moments of time to connect with myself so that I can be better, to connect with others. So I'm gonna leave you guys with some words of wisdom today.

And this is. I love this. And this is what a fellow caregiver tells the people that she works with. And it just stuck with me. She says, you, are kind, you are capable, and you are worthy. So, you guys, I'm going to say this to you and say this to myself today. You are kind, you are capable, and you are worthy. All right, you guys. Cheers. From my hug in a mug to yours. I hope you guys have a fabulous Thursday.