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Wellness for Caregiver’s Stress: Release Relax, Rejuvenate
by Tracey A. Smith, M.Ed., CTRS
What do you do for you? How do you keep your vitality, balance and wellbeing while caregiving?
How do you balance your home, work, relationships and play? How do we deepen our sense of wellbeing and resiliency under an accumulation of stress? In a fast paced society, self-care is often not supported.
Caregivers have the responsibility of caring for another person’s wellbeing. This includes parents, teachers, therapists, clergy, medical professionals, and middle-aged children caring for elderly parents. As caregivers, it is essential to take the characteristics of Care and Giving and use it for our own self-care, for the role of caregiver includes some level of exposure to stress, compassionate fatigue, and traumatic experience on a daily basis.
Current and ongoing societal stressors can compound the life stress of the caregiver.
These stressors can include experiences with racial and gender discrimination, stories of homelessness and violence, natural disasters, and widespread political unrest. Unaddressed, mounting stress can give way to feelings of hopelessness and decreased self-esteem, even leading to withdrawal from friends and family and those communities that help buffer us from burnout.
Dean Solon’s poem Here and Now speaks to the climate of stress during our current times. Encouraged by his perspective, I am reminded that we can choose not to shut down but rather “to be opening to all that is with mindfulness and heart fullness.” There is hope. Wellness is a choice with the personal responsibility to address our stress. We can make a choice to practice loving kindness with ourselves. Healing and transforming stress and maintaining fitness of the mind, body and spirit involves lifelong learning. The better we take care of ourselves, the better we can care for others. How can we do this?
» Read more
Tracey A. Smith, M.Ed., CTRS, Owner Wellness W.R.K.S. LLC (well-being, recreation, knowledge, spirituality), is a Wellness Lifestyle Management Educator, Trainer, Certified Recreational Therapist. What I love about my life practice is the opportunity to serve a variety of populations and participants in an enjoyable fashion. I provide workshops, training, and professional staff development. I create an atmosphere where participants can feel safe to explore their own issues of self-care and lifestyle management, while learning alternative ways of healing. I use Wellness Education and Recreational Therapy balanced with Restorative Practices to promote emotional, physical, mental, spiritual health and wellbeing. I am committed to promoting peaceable communities.
To learn more and to schedule a program for your group, visit Tracey’s website, Facebook page or call her at 215-605-3221.
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Resources
Online Self-Tests
Here are three free online tests for compassionate fatigue, satisfaction, and life stress, from www.compassionfatigue.org
- Professional Quality of Life Assessment
- Compassion Fatigue Self-Test
- Life Stress Test
Additional Resources
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Here and Now
by Dean Solon
none of us has control over the world.
what is included on the earth-plane, where we are, is free will.
it is up to each one of us to be coming to his or her senses.
what each of us is capable of, and is to be working on and playing with, is an integrating of peace and passion.
this is a time of richness, of richness for each and all of us.
this is a time, and place, that is rich for practice.
there is so much to be working with, here and now.
don't be pushing away this world of activity and phenomena,
and don't be swallowing it whole.
be open to be allowing yourself to be encountering and engaging with these interesting times.
be with attention and intention to be living with clarity and with loving kindness.
this is not a time to be shutting down.
this is a time to be opening to all that is
with mindfulness and heartfulness.
this is a time to be awakening
and awake.
may peace be with you.
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Connecting through Motherhood
by Catherine McLaughlin
Motherhood. Such a joyful time. Loving your kids can stir loving feelings in you that you’ve never felt before.
And then BAM! Temper tantrums, back-talk, a door slams - the pendulum has swung and you’re irrationally hurt and upset. I’m reminded of the famous opening paragraph of Dicken’s classic, A Tale of Two Cities: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. And as we build our families through the ups and downs, society expects us to take on multiple roles - employee, wife, mother, caregiver of our aging parents…somehow our own identities get lost in the shuffle.
There’s a traditional African proverb that states “It takes a village to raise a child,” but I say that it takes a village to support a mother. In a different time, people lived in actual villages. Mothers banded together - they cooked together, raised each other’s children, and supported each other through the ups and downs of life.
Fast-forward to today, and the lack of a natural community forces us into our homes. We have to create our own community. But we’ve been working, or recently moved to a new neighborhood, or feel so depressed after having our babies that we can’t face others. Or maybe we were part of a community before we had children, but we no longer feel like we belong there. So we retreat into our apartments, our homes, our bedrooms. And this lack of community has direct effects on us as women, mothers, parents, and partners.
Being part of a community has so many benefits.
Sharing information, making connections, having a support system, developing meaningful relationships. The community enables us to grow as mothers, and as individuals.
Supporting Moms through Motherhood is a group that will offer just that. The group provides a supportive community for moms of all ages and stages as we move through life. Drop in for coffee, a snack, and a connection with a group of inter-generational women.
We meet on the second Wednesday of every month. There is no cost to attend. Contact Catherine McLaughlin, MA, NCC, LPC at catherine@cjmcounseling.com or 267-800-5073 for more information.
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Raising Your Teen's Self-Esteem
by Katie K. May
You’re a concerned parent who has a teen with low self-esteem. You want your teen to feel confident enough to resist peer pressure.
It breaks your heart to hear them make such negative comments about themselves when they look in the mirror. And, It’s painful to watch them fret over each blemish on their face and compare their bodies to those of their friends. You’re so afraid that they actually believe the critical thoughts they have about themselves and wonder how that will impact them.
Will they give into peer pressure? Will they make healthy choices or act impulsively to feel better in the moment? Will today be a “good” day or a “bad” day and how will you manage the emotional roller coaster?
If you’ve been telling your teen that they’re perfect and pouring on the compliments, you know that this just doesn’t work to change how your teen feels on the INSIDE. What’s more, it may backfire and make them feel even worse. Helping your teen raise their self-esteem so that they can connect to themselves may be your goal, but how do you do it?
» Read More
Katie K. May is a licensed teen therapist who works with teens with anxiety, depression and self-harm behaviors. She specializes in offering groups for teen self-expression, support and connection, including Teen Therapy Group and Teen DBT Skills Group. Grab your Anytime Anywhere Coping Skills free printable guide at tinyurl.com/teencopingskills to learn more about Katie's work.
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