Have you ever done or said something that you wish you could take back? Wouldn’t it be great if you could hit a “rewind” button and change what happened? That isn’t possible, it is possible to reduce caregiver stress by giving yourself a Do-Over. 

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Most caregivers are intimately familiar with sacrifice. It’s something they do daily. The problem with caregiver sacrifice is that when you give up everything you need to maintain your own physical and emotional well-being over an extended period of ...

This is the season of miracles. On Christmas morning, children awaken to find gifts from Santa. People in a position to give donated food, clothing, and toys, which created Christmas miracles for people in need. 

However, when money can’t fix a p...

A very wise woman told me that when she’s feeling overwhelmed with meeting all of the needs of her care receiver, she has found that doing one small thing for herself helps reduce her caregiver stress. One small act of self-care provides her with a s...

We know that there are no cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson's, and Huntington’s. Witnessing the steady decline of someone we love who is afflicted with one of these diseases breaks your heart in a thousand different ways. 

So is ther...

Is it time to celebrate Thanksgiving by letting go of traditions so you can focus on caregiver self-care? If you’re like me, you might have strived for decades to host Thanksgiving dinners that resembled Normal Rockwell paintings. 

Every year I e...

Like mothers of small children, caregivers think they have to become adept at doing several things simultaneously. Otherwise, how would you ever get anything done? The problem with caregiver multi-tasking is that you're doing one thing while your min...

I hadn’t seen my dear friend Maggie in months. She’s been caring for her husband, who is living with Parkinson’s Disease for more than five years. I was concerned about her, and I finally convinced her to join me for lunch at a restaurant near her ho...

I received an email from a woman whose husband died after a long illness with ALS. The disease was relentless in its progression, and she said, “The last three years were brutal.”

Her husband lost the ability to speak, eat, or move without assistanc...

November is  National Family Caregivers Month. It is a time when organizations strive to raise awareness of caregiving issues and thank caregivers for their invaluable contributions. 

This annual recognition is lovely, but when you're in the tren...

Several years ago, I met Claudia, a remarkable caregiver, at a conference in Wisconsin. In the morning, I had spoken about how caregiver fatigue contributes to anger and a multitude of other physical and mental challenges. 

At lunch, Claudia told me...

At an Alzheimer’s caregiving conference, I was inspired when a man named Barney described how he was choosing to live with dementia. 

Barney had become frustrated because he couldn’t find the “Text” key on his computer. He searched and searched and ...