As a caregiver, do you feel you're mindful (living in the present moment) or is your mind full (overwhelmed, scattered, trying to do too much, or multi-tasking)?
For me, I find myself constantly teetering between BOTH, but if I'm being honest, I most often find my mind FULL. But 2023 my intention was to be more present - for myself and others. I made a concerted effort in my goal setting to focus on the here and now. 2023 quickly became one of my most challenging caregiving years. Caring for aging parents (and bonus parents), as well as a young adult with a traumatic brain injury, is hard on a good day - and we had many road blocks with detours in 2023. I lost sight of ME and felt pulled in too many directions.
Mindfulness is the ability to focus on the present moment while calmly recognizing and accepting your thoughts, feelings, and body sensations. Mindfulness is being fully present, aware of where you are and what you’re doing while not being overly reactive or overwhelmed by what is happening around you. When you are mindful you are free of both the past and future and free of judgment of right and wrong. Mindfulness for caregivers means learning to live in the moment, accepting the reality of your situation, and filtering out distractions.
Living mindfully is HARD - it requires every facet of who we are. As caregivers, we often worry about tomorrow. How will my loved one manage without me? Will my life be like this ... forever? Will I get a break? Why ME? These things do NOT lead towards greater mindfulness.
OR we might be grieving lost or missed "expectations" - comparing our loved ones to other "typical" peers. My loved one didn't "make it" in a college environment ... my loved one doesn't have a "traditional" career ... my loved one won't have the future I imagined for them. All of these thoughts make us more mind FULL and less mindful.
It IS all hard. We can't go back and change the past. What has happened, has happened. We have to learn to let go of yesterday.
We also can't control what happens tomorrow.
YET ... what if we REimagined today by letting go of yesterday and not burdening ourselves with tomorrow? We could just focus on the present - being fully present - today, in this MICRO-moment.
A lot of things are not IN my control - yet, I CAN control my emotions, my actions, AND my responses ... in this moment. I can notice my fleeting thoughts and feelings and allow them to pass through. And that IS a lot of control.
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"The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness. Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing." ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
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MINDFULNESS AFFIRMATIONS
Use affirmations to inspire you or reframe your thoughts
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When I accept what I am feeling, I accept myself
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Being present grounds me in the here and now
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Laughter sparks joy in my heart
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I am mindful of my thoughts, emotions, and environment
APPS FOR MINDFULNESS
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Aura helps you regulate your emotions and find wellness, connecting you to breathing and mindfulness exercises.
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Better Sleep allows you to mix together different sounds to create your own personal white noise to help with mindfulness and sleep.
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Happify helps to increase optimism through games and programs designed to boost life satisfaction.
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Calm provides guided and unguided meditations as well as different soundscapes and music to help ground you in the moment.
ARTICLES
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We LOVE our social workers 💙
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March is Social Work Month, a time to celebrate the great profession of social work. This year's theme is Empowering Social Workers!
Our fantastic team of Group Coaching Leaders are all social workers. We love celebrating them ALL year round! Pictured left and left to right below:
- Director of Programs and Wednesday's Group Coaching Leader Jenny Woodworth, LISW
- Tuesday's Support Group Leader Donielle Lisbon, LISW
- Monday's Support Group Leader Kathleen Davis, LISW
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As part of our Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS) Certification in Peer Recovery Services we are now offering GROUP Family Peer Support for NEW participants!
For more information - email our Family Peer Support Specialist Amy.
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March's book club discussion is TOMORROW - Friday, March 29 at 11 am ET via Zoom. We'll be discussing Laurie Cameron's The Mindful Day Practical Ways to Find Focus, Calm, and Joy from Morning to Evening.
April's book club discussion will be Friday, April 26 at 11 am ET. We'll be discussing The Stress Prescription: 7 Days to More Joy and Ease by Elissa Epel, PhD in honor of April being Stress Awareness Month! Grab it from your library or listen to the audiobook on the Libby app! Come one - come all - NO need to have read the book! Mark your calendar for April 26 - here's the link!
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April’s theme is COMMON HUMANITY, and we will focus on building bridges, grief and loss, and breaking through loneliness. As we continue on the journey of discovering our true selves, setting micro-goals will guide us. With micro-goals, it’s easier to take the next right step - as Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said, “A journey of a thousand miles, begins with a single step.” Check out April's Micro-Challenges Calendar here.
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Courage to Caregivers Breathing Practice for April: Sitkari or Hissing Breath
As we support caregivers to make breathing and meditation a practice, we're pleased to share our Breathing Meditation Facilitator Cathy and her monthly breathing practice how-to videos. You can join us for April's Breathing Practice - Sitkari or Hissing Breath. With this practice, we can bring calm to body, mind, and spirit. This is a wonderful breath to help with rest and sleep. You can watch April's instructional video for Sitkari or Hissing Breath here, and remember to subscribe to our 2024 Monthly Breathing Practices playlist to stay updated each month. You can also subscribe to our Breathing Meditation playlist, where we upload our weekly breathing meditation recordings, and follow along on our Spotify Breathing Meditation playlist.
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The mission of Courage to Caregivers is to provide hope, support, and courage to caregivers and loved ones of those living with mental illness. We're in the caregiver burnout prevention business!
©2024 Courage to Caregivers, Inc.
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