Here are 10 STEPS for Managing Stress from our book Caregiver Revolution

Posted on December 22, 2024 by webmaven
  1. Breathe deeply

As a caregiver, there are moments where your frustration, anger, or anxiety will spike to overwhelming levels. When that happens, breathing deeply is your best friend. It forces you to pause and calm down so you can better deal with whatever is happening. Breathing is the first step in the Relaxation Response which we describe in our book and elsewhere on this site. See step 8 here for a full decription.

Navy SEALs use deep breathing techniques to calm themselves during life-threatening situations like searching for hidden bombs. If it works for those guys and gals, it won’t hurt to give it a try!

relaxation

caregiver relaxation drawing by Lin Larsen

2. Reach out

Leaning on the people in your support system is an effective way to reduce stress. We all need to vent, hear a friendly voice, or escape the responsibility for a while.

It doesn’t matter if you connect in person, on the phone, on video chat, or in an online group. The point is to reach out to people who are there for you and can help you feel better when you’re especially down.

 3.  Exercise

Getting up and moving is a great way to burn off stress and improves overall health. Regular exercise helps ward off conditions that commonly plague caregivers, like depression and heart disease.

Continue reading →

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The Great Adventure Spiritual Care, Death and Dying Bereavement Newsletter

Posted on November 28, 2024 by webmaven

We started as a newsletter back in 1997 and we have now moved the content to this site. Please see the drop down link above for reviews, past conference write ups and articles, all in the field of end-of life care!

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Lightly – Aldous Huxley

Posted on November 5, 2024 by webmaven

It’s dark because you are trying too hard.

Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly.

Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply.

Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.

I was so preposterously serious in those days, such a humorless little prig.

Lightly, lightly – it’s the best advice ever given me.

When it comes to dying even. Nothing ponderous, or portentous, or emphatic.

No rhetoric, no tremolos,

no self conscious persona putting on its celebrated imitation of Christ or Little Nell.

And of course, no theology, no metaphysics.

Just the fact of dying and the fact of the clear light.

So throw away your baggage and go forward.

There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet,

trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair.

That’s why you must walk so lightly.

Lightly my darling,

on tiptoes and no luggage,

not even a sponge bag,

completely unencumbered.

— Aldous Huxley, Island

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Labyrinth Readers Course starting in November

Posted on October 29, 2024 by webmaven

Labyrinth Readers Course
Free Introductory Meeting
Sunday, 17th November at 1pm

“Just as a midwife assists birth, the reader of The American Book of the Dead assists voyagers who have passed into the macro-dimensions to attain liberation or to achieve a conscious and deliberate rebirth on re-entry into the human dimension.” — from The American Book of the Dead by E.J. Gold

The Labyrinth Readers Society is offering a course in the use of the American Book of the Dead as a tool for the labyrinth reader.

Come along to a free introductory meeting on Sunday 17th November at 1pm to learn about the course.

The course consists of approximately 13 group meetings (1.5 hours per week), study materials and homework assignments. After the fourth or fifth meeting, we will begin a full 49-day reading cycle, reading twice a day.

If you decide to continue with the course, Lesson 1 begins on Saturday 24th November at 1pm. The course fee is $125 for the 12 weeks. A reduced rate is available for past participants. If you are in need of a scholarship, please contact the Institute.

For details see : https://labyrinthreaderssociety.com/beingareader/lrc/

Readers Altar

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The Funeral of Death

Posted on September 12, 2024 by webmaven

Nisargadatta and the funeral of death

From Gautam Sachdeva: I found echoes of Maharaj in Eckhart Tolles book A New Earth, wherein he says, “When forms that you had identified with, that gave you your sense of self, collapse or are taken away, it can lead to a collapse of the ego, since ego is identification with form. When there is nothing to identify with anymore, who are you? When forms around you die or death approaches, your sense of Beingness, of I Am, is freed from its entanglement with form: Spirit is released from its imprisonment in matter. You realize your essential identity as formless, as an all-Pervasive presence, of Being prior to all forms, all identifications. You realize your true identity as consciousness itself, rather than what consciousness had identified with. That’s the peace of God. The ultimate truth of who you are is not I am this or that, but I Am.”

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GeriPal – Excellent Podcasts!

Posted on July 17, 2024 by webmaven

GeriPal is an excellent source of clinical knowledge. Wide ranging topics, many of  which at first glance seem that they could be a bit dry, are presented in an interesting lively way. The podcasts, like this one about end of life Doulas, which I found especially interesting, are definitely worth checking out, and along with the Medbridge  site provide a terrific knowledge base of continuing education resources.GeriPal

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