Caregiving during COVID-19
Premier Physical Therapy would like to acknowledge that care giving has moments of great joy and great struggle, as well as everything in between! We appreciate ALL that you do, your dedication and perseverance. We support you as well as your loved one! But today, we want to honor you on National Care givers day!
Following in the blog, are 3 opportunities to care for yourselves. Please take a moment to look over these activities and use them as you see fit!
Enjoy!
Making Art to Relieve the Stress of Caregiving
Barb Smucker – Artist, Teacher,
Facilitator of Mindful Art Practice at The Hive, @cincyhive.org
Caregiving can be one of the most depleting and stress producing seasons of life. You may find yourself running on empty, accomplishing daily tasks not only for yourself but for your loved one too, with barely any time left over to rest and replenish so that you can face the next day. I know you’ve probably heard it said many times, but it is so important to take time for yourself, apart from your caregiving activities, so that you can keep going for the long haul.
One way to access self care is by adding a few simple art making practices to your week. Simple art making, like doodling, collage, coloring and iPhone photography require no special skills, very few supplies, and is portable. Attached is a PDF of suggestions to utilize art to help deal with stress in an easy and applicable way.
Yoga for Caretakers
Rachel Dollard - rachel.ann.dollard@gmail.com
There’s an important reason we are instructed to put on our own oxygen mask before assisting anyone else with their mask - we cannot take care of others unless we are taking care of ourselves. As professional caretakers, it is of utmost importance for you to tend to your body, mind, and spirit. There are many ways to foster care for yourself, one of which is yoga.
Yoga offers the following benefits, plus many more:
Increased mental clarity and focus
Increased balance, strength, and flexibility
Eases aches and pains, including arthritis and back pain Manages stress and supports relaxation
Improves sleep
Improves heart health
Increases energy
Promotes better awareness and self-care
Yoga is accessible to all bodies as there are many different types and the poses can be modified for injuries, aches and pains, and different body shapes. If you don’t have access to group classes led by a teacher, you can also get started at home. A couple of my favorite resources for at-home practice include:
Yoga with Adrienne - simple guided practices via YouTube
YogaJournal - wonderful resource on benefits of particular poses and simple routines you can do at home
The world is grateful for your care of so many people. Thank you for all you do to help others heal.
Rachel Dollard lives in Eden Prairie, MN and is a Yoga Instructor, Spiritual Director, and Integrative Nutrition Health Coach. She specializes in supporting women in full-person wellness. Her current favorite yoga student is her three-year-old son. When she isn’t leading a yoga class or working with awesome women, you can usually find her trail running with her goldendoodle or cooking with her husband.
Creating Positive Movement Experiences
By: Amy Phillips
Have a focus (breathing)
Focusing on your breath can be a quick way to bring down your stress level. Taking a moment to slow your breathing down and breathe into the belly can be a great way to calm down the nervous system. Try to take a few moments each day and focus on your breathing.
Use a metaphor (mental image)
We often learn best with pictures. Being able to picture something happening can make it more powerful. Imagine stress draining from your body as sigh or exhale deeply.
Use mood words to create a positive mindset.
“Choose the content of your mind that moves you in the direction you want to go.” (Eric Franklin) Negative thinking creates negative experiences while positive thinking creates more positive experiences. Try an experiment using both negative and positive imagery while doing the same task. Here is an example: Lift and lower one arm a few times while saying or thinking to yourself, “my arm feels heavy, I am noticing tension in my shoulders, this is making me tired, etc.” Notice how you feel when you tell yourself those things. Try this again using the same arm while telling yourself things like, “my arm feels as light as a feather, this movement feels easy, I am enjoying moving my arm like this”. Notice the difference in the way you feel. The same is true for all our self-talk. What we focus on tends to get bigger. If your focus is negative, you will notice more negative things. If your focus is positive, you will see more positive things.
Tapping
Tapping the body gently to wake up the nervous system before we are required to do big movements of the body can help us to orient ourselves in space and move more efficiently and in better alignment. Gently tapping the body starting with the abdominal area, tapping up on the right and down on the left, in the same direction as our digestive system. Tap the chest and arms to release tension in the upper body. Brush down the arms and picture brushing away all of the tension from the upper body. Tap the legs down and up the front, inner thighs, outer thighs, and back of legs. Finish by tapping the low back and glutes with your knuckles.
Spinal movements while massaging the area
With your knuckles or fingertips, gently rub up and down and side to side in the low back area while flexing and extending the spine, side bending to each side, and rotating to each side.
Reach forward with one hand as you flex your spine and step the opposite foot forward. Reach that same arm to the back while stepping back with the opposite foot. Going back and forth between these two movements helps to reduce tension throughout the tissues of the back.
Shoulder sponging
Hold upper traps of opposite shoulder with your thumb touching the side of the neck.
Squeeze and release the muscle breathing naturally.
Add the image of squeezing water (or tension) out of a sponge as you squeeze and allow fresh clean water to be absorbed as you release.
Add movements to squeezes.
Add shrugs, squeezing as you lift the shoulder.
Shoulder rolls and arm reaches forward and back with squeezes are also a great way to release tension.
Finding proper head placement
Notice how you hold your head and neck. Notice how it feels to let your head drop forward. Use your fingertips to rub the area at the base of the skull as you create a see saw action of the head on the top of the spine. Notice what effect this has on your neck.
Amy Phillips’ Bio
After spending years at a stressful, sedentary job that I did not enjoy, I found myself almost 40 years old, depressed, without energy or a purpose in life. My lifestyle choices had taken a toll on me and I knew it was time to make some changes. I now had a young daughter that I needed to take care of and model what a healthy lifestyle looked like. I started simply, just taking her out for a walk in the stroller every afternoon.
As I added more movement, like Pilates, to my daily routine the migraines I had suffered from since I was a child became much less frequent. I slowly began making connections between food, lifestyle and how I felt every day.
My desire to help other people learn to feel better everyday led me to become a Pilates Instructor and Master Trainer, a certified MELT Method Hand and Foot Instructor, and a Nutrition Coach. I created a group class called Release, Restore, and Rebalance that can be taken in person or via video that combines movement and release work from different modalities to give my clients the tools that they need in order to take charge of their wellbeing. This class contains release work to help you restore comfortable movement and range of motion while helping to re-balance your nervous system. This class may contain the MELT Method Hand, Foot, or Face Treatment using the MELT balls as well as stretching and mobility Pilates or pre-Pilates exercises.