In alignment with Patti StClair's wonderful article featured in this week's newsletter, "The Importance of Motivation in Caregiving," I wanted to create an article that would support you in generating more positive motivational experiences in your own life. (Incidentally, Patti's article is permanently posted under Caregiving Articles, here at the site.)

Motivation is a prime factor in how you perceive your role as a caregiver. For instance, when you wake up in the morning, how do you greet your day? What do you feel or what thoughts cross your mind? Do you look forward to the new day or do you think "oh, no..not another day." What are your immediate thoughts when you think about having to care for your loved one?

How you perceive your role depends on your own motivational factors. For Instance, I am sure you are all familiar with this analogy. A cup is filled to the middle with water. One person may think to themselves, that the cup is half empty while another perceives it as being half full. The former indicates lack, while the other is an optimistic viewpoint which is positive. So again, I ask you , what are your thoughts and feelings when you awaken each morning? Are you carrying resentful feelings, or guilt about your role from the night before? This is the time to get in touch with these feelings. It is an opportunity to clearly make choices about your life, your thoughts and experiences.

You might want to just give thanks each night for all the good things that have happened. While the experiences of the day may not always seem positive, they are there teaching us new ways of viewing our experience. Likewise, you can wake up giving thanks for the new day. You have choices that you can make from the minute you wake up. This day is going to be glorious. This day may have challenges that test my patience but you can look at it as a game and see how you can change your own coping patterns.

In any given moment, you have a choice about what your experiences are going to be like. You can choose to experience conflict and fear or peace and love. The power is in your mind to choose what your day will be like.

In choosing conflict and fear, you are blaming circumstances and others for what you are experiencing and are coming from a victim space. When you test your beliefs even more to accept that all these obstacles are not in control, you are giving away your power.

In choosing to be an example of love, extending love outwardly to others, these negative beliefs are disseminated.

Try are responsible for what you see and experience. You can choose how you want to be, what you want to experience. Peace can only come from within yourself.

Take time to observe your feelings when you awaken each morning. Notice your patterns. Don't jump out of bed. Have a little dialogue with yourself, reminding you that you have a choice as to how your day will be. You will find that in making more positive choices, through positive motivation, your day may just unfold more exquisitely then you could have imagined. Write of your daily experiences for the week.