Team Play Begins With You 𓆩♡𓆪

By Padma Gordon

In this week’s Women’s Empowerment Circle, we explored team play and the importance of creating a communication toolkit so you can be a skillful, grounded team player. For Raregivers, this begins with honoring yourself and your needs. A good team player collaborates, delegates, appreciates, and practices self-acknowledgement. I invite you to try a simple daily ritual: sit for three minutes and ask out loud, What am I doing well? Acknowledge not only what you did, but how you showed up. Were you patient, courageous, steady, honest? When you receive the quality of your presence, not just your productivity, your inner landscape shifts from pressure to support.

As you practice gratitude toward yourself, you naturally extend it to your partner, children, and care team. Let’s consider the 90–10 rule: ninety percent appreciation and ten percent constructive feedback. Appreciation creates safety, and safety allows for growth. We also explored active listening, reflecting back what someone shares and validating their experience before adding your perspective. When people feel seen and heard, they relax. And when there is more relaxation in your home, there is naturally more connection.

Another practice from the group was the “ta-da” list. At the end of the day, write down everything you completed or moved forward, even incrementally. Receive it. When you receive what you are doing and how you are being, you generate energy to continue. In partnership, teamwork also thrives on clarity: defined roles, keeping each other in the loop, and scheduling time to talk about what matters. You might revisit The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman to better understand how to connect with your partner more easily.

As a leader in your household and very likely the primary caregiver, you need to ask for help. Delegate. Hire support if you can. Free yourself to rest and savor sweet moments with your Rare child or partner. And when you are at your edge, give it over to God. You are not walking this path alone. You are held and loved, and the strongest teams are built by those who honor themselves while showing up generously for others.

Coming Up Next Week: Embracing Feelings: Giving Yourself & Your Family Permission To Feel
On your journey as a raregiver, you will eventually need to grapple with how to cope with the end of your beloved Rare child’s life. This may involve grieving while still caring for them which is known as anticipatory grief and can last for several years.

Receiving compassionate emotional support and giving yourself permission to feel during this time is essential and finding the time to discuss the journey of death and dying with others will help lessen your burden. Please join us for a tender-hearted conversation. 

Please Join Us for the Women's Empowerment Circle every Tuesday at 10am PST.

You may not realize how much you need the Raregivers community until you find it.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84782918881

We look forward to being with