Sharing is caring, right? And since I SO care for you, I thought I’d share a little trick of my trade as a full-time caregiver. I’ve spent the last 10 years developing my style as a caregiver for my mom who was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's when she was 56. I've tailored my routine so now I pretty much know what works, what can be upgraded and what should just be trashed and never considered again lol.

In this Intro for my 3-part series: A Rockstar's Guide To Caregiving, I want to share with you the ways that I use... well really it's the safe and fun ways that I use to give care to my mom with Alzheimer's.

So let's get into a chat about safety. The safe ways I give care to my mom was actually inspired from my love of traveling. No, no I am not suggesting you take a trip in order to secure safety as a caregiver, BUT, I am suggesting you practice some necessary safety procedures first before giving care to your loved one.

Let's take a mini explorative mind trip... pretend we've just walked onto the plane, taken our seat and buckled up. Now right before the flight takes off, flight attendants are making sure that all passengers are sitting down, seatbelts have been fastened and then they begin to fully brief us on the safety procedures. The safety procedure that we are going to focus on specifically for this blog post is the use of the oxygen mask.

Wikipedia states that the use of the oxygen mask is for the passenger to always fit his or her own mask on before helping children, the disabled, or any persons requiring assistance.

Wait a minute, ya'll - can we just read that again please! "Always FIT your own before helping...?" I can not tell you the Hallelujah moment that was for me when I focused on the understanding of these words: FIT YOU FIRST!

SNAP, and just like that, a realistic rockstar guide to caregiving was birthed! I came up with a dope acronym to make this method easy to remember AND to apply! Are you ready for it? Just Get FIT!

FIT: Focus your energy, Improve your environment and manage your Time 

Now please keep in mind that I am not medically licensed and this is strictly my own opinion based off of what has worked for me and my loved one. So take what I say with a grain of salt as it fits into your own lifestyle accordingly.

Simple enough though right, getting FIT? Haha, in reality, it goes much deeper but, like I said, this is just the Intro to A Rockstar's Guide to Caregiving. I am so pumped to share Part I, II, and III with you during these weeks of November, the National Caregiver Month! And trust me guys, I've made tons of mistakes when I first started as a caregiver but through all the twists and turns, it has brought me to where I am today and I wouldn’t trade my journey for the world!

With that said, keep going my friend, my dear caregiver, my Rockstar! Feel free to take this opportunity to inspire one another in the comments below and see you in the next blog post at A Log Cabin In Brooklyn.

XOX,

Nikki~