The Cancer Caregiver

Why do we hurt our ability to enjoy the small moments in our lives by being controlled by what might happen in the future? How many times do you find yourself laughing with a group of people and then remember your loved one has a doctor’s appointment next week and suddenly feel your stomach drop?  Or maybe living in constant worry of the possibility of losing your loved one to the point that you c...

When you think of it, aren’t the “bad” times and experiences in your life what make you who you are?  When you think about your caregiving do you know you can make it through difficult things because of the vacation you took three years ago or because you were able to advocate for your loved one last month?  Listen to episode 141 of the Love Your Caregiving Life podcast to find out why we only doc...

How many times have you been out with someone and suddenly they'll give you a weird look and ask if you’ve been walking around like that all day? Have you had two different shoes on all day or wait, I thought your hair was up when we left. When was the last time you really saw your loved one? It’s so easy to do. I mean in a - why didn’t you tell me I forgot to button up my shirt before we left the...

Here’s the thing… gratitude isn’t standing around the dinner table holding hands with people you haven’t seen in a year, feverishly trying to think up a new thing you can say you’re grateful for because Aunt Mary already took what you were going to say!  Gratitude is not just a holiday theme. It isn’t a one-and-done kinda thing. In fact, I love that gratitude gets the spotlight for one-twelfth of...

Usually, the topic of gratitude pops up when life is already too difficult for you to handle as a caregiver.  Usually, around the holidays the gratitude message becomes powerful and you can feel surrounded by it. You’ll see it in holiday commercials, on social media, and in almost any conversation you find yourself in. Or worse yet… the awkward gratitude circle your family always forms right befor...

Turbulence is never a science. You could hear there could be some bumps along that way and on the other end of it realize it really wasn’t anything to worry about. Or the turbulence hits out of thin air and it takes you by surprise. Either way… you’ve learned that there is a certain amount of unpredictability when you fly and you have to choose how you will approach that each time you get on a pla...

We’ve all been forced to face how unfair life can be… so are you a glass empty or glass full type of person? I think I’m a… hope the waiter comes soon because I’m thirsty type. I do walk through life expecting the best.  Don’t you deserve the best? You doubted that when I said it didn’t you?  But really… don’t you deserve the best?  What if the best isn’t a cure.  What if the best is seeing what i...

Do you have moments when you realize you have a particular thing you do with your loved one that only makes sense to the two of you? Have you been caregiving for so long that the back story would take way too long to explain it to anyone else? Love that you can look at each other, smile and know exactly what the other person is thinking? Or maybe you’re like me and realize sometimes that your care...

Loving Kindness Meditation practice helps you cultivate unconditional love towards yourself and others. Listen to this podcast episode to understand what unconditional love is, how it’s probably already a big part of your caregiver DNA and why consciously working with it can make this ability stronger.  Listen to episode #134 to get a better understanding of what unconditional love is and how your...

Negative self talk and feeling resentful and angry are all part of the caregiving experience that we’d rather not talk about. Feeling inadequate and constantly going over our mistakes when things go wrong can hijack our day and keep us from feeling happiness.  Would you like to find an easy way to.. Reduce body pain and migraines. Decrease stress and anxiety Slow biological decline Nuture strong r...

We spend a lot of time wishing we were loved more, appreciated more, and seen. We base our future happiness on the health of the people we care for. How many times do you think or say that you’ll do something for yourself or feel happier once they recover or feel better? So we spend forever waiting because even if that day were to come we would probably push finding our own happiness to the side. ...

You may not notice it… but you have strength that not everyone has. You continue when others would have just given up and you stay to help your loved one even when you feel like running away.  I understand that thinking about setting boundaries can feel scary because you have to see who you are outside of caregiving… and for many of us, that means we’ll realize that we are lost.  Finding yourself...

What do you do when you find yourself alone… with nothing to do and no one to interact with? Do you pick up your phone and scroll through social media or play a game? Do you grab a book or magazine or start to write down a list of things you need to do? It’s awkward isn’t it? When you find yourself alone with just your thoughts it feels uncomfortable to sit with them. Sometimes it hurts to sit in...

Does it make you cringe when you say no to someone?    If you know the right thing is to say no do you try to find ways to not even have that conversation because it’s stressing you out?    Do you say yes because saying no feels too hard even though you know it’s the right thing?   Listen to episode ## of the Love Your Caregiving Life podcast and learn how to say no so you can start to say yes to...

Do you find it hard to separate your interest, needs and feelings from the person you care for? Do you feel like you’re lost and don’t know who you really are anymore? Listen to learn  What do boundaries mean to you How to set meaningful limits so you make your needs a priority again. Learning when to say no and yes to things The importance of a boundary buddy. Have questions? Want to work on boun...

You’ve lost a lot more than you probably realize now that you’re a caregiver. Listen to this episode of the Love Your Caregiving Life podcast and see what losses we’ve all encountered and how to get through the grief without any more shame or regret. Learn how to heal without making the emotions small or unimportant. You deserve to be able to grieve without worrying others will think your loss is...

Welcome to Part 4 of the Caregiver Self-Care summer series where I take you back to the 4 most important episodes on self-care for caregivers. If you are just finding this for the first time please consider going back and starting with episode 123 as these episodes all build off of each other.  If you’ve been following along all month long welcome to the last part of the series! In this episode I...

The focus of this episode is focusing on prioritizing yourself and creating boundaries. This is the next step in creating your own self-care plan and can prove to be one of the most difficult because it requires you to go from planning and thinking of doing something to acting on it. Along with the last 2 self-care tools you can try out.  It’s also coming close to the time for the subscription cut...

Welcome to Part two of the Caregiver Self-Care summer series where I take you back to the 4 most important episodes on self-care for caregivers. If you listened to last week's episode you might have a new understanding of what self-care is. If you haven’t listened to it I suggest you start with that one first. You’re always told you should care for yourself but understanding why is what you might...

Welcome to Part one of the Caregiver Self-Care summer series where I take you back to the 4 most important episodes on self-care for caregivers.  I get that self-care can feel like it isn’t for you. You’ve been handed multiple lists of things you should be doing for yourself and people are always telling you that caring for yourself is important but the problem is no one has helped you figure out...

Welcome to the last part of The Things They Should Have Told You summer series where I take you back to the 4 most important episodes for caregivers to listen to no matter how long they’ve been a caregiver.  Resentment is the main focus of this episode and is an important episode for all caregivers to listen to because it’s an emotion I think we all feel at times and it’s probably one of the last...

Knowing you aren’t alone in this is one of the first things I’d love all caregivers to know. This episode is one of my favorites but it almost didn’t get recorded. I did a lot of crying when I wrote this and I could hardly get through recording it so for a moment I considered not doing it at all. I was worried and a little scared that being this vulnerable was too much but then I realized that is...

Let’s listen to this episode and hear how I would have loved it if a nurse or someone would have told me I should consider having different levels of communication with different types of people in my life group texts would not make it easier some people would selfishly overreact in front of me and it wasn’t my place to help them feel better about it. it would have made things a lot better for me....

Welcome to The Things They Should Have Told You summer series where I take the 4 most important episodes for caregivers to listen to no matter how long they’ve been a caregiver. So let’s start off with my origin story. I truly believe all caregivers are superheroes and with all superheroes we feel more connected to them when we learn their origin stories.  This series will be continued into the Au...

Do you believe that understanding who you are right now is the next step toward finding more happiness in life? In the episode I share steps you can take to figure out who you really are and how to adjust your expectations to align with the life you are currently living.  Don't have your free issue of Caregiving Confessions? Grab it here  https://www.loveyourcaregivinglife.com/downloads