VISITING ANGELS BARRINGTON, IL 224-512-4180
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How To Maintain Your Independence As You Age

Visiting Angels caregiver with senior womanAging is a wonderful process. It refines deep lessons about self, relationships, work and family. As we age, we take on new roles in our family and our community. We glean new strengths that position us to offer insight, perspective and wisdom to our younger counterparts.

While aging can be empowering, it can also bring new challenges. Daily activities that were once no-brainers can become difficult, stressful and hard to manage. It can be humbling to admit those limitations, especially to those who have always looked to us for advice and support.

It’s humbling, too, to ask for help in managing those daily tasks, but finding the right way to do so is essential to thriving. According to AARP, 87% of seniors hope to age in place. Your home is your comfort zone. It’s where you make your memories and where you keep the artifacts that tell your life story.

While the ambition to age in your home is a driving one, you also want to ensure that yours is a safe and healthy household. It takes self-awareness and reliable resources to maintain your independence as your age. Here’s what you need to know.

Be honest with yourself about limitations

It’s hard to give up those things that define adulthood: working, driving, cooking, cleaning, yard work. For years you’ve maintained a family, a livelihood, a household. It can feel shocking, sad and disorienting to recognize that you can no longer cut the grass, drive your car or use the stove. But if your goal is to stay in your home and giving up some of these things makes that arrangement safe, then it’s worth it. Why risk hurting yourself or someone else just to prove that you can still do something that deep down you know isn’t safe for you to do?

It can feel heartbreaking to admit to your loss of independence in certain areas. When you do admit it, you may need some support to help you work through that. But the sad feelings that you experience when you admit your limitations are significantly less taxing than what you would feel if you kept doing those things and you injured yourself or someone else.

If you want to live in your home, step one to have the hard conversation with yourself about what you can and can’t do. Be honest with yourself as you anchor your arrangement to age in place.

Call in support

Once you’ve decided what you can and can’t do, and you’ve given yourself some time to get used to your new limitations, there are plenty of ways to get the support you need. Check in with your church community or your neighborhood association to see if you might be able to find a young person whom you can hire to cut your grass and help with yard work. You’re likely to find that it’s a relief to reserve your precious energy for other activities that you truly enjoy.

Calling in Visiting Angels also helps you maintain your independence. Your Visiting Angels Caregiver can assist with shopping, running errands, light cleaning. He or she is a friendly face that you can count on for an uplifting visit filled with good conversation, a round of your favorite card game or a ride to your next doctor’s appointment.

You’ve done the hard work that life requires. Age how you want to - comfortably in your home, surrounded by the companionship, help and support that you need to truly thrive.

Serving Barrington, Algonquin, Palatine, Lake Zurich, Crystal Lake, McHenry, Woodstock, Cary and Surrounding Areas

Visiting Angels BARRINGTON, IL
18-5 E Dundee Rd #300
Barrington, IL 60010
Phone: 224-512-4180

Serving Barrington, Algonquin, Palatine, Lake Zurich, Crystal Lake, McHenry, Woodstock, Cary and Surrounding Areas

Visiting Angels BARRINGTON, IL
18-5 E Dundee Rd #300
Barrington, IL 60010
Phone: 224-512-4180