It’s Autism Awareness month once again. I see the Blue lights going up, the Memes spreading across the Internet but I want to make a suggestion to all of you out there.
I believe Autism Awareness month has been around since 1970 and it seems that each year we pretty much do the same things. Autism organizations use the month to raise funds for whatever they actually do, some people protest these organizations and others do whatever they feel is right. It’s not perfect but the world’s still spinning.
This year I want to issue a challenge to you and the rest of the Autism community.
I want to challenge you to focus on self-care.
I know that focusing on yourself can be very difficult, especially if you’re a single parent, and I did the single parenting thing for almost two years.
Autism parenting is physically and emotionally among the most difficult things a human being can take on. Over time, it can have a significant impact on your physical/emotional health and lead to caregiver burnout or worse.
If you’re unfamiliar with caregiver burnout, I did a complete write up on it and you can find it HERE.
Self-care is very important and can literally be anything that involves taking care of yourself. Maybe it’s having a cup of coffee in the morning or hiding in the bathroom and checking your email. Maybe it’s putting on a show for your kids and taking a bath (if that’s possible with your personal situation). It could be hiding some ice cream in the freezer and sneaking some when the kids aren’t looking.
Ideally, self-care would include some form of exercise or physical activity because that’s extremely important.
At the end of the day, what matters is that you’re taking even a few minutes to care for yourself. You need to remember that you need to be selfish before you can be selfless.
This may seem like a weird thing to do for Autism Awareness month but it really isn’t. The more you improve yourself, the more you have to offer your kids with Autism.
I challenge you to implement some form of self-care into your life and come back here and tell me what you did. Who knows, you might just inspire someone else to do the same.. ☺
