Mindfulness for Caregivers

In this episode Sue and Lee discuss practical ways for how caregivers can incorporate mindfulness into the busy lives often focused on everyone around us – but not ourselves. By finding ways to blend our daily routine activities with mindful awareness we can make it more accessible for our lives. No – we may not have the time or opportunity to pack up and head to India for a month long silent retreat, but we can weave mindful compassionate awareness into the little moments – the sips of tea, the bubble bath, the sharing of meals with our loved ones. We can learn to breathe through the difficult moments and grow our compassion to truly be here for ourselves as well as everyone else.

This episode hones in on what caregivers need most -compassion for ourselves as well as those around us. Compassion is full circle – everyone in the circle of support needs it. Sue and Lee chat about how research in compassion practices show us that we can cultivate wellbeing also with gratitude – and how it also helps with sleep. When we combine gratitude with mindfulness, we get excellent benefits.

It’s so easy to be hard on ourselves as caregivers. It’s easy to overlook the good things, and only see what’s wrong, what needs fixing, what needs our attention in advocating.

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closing meditation practice combines Gratitude and Mindfulness.

Walking meditation (or rolling – or using whatever mobility device you may use) is a portable mindfulness practice that we can bring wherever we go. Some people find that movement is their way “in” as they are not comfortable at first with sitting still – so this is a great practice if that is who you are. Sue shares techniques to get a little playful with imagery as we do the mindful walking.

Watching our thoughts is such an important part of mindfulness practice. We know that we can never truly turn the tap off – thoughts will leak like a tap dripping, but it’s how we respond to them that makes all the difference! In this episode Sue and Lee talk about how we can be jerked around by our thoughts as caregivers. We can beat ourselves up about caregiving mistakes we’ve made in the past, or stress about what the future holds for our family member with a disability. This episode Sue and Lee talk about finding ways to rest in the present moment and train the mind to be truly here and now, accepting ourselves and the situation we are in with grace and self-compassion. The episode ends off with some techniques to observe thoughts objectively with nature imagery.

This episode goes into the body practices that are such a grounding form of connecting with the present moment for caregivers. Feeling ourselves in the moment – and pausing to connect with what we are truly feeling deep down inside of us, before reacting outwardly to what our loved ones are doing is such a powerful tool. Sue and Lee talk about how we can do this as caregivers and offer some practical tips. Sue leads us through a body practice to close it off.

This episode is useful to listen to when doing week 1 of the 6-week Mindfulness program for caregivers developed by the CAMH Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre. This episode discusses content in week 1 of the program – which focuses in on accessible ways for caregivers to do the breath meditation practices that form the backbone of much of the mindfulness curriculum. Sue and Lee talk about the vagus nerve and just how important it is to let go on the outbreath!

As parents and family members of someone with a neurodevelopmental disability, how do we use mindfulness during hard times? It’s not like we can close the door on reality, or just take off to the spa for a week. In this episode Sue and Lee discuss the practical ways caregivers can use mindfulness during the difficult moments. We know Covid has presented increased challenges for everyone, but in particular for caregivers who are either without programs for their family member with a disability, and they are picking up the slack, or their family member may be in a residential program where visitation bans prevent visits, adding a different kind of stress.

Mindfulness can be a powerful tool helping to steady the mind for caregivers during these challenges. And caregivers know challenges! Together Sue and Lee give caregivers some additional tools and options to use in daily life. Together Sue and Lee talk about the work of researcher Kristen Neff and the self compassion practice research.

For more information on the work of Kristen Neff visit www.Self-Compassion.org

In this introduction to the series, Sue and Lee introduce themselves and discuss how they found mindfulness and how it helps them.

In the episode, Sue talks about stress contagion research that shows us that we can “catch” stress from each other, and reminds us that we can also spread the feeling of calm with mindfulness practice.

Sue leads us through a guided meditation as a tool for caregivers. More information here on the research about stress contagion by Eva Oberle in 2016 Stress contagion possible amongst students and teachers: UBC study