{"id":65,"date":"2010-07-05T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-05T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jennifercares\/2010\/07\/hope-be-your-own-bff.html"},"modified":"2010-07-05T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-07-05T10:00:00","slug":"hope-be-your-own-bff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/2010\/07\/hope-be-your-own-bff.html","title":{"rendered":"Hope:  Be Your Own BFF"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Who can support you when you&#8217;re starting to feel like nobody else does?&nbsp; YOU! <\/p>\n<p>Too many times, I see caregivers become very critical of themselves.&nbsp; Self-doubt feeds on itself, and can easily lead to lack of confidence, low self-esteem, even depression.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>This week, let&#8217;s create new hope in our lives by focusing on being more of a friend to ourselves.&nbsp; We can:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>be quick to forgive our mistakes<\/li>\n<li>be ready with a kind word or thought<\/li>\n<li>replace negative behaviors like judging ourselves, and putting ourselves down with positive ones like accepting who we are, and motivating ourselves to be the best we can be.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A psychologist I know talks about it like this:&nbsp; think of how you would deal with a child who is struggling to find themselves, and feel good about themselves.&nbsp; What kinds of words would you use to comfort and encourage him or her?&nbsp; Give yourself that same feeling and tone this week.&nbsp; It&#8217;ll be easier to feel hopeful when you experience that kind of&nbsp;strength. <\/p>\n<p>Be sure to check back tomorrow for&nbsp;Take Care Tuesday,&nbsp;where&nbsp;I feature a ten minute tip you&nbsp;can use to make you&#8217;re life easier! <\/p>\n<p>j. &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who can support you when you&#8217;re starting to feel like nobody else does?&nbsp; YOU! Too many times, I see caregivers become very critical of themselves.&nbsp; Self-doubt feeds on itself, and can easily lead to lack of confidence, low self-esteem, even depression.&nbsp; This week, let&#8217;s create new hope in our lives by focusing on being more&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hope"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hope: Be Your Own BFF - Jennifer Cares<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/2010\/07\/hope-be-your-own-bff.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hope: Be Your Own BFF - Jennifer Cares\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Who can support you when you&#8217;re starting to feel like nobody else does?&nbsp; YOU! Too many times, I see caregivers become very critical of themselves.&nbsp; Self-doubt feeds on itself, and can easily lead to lack of confidence, low self-esteem, even depression.&nbsp; This week, let&#8217;s create new hope in our lives by focusing on being more&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/2010\/07\/hope-be-your-own-bff.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jennifer Cares\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-05T10:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jennifer Antkowiak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hope: Be Your Own BFF - Jennifer Cares","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/2010\/07\/hope-be-your-own-bff.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hope: Be Your Own BFF - Jennifer Cares","og_description":"Who can support you when you&#8217;re starting to feel like nobody else does?&nbsp; YOU! Too many times, I see caregivers become very critical of themselves.&nbsp; Self-doubt feeds on itself, and can easily lead to lack of confidence, low self-esteem, even depression.&nbsp; This week, let&#8217;s create new hope in our lives by focusing on being more&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/2010\/07\/hope-be-your-own-bff.html","og_site_name":"Jennifer Cares","article_published_time":"2010-07-05T10:00:00+00:00","author":"Jennifer Antkowiak","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/2010\/07\/hope-be-your-own-bff.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/2010\/07\/hope-be-your-own-bff.html","name":"Hope: Be Your Own BFF - Jennifer Cares","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-07-05T10:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-07-05T10:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/#\/schema\/person\/e9b1fa9e83faa387f3bb6a551379f681"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/2010\/07\/hope-be-your-own-bff.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/2010\/07\/hope-be-your-own-bff.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/2010\/07\/hope-be-your-own-bff.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hope: Be Your Own BFF"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/","name":"Jennifer Cares","description":"Making Life Easier for Caregivers","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/#\/schema\/person\/e9b1fa9e83faa387f3bb6a551379f681","name":"Jennifer Antkowiak","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/2fe\/2fedc168aeef94edb0c4000c70dfe678x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/2fe\/2fedc168aeef94edb0c4000c70dfe678x96.jpg","caption":"Jennifer Antkowiak"},"description":"Jennifer Antkowiak's expertise in the caregiving field is authentic and inspiring. She is a busy mother of five, wife, award-winning TV news anchor and talk show host, author, and speaker. Jennifer knows how long-term illness affects a family. Her mother had post-partum depression and died of a heart attack at age 50. Jennifer feels blessed to have been a caregiver for her mother-in-law who died of cancer, and most recently, for her live-in father-in-law who died of cancer. Her real life experiences fuel her passionate mission to help the world's caregivers. Through her work, she connects with caregivers to deliver help and hope. 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