Rayna’s
Blog
Ten Tips for Practicing Saying “No.”
1. Reflect on Your Limits: Take some time to understand your own physical, emotional, and time boundaries. Knowing your limits is the first step to communicating them effectively. 2. Prioritize Tasks: Make a list of caregiving tasks and prioritize them. Identify what...
Embracing Self-Care and Rest in Your Caregiving Season
The role of a caregiver is often described as a labor of love, but it can also be a source of significant stress, particularly for those in the sandwich generation. Balancing the needs of your children and aging parents, while also managing your own life, can leave...
Finding Strength in Stillness
In a world that constantly pushes us towards action and productivity, it's revolutionary to discover the power that lies in stillness. As caregivers, we're often caught in a whirlwind of tasks and emotional labor, but it's in the quiet moments that we can find true...
Embracing Grace: Five Unresolutions for Your Caregiving Season
As we step into the New Year, the air is thick with resolutions. Everywhere we turn, we're encouraged to make lists of goals, to strive for improvement, to set our sights on transformation. But in the midst of this season of change, I propose we take a different...
Top Ten Warning Signs of Stress
For all its bad reputation, stress isn’t necessarily a negative thing. It’s a response from your body to changes in your life. “Good” things can cause stress as frequently as “bad.” The stress created by getting a new job, increased responsibilities in caring for a...
Why Attend a Memory Cafe?
What is a Memory Cafe? A Memory Cafe is a gathering of those who are living with memory loss and their care partner. We meet for 2 hours every second Saturday of the month. Our meetings provide a pressure-free environment both for the family members and those living...
How Emotionally Resilient Are You?
Emotional resilience is the ability to successfully cope with change or misfortune. Even when afraid, resilient people respond to life’s challenges with courage and emotional stamina. While we can’t always control what life brings, we can use adversity as an...
Patience a Calm Acceptance
Caregiving for my dad was a special season in my life. It was filled with challenges, heartaches, laughter, joy and faith growing season in my life. Since you are still in your caring season you might not use these words to discribe your life right now, but I am...
Self-Care: Becoming Your Own Best Friend
Need someone to work extra days? Ask me. Someone who’ll clean up the place because we’ve scheduled an open house? Sure. I’ll even bring the cleaning supplies. Need someone to baby-sit your kids while you go away for a weekend? I’ll do it. Stay late? Cook extra? Loan...
Are You a Good Listener?
Do you give the gift of listening? Need some tips on becoming a better listener. Real listening can be learned. Research and books such as The Lost Art of Listening: How Learning to Listen Can Improve Relationships, by Michael Nichols, and Mortimer Adler’s How to...
How Well Do You Practice Empathy?
“To love a person is to see all of their magic, and to remind them of it when they have forgotten.” – Anonymous Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. In certain circumstances, it is difficult to see things from another...
Bust Through Overwhelm
“My caregiver mantra is to remember: the only control you have is over the changes you choose to make.” – Nancy L. Kriseman Caring for a parent is not an easy road to travel, but it’s certainly worth every step. It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life...