Steph Irwin is a mom of two neurodivergent children, one of whom is on the autism spectrum. She also works with children with cancer and their families. Between work and taking care of her kids today, caregiving is a part of her life.
Steph Irwin is a mom of two neurodivergent children, one of whom is on the autism spectrum. She also works with children with cancer and their families. Between work and taking care of her kids today, caregiving is a part of her life.
Jo Ehrman: Do you guys ever feel like your brain is just all over the place and you have difficulty finding clarity? Her daughter, who is autistic, has been making improvements overall in all of her therapies. But recently we've had some backsliding with her emotional regulation and aggression.
Bob Proctor recommends three things to do when you need to find clarity. Write down a list of 10 things that you're grateful for. Send love to three people who bother you. Take five minutes to sit in quiet stillness and ask for guidance for the day.
Do you have anything that works for you that you can share with all of us? Please share. Or anything that helps you feel grateful in times when it's hard to come up with the things we're grateful for. I hope you guys have a great Thursday.
Good morning, friends in the Cadre sphere. I hope you guys are doing well on this caregiver Thursday. I've got my hug in a mug, my cup of coffee here. This morning. It's my little cup of comfort. For those of you who I have not met yet, I am Steph Irwin and I live in Savannah, Georgia. I am a mom of two wonderful neurodivergent children, one of whom is on the autism spectrum. And work wise, I work with children with cancer and their families, both in the hospital as well as in the community. And yeah, so caregiving is pretty much a part of my life.
Good morning, Newland. How are you today? Hi, Jules. Good to see you guys coming in. So, yes, caregiving is a part of my life overall. Between work and taking care of my kids today I wanted to talk to you guys. Good morning. Good morning, Jo Ehrman. Today I wanted to talk to you guys about finding gratitude in the chaos and finding some clarity in the chaos. Do you guys ever feel like your brain is just all over the place and you have difficulty finding clarity, especially for you caregivers who give so much to the people that you love.
Do you guys ever experience this? Because I know that I do on a daily basis. My brain can be all over the place between caring for my children and trying to juggle a busy work schedule as well, caring for the families that I work with, taking my daughter to all her therapies and all the while trying not to, you know, lose my own mind. So my daughter, who is autistic, has been making improvements overall in all of her therapies and they're really helping her to learn skills to help her be successful.
So overall, she has been on an uptrend, knock on wood. But recently we've had some, some backsliding and we, we have been struggling with her, with her emotional regulation and her aggression that we have seen a lot of lately. And the other day we had our aba, our friends from aba, our BCBA and our RBT here at the house and we thought she was calming down in the bathroom. And Anna Marie flooded the bathroom, y'all. She flooded the bathroom and she flooded the hallway and it went into the playroom.
And all of this was on purpose. And I was just trying not to, you know, lose, lose my mind there, you know, cue, cue the brain going all over the place with that one and, you know, second guessing my parenting and second guessing all the things and just overall feeling a little hopeless, to be honest, because, you know, you think you're making progress. I think she's making progress, and then she's got that backslide. And so just reminding myself that this happens, this happens. And over overall, she has been on an upswing.
So let's just hope that things continue to improve and that her therapy in the house today will be better. So y'all keep me. Keep me in your thoughts today, this afternoon. So recently I have been reading Bob Proctor's book, change your paradigm, change your life. And he recommends a list of three things to do when you need to find clarity. And so I've been trying this out lately in my own life, and everybody's got a different strategy to help find clarity and help find gratitude. But this is what he suggests.
Write down a list of 10 things that you're grateful for. And not just think about them, Actually write them down, because there's more power in writing things down on paper than there is in just thinking about it. And number two, send love to three people who bother you. And then number three, take five minutes to sit in quiet stillness and ask for guidance for the day. So overall, I mean, it's really taken me. It's less than 10 minutes, and it's been helpful personally, in my own life. I've just been doing it for a couple weeks now, but it's really helped me start my day with a little more clarity.
I haven't done this yet today, so I do need to do this soon just to get my mind on track and everything going. Oh, Jules, now I'm reading your. Your comment. Several times a week between running for kids and activities, both jobs. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's a lot to balance. It really is. And y'all tell me some strategies that you guys use to help your mind when you feel like your brain is going haywire. Do you guys have anything that works for you that you can share with all of us? Please share. Or anything that helps you feel grateful in times when it's hard to come up with the things we're grateful for.
Please share so we can all learn from one another here and learn from one another's strategies and different things that we can help ourselves and help each other get through some of the chaos and the crazy day today of caregiving and just life in general. So y'all feel free to share. So, yes, today I will be going to do my gratitude practice after this and get ready for the rest of my work day. I hope you guys have a great Thursday. Cheers from my hug and a mug to yours. You guys take care. Okay?
See you next time.
