SELF CARE FOR CARERS

It continues to be a difficult and challenging time for anyone in a caring role.

With so many changes and still a lot of disruption and uncertainty it’s very hard to feel like you’re flourishing. It’s important at this time to be kind to yourself, to recognise you’ve already given a great deal and if possible make some time for reflection.

If you’ve had a tough last 12 months, why not try a few of these reflective tools designed to help you think through what’s happened and to regain some strength. Each of these tools will help you become a little more self-aware and hopefully to gain some perspective on what’s happened. This helps because it enables you to make sense of things and to accept where you are.

Below you’ll find:

Images

Try this …

CS Lewis once said “Grief is like a long valley, a winding valley where any bend may reveal a totally new landscape.” Look at these three images as reflective tools to look back on the last 12 months. Where have you come from? What are the twists and turns you’ve gone through? What new landscape might you be heading into?

Remembering Tree

A remembering tree is based on the Japanese ritual of tying ribbons to a tree as a mark of remembering, praying or thanksgiving. Participants take a specially prepared tag and write on it people or things they’ve lost that they want to remember. The tree slowly fills with tags. Download the PDF instructions below which are an extract from our free Remembering resource to find out how to do it.

SURROUNDINGS

Try this reflection …

It can be done anywhere and involves embracing yourself in your surroundings. Wherever you are, be aware of your body and how it connects to where you are. This could be your feet on the ground. Your bottom on a seat. Your back against a tree. Be aware of your body as it connects.

How does it feel?

Be aware of your head, neck, spine, legs, feet. Are you holding any stress or pressure? Be aware of it and, if you can, relax it. Breathe deeply and allow calm to settle.

This reflection is about you being present. Be you in this moment, in contact with your surroundings. Notice the sounds around you. Feel the wind in your face or the sun on your face. You are alive and you are part of this world. Because of that, you matter. You feel, think and are involved. Other things and people depend on you.

Use this reflection to learn how to be present in a moment.

What do you feel? Is that feeling happy or sad? What are you experiencing right now? What things are stopping you from being present (worries, pain, tiredness)?

Breathe out and let them go.

Make a conscious effort to be present today.

SILENCE

Being silent is a wonderful and simple way to take stock and reflect. Silence has been researched and been found to have a number of wellbeing and health benefits.

Give this a try:

Find a comfortable place and sit in whatever way feels relaxed and still. Have your eyes closed or open depending on what feels most comfortable.

Be completely still and silent. Allow the sounds around you to be there but you do not have to do anything about them. When you get distracted refocus. Try and do this for a few minutes at least. Use the resources to help or find something to focus on

When you have finished, relax and slowly come back into the room Four further ideas you might try:

1. When you feel yourself rushing stop for one moment and slow yourself.

2. In meetings when progress is hard or dialogue heated encourage everyone to be silent for at least one minute. Then ask if any new ideas have emerged.

3. Take up doodling. This is a perfect aid to silence and lets your mind wander to new places and new ideas.

4. Want a different perspective on an idea. Ponder it in silence for a few minutes and scribble ideas that arise. Let the silence allow you to see things differently.

Mindful meditation

Lastly, we’ve prepared a simple mindful meditation. This MP3 track can be listened to here or download onto your phone or laptop. It takes you through the steps of mindful meditation in a very easy to understand way and is perfect if you’ve never tried this before. This can be a few minutes of peace and calm and can be used again and again.

If the events of the last twelve months have affected you and you’d like a chat with someone about it, you can organise a free Wellbeing Check-In with one of the Space to Breathe team. We are Mental Health First Aid trained and can signpost you to the help you need. Why not check out the details below and get in touch? Just click on the picture.

 

Well? Subscription

On further way you might want to access support is through Well? - our digital wellbeing subscription, Well? gives you simple tools and techniques that support you to do this, straight to your inbox every week. It costs £3.49/month and is a bit like a gym membership for your wellbeing.

With exclusive content for our subscribers, Well? is a mixture of video, audio or blog material, plus our One Minute Wellbeing feature. It could be a fresh track produced by DJ extraordinaire Steve Leach, a collection of practical ideas to focus on finding hope or a thought provoking video from our founder Andy Freeman. Our hope is that, through making space to engage in connection, you will thrive and become more of who you were made to be.

You can subscribe below and also check out some sample content.

SAMPLE CONTENT

Check out the sample content below.