Reclaiming Your Life – Supporting Your Self

Dates:  November 1, 8, 15 and 29

Wednesdays from 1- 3 ET/ 12-2 CT/ 11-1 MT/ 10-12 PT

You know you should take care of yourself – in a plane emergency they say, “put your own oxygen mask on first”—but in this situation it just feels impossible. You’re shouldering a double burden – responsibility for your life and for someone else’s. There’s barely enough time to look after the basics of life—food on the table, pay the bills, grocery shopping, cleaning, carrying out all the extra responsibilities for the loved one who is depending on you. The days are crammed with care, maybe medical appointments—you may be struggling with trying to keep up with whatever is left of your own life. Or you may feel like you’ve just had to give up on that for now.

You’re exhausted. You’re feeling isolated, and stressed.  You’re full of other feelings too—grief, loss, sorrow, anger—and to make it even worse, you feel guilty about having those negative feelings.

AWA offers the Caregiver Project – a writing workshop – to help cope with isolation and stress, and to support your healthful self-care practices. The Caregiver Project for Family Members is an online writing workshop for those who, in taking on the care of a loved one, may have lost much of their former lifestyle and the social activities and supports that were in it, and who, as a consequence, are feeling stressed and isolated. This series is a chance to experience writing in a group with peers who deal with similar challenges every day.  It allows you to connect, to express yourself and to learn, through bearing witness and having your own writing listened to, that you are absolutely not alone.

No one will be turned away because of financial challenges. If your income has been affected by their caregiving and you cannot pay, please reach out to gail.cunningham.01@gmail.com and we will provide a scholarship.