Mindfulness has many benefits! It's been found to support you in regulating emotions, managing stress and leading to greater overall health and well-being. Our theme of MINDFULNESS in March fits under the composure domain of resilience. Composure - in regards to resilience - is about learning to regulate our emotions. It's also about the "little things" - being mindful in the moment. Sounds easy, right? It's HARD!
Check out our March Newsletter focused on MINDFULNESS here.
Read MoreWe talk a lot about stress here – more specifically, coping with and managing stress – but this week’s topic is about the opposite of stress. Inner peace is a deliberative state of psychological or spiritual calm that we can feel despite the potential presence of stressors. Inner calm is being free from the emotions that can disrupt our peace and is a result of recognizing what we can and can’t control.
Read MoreIf there’s one thing I know, it’s that we can’t control other people or their emotions, feelings, or actions. We can only control OUR responses and what WE do.
Read MoreThis week, our month’s theme of mindfulness brings us to the topic of self-compassion. And we can think of no better source to rely on for wisdom and advice on this subject than Dr. Kristin Neff, co-founder of the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion.
“Having compassion for oneself is really no different than having compassion for others,” Dr. Neff says.
Self-compassion is a component of self-love, where we recognize our own worth and value and extend kindness to ourselves as we would extend it to others. Show YOURSELF some compassion today.
Read MoreOur new theme for this month is mindfulness, and our topic to kick it off is self-regulation. We talk a lot about mindfulness at Courage to Caregivers. Being mindful and keeping ourselves connected to the present moment means that we are better able to regulate our emotions and stay in control.
For caregivers, that’s important. Sometimes, we get overwhelmed by things around us that are out of our control. There’s so much to do, and nothing we do seems to be good enough. This feeling can happen all at once, or it can creep up on us slowly.
In my most active caregiving days, I felt as if I had lost myself - who I was at my very core. Throughout February, as we explored our theme of Self-Discovery, we dug deep to identify our strengths and opportunities for growth, developed our understanding of self-confidence and worked hard on our self-love.
When I think about who has helped me with my own journey of self-discovery, that's right, you guessed it, the work of Brené Brown has been like having a personal life coach. She's taught me to cultivate courage and live my most authentic self. This is HARD!
Check out our February Newsletter focused on SELF-DISCOVERY here.
Read MoreBy now, you know that we’re all about courage. It’s in our name, after all. And this week’s topic – self-love – might be the most courageous, important, and difficult gift you can give yourself. It’s an essential part of self-care, and it’s absolutely not selfish.
Read MoreWith self-confidence, the world becomes a place filled with opportunities and adventures instead of a fearful journey. Before you know it, you will truly believe that you are capable, responsible, reliable, and able to manage life on life’s terms … and on YOUR terms.
Read MoreThis month, we’ll be exploring the theme of self-discovery, and a great place to start is by focusing on our strengths as opportunities. Strengths go hand-in-hand with a growth mindset. Identifying areas where you are strongest allows you not only to work on the things you need to improve but also to cultivate your strengths and make them even stronger.
Read MoreUnder our theme of DREAM BIG this month, we started with our vision for ourselves. Our vision clarifies our values and includes goals around those values. We explored creating your personal timeline, identifying your core values and personal mission statement, as well as focusing on what brings you joy.
It turns out that VISION is the most important domain of resilience. This is because all the other domains focus on what you want to achieve, and you can't take action to achieve something without a VISION!
Are you a dreamer? (I am!) Dreaming is all about envisioning a way forward. Looking ahead at the person you aspire to be. It requires digging deep and sometimes being vulnerable. It can be scary and exciting at the same time.
With YOUR vision for YOUR life, you know where you are headed. It's literally your roadmap for this journey of life.
Check out our January Newsletter focused on DREAMING BIG here.
Read MoreSo much of what we talk about is hard stuff. Caregiving is hard. Focusing on self-care is hard. Tuning out all of the negatives from external sources is hard. But this week’s topic – What brings you joy? – really can be easy if you have the right mindset … even if you feel exhausted from compassion fatigue, pandemic fatigue, or just plain old fatigue.
Read MoreThis week we’re asking you to really go deep and discover what makes you YOU by creating a personal mission statement.
Read MoreA personal timeline can serve as a guide for setting goals, and that just happens to be our first weekly topic of the new year, as part of this month’s theme: Dream BIG. Organizing your experiences by creating a personal timeline of your past is an exercise that allows you to see the positive and negative flow of your life on one page. Your timeline is unique to you and shows a series of events, circumstances, and choices that have impacted your life.
Read MoreWe often think of our OUTLOOK on life as looking outwards or looking at our prospects for the future. What if we started by looking WITHIN ourselves? With mindfulness, YOU can cultivate the outlook YOU desire.
Throughout December we looked at the theme of outlook through the lens of 1) having a hope-centered mindset; 2) opportunity and possibility; and 3) celebrating your successes.
Your outlook is connected to your resilience. You CAN grow your hope and develop a more positive outlook - you can CHOOSE the mindset you're going to use. Having a growth mindset reminds us that anything is possible ... and that's worth celebrating!
Check out our December Newsletter focused on OUTLOOK here.
Read MoreWe’re proud to be part of their success stories, and I hope you take pride in all that you’ve done, too. Whether big or small, your accomplishments have required hard work and sacrifice. You set a goal, you persevered, and you grew. You couldn’t have done it without YOU.
Read MoreHere’s a favorite recipe of mine that’s great not only during the holiday season, but any time of the year: Take an open mind, add a dash of positivity, and top it off with a whole lot of growth mindset. What you get is a big bowl full of opportunity and unlimited possibility.
As caregivers, we can sometimes feel that our possibilities are limited and our growth opportunities are nonexistent. This can make us feel stuck … like our caregiving is holding us back from the things that could help us achieve our goals, pursue our dreams, and make our lives better.
Read MoreWith the new year just a few weeks away, now is a great time to discuss this week’s topic: hope. It’s no coincidence that our thoughts and celebrations during this time of year tend to focus on better things to come. We make goals and resolutions for the new year and are eager to put the struggles of the last year behind us. Our hope helps us put everything into perspective, motivates us to move forward, and reminds us that personal growth is possible.
Read MoreAs human beings, we are hard-wired to connect - for COLLABORATION. Our brains have a NEED to connect with others in order to THRIVE.
Collaboration also can help caregivers move from SURVIVAL mode to THRIVAL mode.
THRIVAL is defined in the urban dictionary as "looking beyond your soul into the deepness of society's problems; sacrificing yourself and going beyond one's comfort zone in order to help the people around you."
I've met a lot of caregivers over the years - all of them are on a journey ... and it is definitely one of THRIVAL. But at Courage to Caregivers, we recognize that you may feel as though you’re languishing when you start out on your journey. That’s why we’ve added the concept of self-care to our own definition of THRIVAL. Our programs work to support caregivers in THRIVING, too.
Join us and find out how you, too, can move from languishing to flourishing - it's possible to THRIVE as a caregiver.
Read the full newsletter here.
Read MoreCourage to Caregivers continues to help people like Ericka, Meg, Mellissa, Janelle and Ed because of the generosity of donors like you. YOU help to illuminate the HOPE that Ed now sees for caregivers everywhere. YOUR support makes the journey toward wholeness for participants like Ericka possible. YOUR encouragement builds stronger healthier families like Meg’s. YOUR donation assures we can continue our Peer Support program for Janelle and Mellissa. YOU are an integral part of the team for caregivers everywhere.
Read More’Tis the season for thanking and giving, but like it or not, it’s also the season for comparing and despairing. When we get together with friends and family members that we haven’t seen for some time, it can be easy to compare ourselves to others with regard to money, success, style, confidence, or any number of ways we might think we are lacking.
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