Providing your senior loved one with home care can be a rewarding experience, but it can also be a stressful task. You need to focus time on your own health and reduce your stress levels to prevent burnout. Take a look at some of the unique ways you can manage caregiver stress.
1. Try Color Therapy
Watching your loved one’s health decrease could cause you to feel overwhelmed with anger, grief, and sadness, which could have a negative impact on your mood. However, color therapy is a unique way for you to reduce your stress levels. Certain colors may make you feel calm and more in control. For example, if you paint your nails a color that immediately relaxes your mind, all you need to do is look down at your hands throughout the day whenever you feel stress levels rising.
Caring for a senior loved one can be challenging for families who don’t have expertise or professional training in home care, but this challenge doesn’t have to be faced alone. Family caregivers can turn to Green Valley Embrace In-Home Care for the help they need. We provide high-quality live-in and respite care as well as comprehensive Alzheimer’s, dementia, stroke, and Parkinson’s care.
2. Eat Crunchy Snacks
The effort you must put into crunching down on snacks may distract you from stressful thoughts. The chewing sound could also lure you into a calmer state. Apples, almonds, and carrots are the healthiest crunchy snacks to eat when you want to alleviate stress.
3. Cuddle with Pets
Cuddling with your dog or cat could lead to a positive mood. Although spending time with a pet isn’t quite the same as interacting with a human, it can make caregivers feel less isolated. Pets are carefree and cheerful, which are emotions family caregivers need to reduce their stress levels. Receiving unconditional love is reassuring for caregivers, especially when they begin to feel unappreciated and undervalued.
4. Dance
You don’t have to join a dance class or wait for the right time to dance. Instead, you can break out in dance and begin alleviating stress immediately. Spastic and unplanned movement allows you to take a short break from being a caregiver. Move your body to the beat in your head if no music is playing. Dancing can refresh your mind and help you refocus.
5. Use Aromatherapy
Caring for a loved one with a chronic illness can be overwhelming for a caregiver, and it can lead to more stress and an increased risk of depression. For example, if your loved one has dementia, he or she may begin to repeat words, stories, or questions over and over again, which might cause you to become irritated and overwhelmed. However, lighting a candle, baking cookies, or smelling your favorite scent jar could calm your mind. Aromatherapy has the power to distract the parts of the brain that are subject to worry and anger.
Dementia is one of the many health conditions older adults are susceptible to. Certain age-related conditions can make it more challenging for seniors to age in place safely and comfortably, but Green Valley live-in care experts are available around the clock to help seniors manage their health. Whether your loved one is living with dementia or is recovering from a stroke, you can trust in professional live-in caregivers to enhance his or her quality of life.
6. Let Off Steam
It is okay to drop a few curse words from time to time. Go outside, down in the basement, or another secluded area of the home to let off a few bad words. Swearing serves as a unique mechanism for stress relief. It taps into the emotional part of the brain that can help you release pent-up negative caregiving emotions. Don’t be afraid to add some choice words to your vocabulary when you feel stressed out from your caregiving duties.
Family caregivers who need a break from their caregiving duties to focus on their own emotional wellbeing can benefit from professional at-home care. Whether your elderly loved one needs part-time assistance with basic household chores or you need a break from your caregiving duties, the Green Valley respite care experts at Embrace In-Home Care are here to help. All of our respite care services are backed with a 100% satisfaction guarantee, there are no hidden fees in our contracts, and we never ask our clients to sign long-term contracts. To schedule a free in-home consultation, give us a call at (520) 625-2050 today.