🌱 Wellbeing: 6 wellness tips for surviving emergency WFA
Caregiving for my mother last minute, mixing in remote work and starting with self-kindness
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💚 A family emergency meant I was working (and writing, the very bear minimum) over the last few weeks, so I appreciate your patience my loyal readers and subscribers 💚
My mother took ill in Gran Canaria, with a heavy dose of Covid, she was just recovering from a severe allergic reaction, so already with a weak and low immune system. Therefore, it knocked her for six, the poor thing and she needed support. She resides in Gran Canaria, for the winter, as she is part of a small retirement community there of Irish ex pats and winter sun seekers.
As our family base is in Spain, I was the nearest close family and offered to travel to her and assist in her care. With the aim of also getting her on a flight back to Ireland. I found out on a Thursday evening that I was travelling and had to leave on the Saturday afternoon. So it was very last minute and unsettling.
The week of caring that was ahead of me was full of trying to integrate Life-Travel-Work in practice, during a potentially challenging time. As a solopreneur and part-time nomad, I needed to remote work some of the time too, so I organised my mobile travel kit and got as ready as possible to travel and take on the additional role of caregiver for the next week.
Below I am sharing the prompts below that helped me get through it and keep my own work and business afloat, whilst endeavouring to maintain my sanity.
Self-kindness first: this one is a challenge for me, given my lived experience and role within my family of origin. I am the eldest child and due to various circumstances, I had to (and choose to, out of habit at times) take on the role of the second parent during my childhood. So, I know that I tend to over-care, people please, put others first and forget about my own needs.
Often, I start with this word as a prompt and reminder, as many times as possible a day, in an effort to consider my own needs and put myself first. I also work with a Therapist, once a month and a core part of our therapeutic journey together, has been focusing on how I put myself first via self-kindness practices. From my lived experience, I have learned how vital this is, in particular in times of stress and when others need my support. Self-kindness was my key word and prompt for the week.
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Stream of consciousness: journalling and writing in my notebook (pictured below) everyday. Writing enables me to express my thoughts, frustrations and prompts me to spend time with my own thoughts. Writing also supports this project and the Digital Nomad Stories community of readers, as many of my inspirations come for my journalling practice.
Sleep hygiene: sounds obvious, but often in times of stress, we forget to rest and prioritise sleep. Most nights, I went to bed early with a book and endeavoured to get that quality shut eye and rest where and when I could.
Say no in practice, to everything possible: when I move into crisis mode, the best thing for me I find is to say No and reset my schedule completely, freeing up as much space and time as possible.
Lived experience has shown me this. My first few days in reaction mode to the change of plans was full of resetting expectations for work and other commitments. With proactive communications to advise my freelance team, clients and network that I had limited availability. This takes the pressure off competing commitments and gives you more time and space to focus on the important matters in life.
See the outside, regularly: My caring responsibilities last week, could have meant I spent lots of time indoors, but I set a mini-goal to get outside for at least an hour and walk, to hike or to simply sit outside in the sunshine. I kept to that goal everyday and used my writing and journalling to supplement that.
Switch off and treat yourself: Usually I read fiction to disconnect from thinking fully, but occasionally I also like a really good box set binge, as a form of escapism. So, I had heard “The Last of Us” was highly recommended, so had that ready to digest during the week and that gave me something to look forward too in the early evenings.
Note: these six practices and prompts were also weaved as words into my daily journal practice, which assisted in embedding them into my behaviours and daily practices.
In closing, now that I am back at my base in Zaragoza on the Spanish mainland, I although I am glad I could travel to my mother and be a support, whilst keeping my own “show on the road” via remote work. I am also reflective and aware of how much such an effort can be very tiring and draining.
In the past, workers would simply take the time fully of work to care for a family member, they did not have the option of remote working too. With these increased options and choices, I believe we also need to be more aware of the toll of endeavouring to work - no matter what - and what the costs could be. Perhaphs, no work at all at times, is the best plan?
Until the next #DigitalNomadStory,
take care, love n light - 💚 Ro
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A note: 🙏 Thank you for your support! I will be moving to a paid model for some of my content, by the end of April 2023. Some content, will be free, forever. Other select content, will be paid subscriber only.