Meditation and Other Mindfulness Practices to Relieve Stress in Caregivers

November 2, 2023

If you are a caregiver, you are probably familiar with stress. According to the Office on Woman’s Health, “Caregiver stress is due to the emotional and physical strain of caregiving. Caregivers report much higher levels of stress than people who are not caregivers. Many caregivers are providing help or are ‘on call’ almost all day.”

You may feel as if you are too busy to deal with the stress right now. You must drive your kids to soccer practice, make a living, make sure a healthy meal is prepared for your aging parent, and the list goes on. You simply have too much to do. You’ll work through the stress and worry about it later, right?

The Office on Woman’s Health reminds us, “You need to take care of yourself to be able to care for your loved one.” You could argue that not taking the time to care for yourself is actually selfish because if you don’t take time for yourself, you won’t have anything left to give to your aging parent.

The Effects of Stress

Chronic stress can harm you both mentally and physically. Mentally, stress can cause anxiety, sadness, irritability, aggression, memory, or concentration problems, and more. “Long-term ongoing stress can increase the risk of hypertension, heart attack, or stroke,” according to the American Psychological Association. “Repeated acute stress and persistent chronic stress may also contribute to inflammation in the circulatory system, particularly in the coronary arteries, and this is one pathway that is thought to tie stress to heart attack.”

If you notice any of the following symptoms of stress, you need to take time for yourself NOW:

Exhaustion
Difficulty sleeping
Stomach issues
Headaches
Tense muscles
Anxious feelings
Panic attacks

One way to manage stress is through meditation and mindful practices, and fortunately, they don’t have to take a lot of your time. Just a few minutes a day could make all the difference.

What are Meditation and Mindful Practices?

Archaeologists date meditation back to ancient Egypt and China in 5,000 BCE, but it wasn’t until the 1960s that researchers began to study meditation’s medical benefits.

“The term ‘meditation’ refers to a variety of practices that focus on mind and body integration and are used to calm the mind and enhance overall well-being,” the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health explains. “Some types of meditation involve maintaining mental focus on a particular sensation, such as breathing, a sound, a visual image, or a mantra, which is a repeated word or phrase. Other forms of meditation include the practice of mindfulness, which involves maintaining attention or awareness on the present moment without making judgments... Meditation and mindfulness practices may have a variety of health benefits and may help people improve the quality of their lives.”

One-Minute Mindfulness Practice

So, put your phone down and try this super-simple one-minute meditation from Cleveland Clinic.

Find a relatively quiet place where you won’t be disturbed
Breathe in for five seconds
Breathe out for five seconds
Do it five more times

“If you can slow yourself down and take those extra breaths, you’ll move your stress response back down to a more manageable level, you’ll respond instead of react, and life will be calmer,” Life Change & Mindset Coach Sharon Ashton states, “I believe any activity can become a mindful practice when you connect your breath, pay attention, and stay present.”