YOUR Stress Management
Preoccupation with helping may leave you detached from your own physical/psychological well-being.
“Stress has a huge emotional cost to the carer. It builds up and very quietly drags the carer down. They go through a stress of grief, a sense of loss, frustration, and even failure at recognising their inability to achieve anything for the person that they’re caring for, that they can’t cure or restore the health or the normality of the person for whom they are caring” says Mr Laity.
https://www.agedcareguide.com.au/talking-aged-care/royal-commission-funding-for-carer-support-essential
THE ISOLATED BRAIN
For most of human society, however, social isolation acts in more insidious ways than these “experiments” capture, often disproportionately affecting vulnerable members of the population, such as the elderly, and with effects accumulating slowly such that they may go unnoticed for many years, if not decades. The effects of this subtler sort of social isolation, which some health researchers and psychologists have already described as a public health risk, are better observed in longer-term studies that look for links between a person’s social connections and how the mind functions.
Many studies have found that chronic social isolation is indeed associated with cognitive decline, and that isolation often precedes decline by several years. One 2013 study, for example, measured cognitive function at two time points in a cohort of more than 6,000 older individuals taking part in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). People who reported having fewer social contacts and activities at the beginning of the study, researchers found, showed greater decline in cognitive function, as measured by verbal fluency and memory recall tasks, after four years.
Studies of animals and people experiencing isolation have identified several brain structures that appear to be affected by a lack of social interaction. Although these studies can’t identify causal relationships—and don’t always agree with one another—they shine a light on some of the mechanisms by which physical isolation, or feelings of loneliness, could impair brain function and cognition.
© ISTOCK.COM, JAMBOJAM
PREFRONTAL CORTEX: In some studies, people who are lonely have been found to have reduced brain volumes in the prefrontal cortex, a region important in decision making and social behavior, although other research suggests this relationship might be mediated by personality factors. Rodents that have been isolated from their conspecifics show dysregulated signaling in the prefrontal cortex.
HIPPOCAMPUS: People and other animals experiencing isolation may have smaller-than-normal hippocampi and reduced concentrations of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), both features associated with impaired learning and memory. Some studies indicate that levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which affects and is regulated by the hippocampus, are higher in isolated animals.
AMYGDALA: About a decade ago, researchers found a correlation between the size of a person’s social network and the volume of their amygdala, two almond-shaped brain areas associated with processing emotion. More-recent evidence suggests the amygdalae are smaller in people who are lonely.
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Amygdala Hijack: When Emotion Takes Over
The modern world is full of stress. We often feel this psychological stress when we see things on the news or social media, such as dangerous events and natural disasters.
Your amygdala can respond to this stress as if it’s a physical threat to you. It can take control of your brain and trigger your fight-or-flight response.
You can prevent or stop an amygdala hijack by breathing, slowing down, and trying to focus your thoughts. This allows your frontal cortex to regain control. You can then choose the most reasonable and appropriate way to respond to the situation.
TECHNIQUES TO STOP AMYGDALA HIJACK
How can you stop an amygdala hijack?
Symptoms of amygdala hijack can be eased or stopped by consciously activating your frontal cortex, the rational, logical part of your brain. This may take some practice and persistence.
The first step is to acknowledge that you feel threatened or stressed and that your fight-or-flight response has been activated. Become aware of how your emotions and body react to significant stress. Reviewing an episode after it’s over can help.
When you notice the fight-or-flight response has been activated, your goal is to calm down and take control. Remind yourself that what you’re feeling is an automatic response, not necessarily the best or most logical one.
When you’re calm, consciously engage your frontal lobes by thinking about the situation and finding a thoughtful, rational solution. Become aware of your triggers and warning signs, and notice when they’re present. A good way to stay calm is to pay attention to your breathing.
Breathe slowly and evenly. Think about the speed and rhythm of your breaths, and focus on what’s going on in your body as you inhale and exhale.
Practicing these techniques regularly can help prepare you for stressful situations
In the moment -
Apps for your phone... https://www.healthline.com/health/anxiety/top-iphone-android-apps
What is anxiety?
https://www.medicinenet.com/anxiety/symptoms.htm
Feeling anxious is a common response that most of us will experience at different times in our lives. It usually happens when we feel under pressure or are in situations that are stressful. For some people, these anxious feelings happen without a particular reason, or don’t go away. This can make it difficult to cope with daily life. People can experience different types of anxiety disorders.
Exercise and mental health
Exercise has many benefits, not only for your physical health but also your mental health. In your brain, exercise stimulates chemicals that improve your mood and the parts of the brain responsible for memory and learning.
Benefits of exercise
Physical activity and exercise has many benefits. It can:
Mental health benefits of exercise
Exercise releases chemicals like endorphins and serotonin that improve your mood. It can also get you out in the world, help to reduce any feelings of loneliness and isolation, and put you in touch with other people.
If you exercise regularly, it can reduce your stress and symptoms of mental health conditions like depression and anxiety, and help with recovery from mental health issues.
It can also improve your sleep, which is important in many different ways.
Exercise and the mind
Exercise pumps blood to the brain, which can help you to think more clearly.
It increases the size of the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory.
It also increases the connections between the nerve cells in the brain. This improves your memory and helps protect your brain against injury and disease.
How much exercise do you need?
Australian guidelines recommend adults do at least 30 minutes of moderate to intensive physical activity on most or all days of the week. You can make up 30 minutes over the day by combining shorter 10 to 15 minute sessions.
Practicing mindfulness while doing exercise also reduces your stress and improves your mental health.
Lessening Your Pandemic Anxiety
"The populations being affected by this pandemic can be placed into different groups on the basis of their mental health consequences and needs. First you have, for lack of a better term, "the worried well." These are people with no preexisting mental disorder who are naturally worried by this and are trying to take appropriate actions to protect themselves and prepare. For such individuals, the equivalent of mental health first-aid should be useful (we'll come back to that in a moment). Given the proper guidance and sources of information, most such people should be able to manage the anxiety, worry, and dysphoria associated with this critical pandemic.
Then there are those who have preexisting mental conditions related to mood, anxiety, stress, or obsessive tendencies. They are probably going to have an increase in their symptoms, and as such, a corresponding need for adjusting treatment. This may require an increase in their existing medications or the addition of an ad hoc medication, or perhaps more frequent contact with their doctor or therapist."
Foods for Anxiety, Depression...
Relaxation Techniques for Stress Relief...
Stress and How to Manage It...
Mindfulness of the Breath
and Physically Relax...
______________and Do have a Good Night's Sleep :-) For YOU
Reducing STRESS!!!
Stress is a common response to tough events or situations. Some stress is normal and stress itself is not anxiety or depression. However, severe and ongoing stress may be a risk factor if it persists.
You may be at risk if, for the majority of the last two weeks, you found it hard to relax, felt stressed or overwhelmed, and/or felt panicky or anxious. If this is the case, managing your stress levels should become a priority.
A myriad of breathing patterns can improve HRV*. That said, based on the latest research, practicing rVNS breathing via longer exhalations for just two minutes appears to be an easy way to hack the vagus nerve and calm one's nervous system.
* HRV - Heart rate variability is simply a measure of the variation in time between each heartbeat. This variation is controlled by a primitive part of the nervous system called the autonomic nervous system (ANS). It works regardless of our desire and regulates, among other things, our heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and digestion. The ANS is subdivided into two large components, the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system, also known as the fight-or-flight mechanism and the relaxation response. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/heart-rate-variability-new-way-track-well-2017112212789
One gadget-free way to track the timing of your inhalation-to-exhalation breathing cycles per minute is to use a 4:8 ratio of four-second inhalations and eight-second exhalations. This breathing cycle takes 12 seconds which equates to five inhalation/exhalation cycles per minute. Based on road-tested outcomes, I really like the 4:8 ratio because it's easy to use my right hand to count up to five with each digit and use the fingers on my left hand like an abacus to keep track of each one-minute cycle.
Anytime you want to hack your vagus nerve to reduce stress or improve decision-making, a simple self-talk script could be: "I'm stressing out. In order to calm down so I can perform better on this decision-making task, I'm going to take two minutes (right now!) to do 10 rounds of vagus nerve breathing based on a 4:8 inhalation-to-exhalation ratio."
During the four-second inhalation phase, I'd recommend breathing in through your nose—as you relax the back of your eyes and visualize filling up your lower diaphragm with oxygen—and slowly count to four. Then, I'd recommend exhaling through pursed lips (as if you're blowing out lots of candles on a birthday cake) as you slowly count to eight.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/the-athletes-way/201905/longer-exhalations-are-easy-way-hack-your-vagus-nerve
Your PH levels
And Challenge that negative inner critic; becoming more aware of it is just a first step...
https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/basics/self-talk
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One way for you to de-stress ------ Smells of Nature Lower Physiological Stress
For many years now, there’s been a consensus that being in nature contributes to good physical and mental health, says Marcus Hedblom, an ecologist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences who helped run the virtual reality experiment. Research has shown that viewing natural scenes can lower heart rate and restore focus, both of which are important for combating physical and mental health disorders.
Even more intriguing, he says, was the result that the rated pleasantness of smells was the strongest predictor of stress—with high pleasantness being associated with lower initial physiological stress responses and faster recovery—suggesting that smells might have a much more profound effect on reducing stress compared with sights and sounds. Adding the smell stimuli “is very exciting,” says green-space researcher Matilda van den Bosch of the University of British Columbia who was not involved in the study. “I honestly don’t know of any high-quality study that has been able to incorporate the smell sense.”
Smell is an intriguing sense because of its wiring in the brain, says study coauthor Johan Lundström, a neuropsychologist at Karolinska Institute in Sweden. It’s “unique among the senses,” he says, because it is not first processed by the thalamus—the brain’s switchboard. Instead, the smell signal is sent straight to the hypothalamus, a brain region involved in stress responses, in addition to the olfactory cortex, where odors are processed and perceived.
From the olfactory cortex, the signal is relayed to the amygdala, the brain region that detects threats, and to the hippocampus, which is responsible for forming and recalling memories. Bypassing the thalamus means that the hypothalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala can respond faster to smells than they do to other sensory inputs, Lundström says.
Such direct wiring, specifically to the hypothalamus, has led researchers to suspect that smell might regulate stress. But past studies that have tried to measure the impact of odor on stress have not used control odors or other sensory stimuli and therefore haven’t been able to determine if natural scents induce a general pleasant feeling during the experiment that then helps to reduce stress or if the odor itself directly drives the reduction.
The new study suggests that there’s at least some direct stress-reducing effect, Lundström says. Although the visual and auditory stimuli in natural environments got generally higher pleasantness ratings from participants than odor stimuli did, the natural odor stimuli had the greatest impact on physiological stress reduction.
So do take a walk in nature...
In addition to being able to “walk off” those negative emotions we are all currently experiencing, a walk in nature has countless health benefits such as improving the management of various conditions including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, joint and muscle pain and stiffness. It also increases our muscle strength, gives us stronger bones and reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke. And while you’re at it, make sure you’re still keeping a distance of six feet from other people!
If for whatever reason going outside for a stroll isn’t an option, add plants around your home. Or watch YouTube videos of nature!!!
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https://www.the-scientist.com/critic-at-large/opinion-crafting-a-cure-for-plant-blindness-67177
Kleier told me that an important first step in acquainting oneself with plants is similar to meeting people: you have to learn their names. Not the full Latin name of every last species. Knowing a few family names will suffice. “Just to be able to say, ‘That’s an aster,’ or to tell a fir from a pine. They become like someone you recognize.” Asked what her students are most struck by, Kleier answers that most of them simply “never realized how much plants actually do.”
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Learning to avoid or control stress can help you avoid the cycle. You can learn tips to help you relax and learn breathing techniques to get more air into your lungs.
American Academy of Cardiology
If we were able to breathe “naturally” for even a small percentage of the more than 15,000 breaths we take during each waking day, we would be taking a huge step not only toward preventing many of the physical and psychological problems that have become endemic to modern life, but also toward supporting our own inner growth—the growth of awareness of who and what we really are, of our own essential being.
There is a profound effect to people’s health when they start dropping off a few of those thousands of breath. If 15,000 is about normal what would life be like if we reduced that to 10,000 breaths a day or less?
1. Breathing detoxifies and releases toxins.
The Calm
The Calm Breathing Room starts at a calming pace of five breaths per minute for one minute and then slows you down even more into a breathing rate that relaxes you and allows you to sink into a state of calmness and relaxation, which releases stress and allows your body, mind and soul to experience peace.
http://www.doasone.com/BreathingRooms.aspx?RoomID=2
2. Breathing releases tension.
3. Breathing relaxes the mind/body and brings clarity.
4. Breathing relieves emotional problems.
5. Breathing relieves pain.
6. Breathing massages your organs.
7. Breathing increases muscle.
8. Breathing strengthens the immune system.
9. Breathing improves posture.
10. Breathing improves quality of the blood.
11. Breathing increases digestion and assimilation of food.
12. Breathing improves the nervous system.
13. Breathing strengthens the lungs.
14. Proper breathing makes the heart stronger.
15. Proper breathing assists in weight control.
16. Breathing boosts energy levels and improves stamina.
17. Breathing improves cellular regeneration.
18. Breathing elevates moods.
Dr Mathew White is on a mission to garner Mother Nature the respect he thinks she deserves when it comes to human health. For decades, scientists and health-care professionals have recognized that exposure to green spaces, such as public parks or forests, is linked with lower risks of all sorts of ailments common in the developed world—including cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, and mental distress—and even of mortality.
Do watch the Podcast...
Experimental work has demonstrated myriad physiological responses that occur when people spend time in natural environments:
As humans increasingly populate urbanized areas, they are spending less and less time in natural environments—perhaps to the detriment of their health.
This is just SO true. Many thanks for drawing attention to this All Important Aspect of our lives. Breathing just cannot be underestimated. It's called, Living Your Life...
"When we deal with a person’s breath in a medical way we are able to quickly intervene on the most basic physiological parameters that affect the health of the cells. The second we pay attention to our breath our breathing changes and when we are emotionally upset we can see how quickly conscious breathing can bring us back to emotional tranquility. That’s what we feel on an emotional level but on a cellular level the cells start to sing a more beautiful song as oxygen and CO2 levels rise together through slower breathing."
"The fragile nature of life and health has never been more apparent, but the partnership of human and artificial intelligence promises to accelerate new discoveries, new therapies and new hope for patients."
Joanna Shields — CEO, BenevolentAI
https://www.benevolent.com/
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Connections matter:
Strong ties with family, friends and the community provide us with happiness, security, support and a sense of purpose.
Being connected to others is important for our mental and physical wellbeing and can be a protective factor against anxiety and depression.
Loneliness is a feeling of a lack of companionship or quality relationships with other people. As we get older, changes in our personal circumstances and lifestyle can result in us feeling less connected to others and increase the risk of us becoming lonely. However, loneliness is not an inevitable part of getting older - there are lots of things you can do to expand and strengthen your social networks.
Beyond Blue’s Connections matter booklet provides practical and evidence-based suggestions for older people and their families and friends to help them strengthen and maintain their social networks.
If you are experiencing elevated stress levels, especially on an ongoing basis, it is important to become aware of it and take steps to maintain your own health.
The symptoms of stress that you may be aware of are physical, mental and emotional in nature.
They include:
These symptoms of stress are rooted in the physical changes your body undergoes to deal with a stressor. This reaction, known as the fight or flight response, was effective in the days when most stressors were physical in nature (when your body geared up to fight or run very quickly from the sabertooth tiger). In order to survive one’s heart rate quickened, hormones were excreted into one’s system, one’s digestion slowed, blood sugars were released, muscles tensed, etc. all to improve one’s physical performance. Unfortunately in the face of psychological challenges these physical changes are not only unnecessary but lead to difficult symptoms at the moment and can prove to be damaging in the long run if not addressed.
By taking inventory of your stress symptoms you can utilize them as helpful indicators that a change needs to happen. Just as the sun announces the arrival of the new day, stress symptoms announce the need for you to focus on self care. When faced with the reality of a chronically stressful situation, and if you see yourself experiencing the common symptoms of stress, how can you help yourself? Ideally you can address the stress from two directions: try to deal with the stress at its source and work to protect yourself from any negative impact.
Proactively reducing stress at the source involves dealing with your thoughts and emotions with regard to the stress provoking situation. In the case of coping with mental illness developing and maintaining a positive attitude of hope is a key to reducing distress and involves addressing many realms. Actively seeking support and education about mental illness and resources as well as ideas for dealing with your particular challenge. Thus reducing your feelings of isolation and empowering you to create change.
Acknowledging and dealing with the difficult emotions that accompany having a mentally ill loved one, may not be easy but can be more doable with help from understanding supporters. Eventually stress levels are further reduced when you have learned to better accept the individual and their illness (situation) for who they are, and yourself for your capacities to deal with the challenges. Certainly all of this does not happen overnight but efforts to move the situation or your experience of it along will be helpful.
Certainly for most, dealing with mental illness of any kind can be quite stress provoking. The uncertainty over what is wrong and how to help;
"Both inside and outside the research lab, humans tend to prize remembering so much that we sometimes ignore its counterpart, the equally essential art of forgetting. While writing our book, Adventures in Memory, we explored both sides of the memory coin, uncovering fascinating insights about the science of how and why we fail to remember.
We learned, for example, that a great deal of forgetting occurs shortly after an experience takes place, through processes in our attention and working memory apparatus that select which memories to keep and which to discard. This natural filtering system allows us to focus on the moments that matter most: those with high emotional import and personal significance. But forgetting is important in the long run too.
New research investigating the active cellular processes that contribute to long-term forgetting suggests that neuro-genesis—the production of new neurons within the hippocampus—may actually aid the capacity to form new memories by destroying existing memory traces. In memory, as in life, we need to clear out some of the old in order to make space for the new.
Yet, even when we’ve forgotten most of an experience, our recollections can seem convincingly complete. How can this be? A memory, it turns out, is more than the sum of its traces. Using existing knowledge, our brains fill in for the specifics we’ve forgotten, recreating the scene with people, surroundings, actions, and emotions. This way, we don’t actually need all the details to “remember” a moment—just a vague sense of what took place. The same is true for cumulative memories, recollections of events that have been repeated many times."
https://www.the-scientist.com/reading-frames/why-forgetting-is-a-critical-part-of-remembering-64835
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"Stress-related disorders, such as depression and anxiety, are the most common and debilitating psychiatric diseases around the world. Extensive evidence has shown that stress, especially chronic stress, is one of the most important factors responsible for depression.
The Australian Government is rolling out a range of new early-intervention services and support for carers in late 2019. Getting help early can make a big difference to a carer’s life. These new services can help you to reduce stress, improve wellbeing and get the support you need before reaching crisis point.
A full suite of practical resources to improve carer wellbeing, skills and knowledge are progressively being available on Carer Gateway:
The individual’s coping style to psychosocial stress impacts the stress-induced pathological changes and the risk of psychological disorders such as depression.
For an in-depth understanding of Mental Health topics - A - Z.
Download booklet beyondblue’s 'A guide to what works for anxiety'
Anxiety program: An educational program from NPS MedicineWise focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety disorders – conditions that often remain undiagnosed for many years but for which effective treatments are available. Resources for health professionals and consumers are available at
https://www.nps.org.au/professionals/anxiety
7 Carer Coping Skills and Planning tips for those Special Occasions
Those Special Occasions/Celebrations are a challenging time for Carers, for many it can be overwhelming, stressful with mixed emotions such as anxiety, love and sadness. Some family members that you don’t often see may find it difficult to understand the complexities of a mental illness, which could lead to loved ones feeling rejected.
Resilience refers to the capacity of an individual to avoid negative social, psychological, and biological consequences of extreme stress that would otherwise compromise their psychological or physical well-being.
Recent reports indicated that resilience in humans represent an actively adaptive process, and not simply the absence of pathological responses that occur in more susceptible individuals. Previous evidence showed that treatment with pharmacological and/or nonpharmacological strategies, such as environment enrichment and intermittent hypoxia, could increase the resilience of individuals to the subsequent stress. Our previous study demonstrated that predictable chronic mild stress in adolescence enhanced stress resilience in adulthood. It is proposed that the stronger resilient ability an individual has, the lower the risk of psychological diseases. Recently more attention has been focused on elucidating the mechanisms underlying resilience, and to construct new strategies for enhancing the resilience of individuals."
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-10362-6 Keep reading down under "Introduction".
COMMUNICATING WITH INDIVIDUALS WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES, AND/OR MENTAL ILLNESS
Kathy Schafer, RN CDDN
Department of Mental Health
https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/04/2-mindfulness-practices-to-help-cope-with-covid-19.html
Stop whatever you’re doing and pay attention to the physical sensation of three or four breaths as they come in and go out of your body. You should feel a sense of relaxation in your mind and body—a shedding of stress. If you don’t, wait a few seconds, and try this mindful breathing exercise again. When I do this, I realize that at this very moment, I’m OK. Yes, there’s a background of sadness because of all the suffering this virus is causing around the world.
But right here, right at this moment, I’m OK.
This realization brings with it a sense of relief and a feeling of equanimity even in the midst of these difficult times. You can get back to this place anytime time by repeating the exercise.
Take a Walk... https://www.healthline.com/health/walking-meditation
and just Breathe... Quick and Easy Breathing Exercises to Cope with Stress, Anxiety and Emotions
https://hubpages.com/health/Breathing-Exercises-for-the-High-Stressed-Individual
Alphabet of Stress Management and Coping Skills
A to Z
The other tactic for dealing with stress is to actively protect yourself from the impact of stress. Given the journey involved in dealing with mental illness, with its ups and downs, it is wise to take precautions to minimize the potential impact chronic stress can play on your well-being. It is important to ensure that the illness and caregiving do not eclipse other aspects of your life and to pay special attention to diet, sleep, exercise and relaxation as they can be especially helpful to both counter stress and fortify yourself against it.
Tyler W. LeBaron of the Molecular Hydrogen Foundation adds his input for those battling stress. “We recently used an excellent stress model in mice to mimic the effects of acute and chronic stress. Our results, published in Nature, suggest that inhalation of molecular hydrogen was effective at reducing the anxiety and depressive-like behavior caused from too much stress.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-10362-6
Having exercise as part of your routine has positive impact in ways that you can both easily see and in terms of the longer term health of your body. Exercise works to reduces muscle tension, release toxins that build up within your body and thus minimizes the damage caused by excessive stress. Physical exercise also can have a direct positive impact on your mood and energy level.
We know that when experiencing stress, the digestion of food slows down (hence the stomach upset, heart burn.), and nutrients are not absorbed as efficiently (contributing to a lowered immune response and energy level). To make matters worse, under stress many people will not eat adequately for even normal living, leaving them physically even more susceptible to illness and less able to function. It is in your best interest to be extra mindful of your diet when dealing with a chronically stressful situation.
Paying attention to your sleep is also very important when facing stress. You may be prone to laying awake trying to solve your problems or from anxiety thus losing sleep. Your body is operating in an “aroused” state, which leaves your energy reserves depleted. It may be challenging, but it is important to do your best to ensure that you get adequate sleep to help you to restore your body and better enable you to problem solve and be emotionally stable. For some short term use of sleeping medication may be advisable.
The final aspect to consider is relaxation. The Stress Response is incompatible with the Relaxation Response, so any time spent relaxing means your body and mind have a break from the demands of stress. When relaxing you are trying to achieve a period of time where your mind is not preoccupied with worried thoughts. This state can be achieved through deep breathing, meditation, yoga as well as through pursuing enjoyable and stimulating activities that are personally satisfying. It is difficult to be aware of your concerns while dancing, gardening, building hobby trains, painting, reading a stimulating book, watching a funny movie.
It is a great gift to yourself and those you love, that you take time to take care of yourself.
https://www.asmfmh.org/en/
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Of course, there is that All Important Need for YOU to be able to move freely about the home and yet still be within call of your loved one. Have you considered a Pager?
When pressed, the Nurse Call Buttons send a wireless signal to the pager, alerting the caregiver that assistance is required. This simple, streamlined system allows you to eliminate in-room alarm noise and with a range of up to 300 ft., caregivers have the freedom they need.
Increased Caregiver Freedom. The TL-5102TP is a stand alone personal paging system and includes two call buttons and one caregiver pager or browse their medical directory for equipment & devices
https://www.medicalsearch.com.au/
Click here to go directly www.healthsaveralarms.com.au/
Interested? You can download their Brochure here.
-------------------------
and in the middle of all of this!!! Don't forget to B R E A T H E ... :-)
Learning to avoid or control stress can help you avoid this cycle. You can learn tips to help you relax and learn breathing techniques to get more air into your lungs.
American Academy of Cardiology
If we were able to breathe “naturally” for even a small percentage of the more than 15,000 breaths we take during each waking day, we would be taking a huge step not only toward preventing many of the physical and psychological problems that have become endemic to modern life, but also toward supporting our own inner growth—the growth of awareness of who and what we really are, of our own essential being.
There is a profound effect to people’s health when they start dropping off a few of those thousands of breath. If 15,000 is about normal what would life be like if we reduced that to 10,000 breaths a day or less?
1. Breathing detoxifies and releases toxins.
The Calm
The Calm Breathing Room starts at a calming pace of five breaths per minute for one minute and then slows you down even more into a breathing rate that relaxes you and allows you to sink into a state of calmness and relaxation, which releases stress and allows your body, mind and soul to experience peace.
http://www.doasone.com/BreathingRooms.aspx?RoomID=2
2. Breathing releases tension.
3. Breathing relaxes the mind/body and brings clarity.
4. Breathing relieves emotional problems.
5. Breathing relieves pain.
6. Breathing massages your organs.
7. Breathing increases muscle.
8. Breathing strengthens the immune system.
9. Breathing improves posture.
10. Breathing improves quality of the blood.
11. Breathing increases digestion and assimilation of food.
12. Breathing improves the nervous system.
13. Breathing strengthens the lungs.
14. Proper breathing makes the heart stronger.
15. Proper breathing assists in weight control.
16. Breathing boosts energy levels and improves stamina.
17. Breathing improves cellular regeneration.
18. Breathing elevates moods.
This is just SO true. Many thanks for drawing attention to this All Important Aspect of our lives. Breathing just cannot be underestimated. It's called, Living Your Life...
Managing your health can be challenging at times; while one facet of your wellness demands more attention than others, you may end up struggling to maintain a good balance in other areas. To be of sound body, mind, and spirit, it’s important to pay attention to all aspects of health—your mental, emotional, and spiritual sides all play a role in your physical welfare, and vice versa. A state of optimal well-being means more than just the absence of disease or disorder; it also means having the resources to cope with problems and circumstances beyond your control and recover from difficult or troubling situations.
Angels Carer Support Group. Held the last Tuesday of each month at St. Paul's Anglican Church Hall, 69 Palm Beach Ave, PALM BEACH - Come just after 1.00pm for that cuppa and a chat. Often we have Speakers on subjects of interest to us as Carers - they start about 1.30pm and go to about 3.00pm. Other times we just sit, relax and enjoy each other's company and support each other as we face the daily caregiving tasks. Sit and chat, and take a brief break - for YOU :-) We hold our meetings on the last Tuesday of each month (In January on the 19th as the last Tuesday is Australia Day). Father Phillip is a Great Supporter of the Angels.
YOU are most welcome to join us :-) when this crisis passes and we are able to resume... Do take CARE of YOU too...
and to find out what else is going on in the Palm Beach area: http://palmbeachgoldcoast.net.au/events/
30 December 2020
Preoccupation with helping may leave you detached from your own physical/psychological well-being.
“Stress has a huge emotional cost to the carer. It builds up and very quietly drags the carer down. They go through a stress of grief, a sense of loss, frustration, and even failure at recognising their inability to achieve anything for the person that they’re caring for, that they can’t cure or restore the health or the normality of the person for whom they are caring” says Mr Laity.
https://www.agedcareguide.com.au/talking-aged-care/royal-commission-funding-for-carer-support-essential
THE ISOLATED BRAIN
For most of human society, however, social isolation acts in more insidious ways than these “experiments” capture, often disproportionately affecting vulnerable members of the population, such as the elderly, and with effects accumulating slowly such that they may go unnoticed for many years, if not decades. The effects of this subtler sort of social isolation, which some health researchers and psychologists have already described as a public health risk, are better observed in longer-term studies that look for links between a person’s social connections and how the mind functions.
Many studies have found that chronic social isolation is indeed associated with cognitive decline, and that isolation often precedes decline by several years. One 2013 study, for example, measured cognitive function at two time points in a cohort of more than 6,000 older individuals taking part in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). People who reported having fewer social contacts and activities at the beginning of the study, researchers found, showed greater decline in cognitive function, as measured by verbal fluency and memory recall tasks, after four years.
Studies of animals and people experiencing isolation have identified several brain structures that appear to be affected by a lack of social interaction. Although these studies can’t identify causal relationships—and don’t always agree with one another—they shine a light on some of the mechanisms by which physical isolation, or feelings of loneliness, could impair brain function and cognition.
© ISTOCK.COM, JAMBOJAM
PREFRONTAL CORTEX: In some studies, people who are lonely have been found to have reduced brain volumes in the prefrontal cortex, a region important in decision making and social behavior, although other research suggests this relationship might be mediated by personality factors. Rodents that have been isolated from their conspecifics show dysregulated signaling in the prefrontal cortex.
HIPPOCAMPUS: People and other animals experiencing isolation may have smaller-than-normal hippocampi and reduced concentrations of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), both features associated with impaired learning and memory. Some studies indicate that levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which affects and is regulated by the hippocampus, are higher in isolated animals.
AMYGDALA: About a decade ago, researchers found a correlation between the size of a person’s social network and the volume of their amygdala, two almond-shaped brain areas associated with processing emotion. More-recent evidence suggests the amygdalae are smaller in people who are lonely.
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Amygdala Hijack: When Emotion Takes Over
The modern world is full of stress. We often feel this psychological stress when we see things on the news or social media, such as dangerous events and natural disasters.
Your amygdala can respond to this stress as if it’s a physical threat to you. It can take control of your brain and trigger your fight-or-flight response.
You can prevent or stop an amygdala hijack by breathing, slowing down, and trying to focus your thoughts. This allows your frontal cortex to regain control. You can then choose the most reasonable and appropriate way to respond to the situation.
TECHNIQUES TO STOP AMYGDALA HIJACK
- Reasoning. This means you use your frontal lobes to think the situation through, review the possible options, and choose the most rational and logical way to respond.
- Meditation. By relaxing your body and mind through meditation or deep breathing, you can change your brain’s focus from responding to a threat or stress to inner peace and calmness.
How can you stop an amygdala hijack?
Symptoms of amygdala hijack can be eased or stopped by consciously activating your frontal cortex, the rational, logical part of your brain. This may take some practice and persistence.
The first step is to acknowledge that you feel threatened or stressed and that your fight-or-flight response has been activated. Become aware of how your emotions and body react to significant stress. Reviewing an episode after it’s over can help.
When you notice the fight-or-flight response has been activated, your goal is to calm down and take control. Remind yourself that what you’re feeling is an automatic response, not necessarily the best or most logical one.
When you’re calm, consciously engage your frontal lobes by thinking about the situation and finding a thoughtful, rational solution. Become aware of your triggers and warning signs, and notice when they’re present. A good way to stay calm is to pay attention to your breathing.
Breathe slowly and evenly. Think about the speed and rhythm of your breaths, and focus on what’s going on in your body as you inhale and exhale.
Practicing these techniques regularly can help prepare you for stressful situations
In the moment -
- Deep breathing. One of the easiest ways to manage stress, no matter where you are or what time it is. Breathe in deeply through your nose and out through your mouth, holding each inward and outward breath for 5 seconds. Repeat for 3 to 5 minutes.
- Listen to a mindfulness routine. There are so many apps and videos to guide you. Try Calm or The Mindfulness App to start.
Apps for your phone... https://www.healthline.com/health/anxiety/top-iphone-android-apps
What is anxiety?
https://www.medicinenet.com/anxiety/symptoms.htm
Feeling anxious is a common response that most of us will experience at different times in our lives. It usually happens when we feel under pressure or are in situations that are stressful. For some people, these anxious feelings happen without a particular reason, or don’t go away. This can make it difficult to cope with daily life. People can experience different types of anxiety disorders.
Exercise and mental health
Exercise has many benefits, not only for your physical health but also your mental health. In your brain, exercise stimulates chemicals that improve your mood and the parts of the brain responsible for memory and learning.
Benefits of exercise
Physical activity and exercise has many benefits. It can:
- help you to feel better, even if you’re feeling okay
- reduce the risk of illnesses like heart and lung disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, cancer, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson's disease
- help people recover from a stroke and many other illnesses and conditions
- help you to lose weight if you want to, which is good for your health overall and might be good for your self-esteem.
Mental health benefits of exercise
Exercise releases chemicals like endorphins and serotonin that improve your mood. It can also get you out in the world, help to reduce any feelings of loneliness and isolation, and put you in touch with other people.
If you exercise regularly, it can reduce your stress and symptoms of mental health conditions like depression and anxiety, and help with recovery from mental health issues.
It can also improve your sleep, which is important in many different ways.
Exercise and the mind
Exercise pumps blood to the brain, which can help you to think more clearly.
It increases the size of the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory.
It also increases the connections between the nerve cells in the brain. This improves your memory and helps protect your brain against injury and disease.
How much exercise do you need?
Australian guidelines recommend adults do at least 30 minutes of moderate to intensive physical activity on most or all days of the week. You can make up 30 minutes over the day by combining shorter 10 to 15 minute sessions.
Practicing mindfulness while doing exercise also reduces your stress and improves your mental health.
Lessening Your Pandemic Anxiety
"The populations being affected by this pandemic can be placed into different groups on the basis of their mental health consequences and needs. First you have, for lack of a better term, "the worried well." These are people with no preexisting mental disorder who are naturally worried by this and are trying to take appropriate actions to protect themselves and prepare. For such individuals, the equivalent of mental health first-aid should be useful (we'll come back to that in a moment). Given the proper guidance and sources of information, most such people should be able to manage the anxiety, worry, and dysphoria associated with this critical pandemic.
Then there are those who have preexisting mental conditions related to mood, anxiety, stress, or obsessive tendencies. They are probably going to have an increase in their symptoms, and as such, a corresponding need for adjusting treatment. This may require an increase in their existing medications or the addition of an ad hoc medication, or perhaps more frequent contact with their doctor or therapist."
Foods for Anxiety, Depression...
Relaxation Techniques for Stress Relief...
Stress and How to Manage It...
Mindfulness of the Breath
and Physically Relax...
______________and Do have a Good Night's Sleep :-) For YOU
Reducing STRESS!!!
Stress is a common response to tough events or situations. Some stress is normal and stress itself is not anxiety or depression. However, severe and ongoing stress may be a risk factor if it persists.
You may be at risk if, for the majority of the last two weeks, you found it hard to relax, felt stressed or overwhelmed, and/or felt panicky or anxious. If this is the case, managing your stress levels should become a priority.
A myriad of breathing patterns can improve HRV*. That said, based on the latest research, practicing rVNS breathing via longer exhalations for just two minutes appears to be an easy way to hack the vagus nerve and calm one's nervous system.
* HRV - Heart rate variability is simply a measure of the variation in time between each heartbeat. This variation is controlled by a primitive part of the nervous system called the autonomic nervous system (ANS). It works regardless of our desire and regulates, among other things, our heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and digestion. The ANS is subdivided into two large components, the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system, also known as the fight-or-flight mechanism and the relaxation response. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/heart-rate-variability-new-way-track-well-2017112212789
One gadget-free way to track the timing of your inhalation-to-exhalation breathing cycles per minute is to use a 4:8 ratio of four-second inhalations and eight-second exhalations. This breathing cycle takes 12 seconds which equates to five inhalation/exhalation cycles per minute. Based on road-tested outcomes, I really like the 4:8 ratio because it's easy to use my right hand to count up to five with each digit and use the fingers on my left hand like an abacus to keep track of each one-minute cycle.
Anytime you want to hack your vagus nerve to reduce stress or improve decision-making, a simple self-talk script could be: "I'm stressing out. In order to calm down so I can perform better on this decision-making task, I'm going to take two minutes (right now!) to do 10 rounds of vagus nerve breathing based on a 4:8 inhalation-to-exhalation ratio."
During the four-second inhalation phase, I'd recommend breathing in through your nose—as you relax the back of your eyes and visualize filling up your lower diaphragm with oxygen—and slowly count to four. Then, I'd recommend exhaling through pursed lips (as if you're blowing out lots of candles on a birthday cake) as you slowly count to eight.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/the-athletes-way/201905/longer-exhalations-are-easy-way-hack-your-vagus-nerve
Your PH levels
And Challenge that negative inner critic; becoming more aware of it is just a first step...
https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/basics/self-talk
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One way for you to de-stress ------ Smells of Nature Lower Physiological Stress
For many years now, there’s been a consensus that being in nature contributes to good physical and mental health, says Marcus Hedblom, an ecologist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences who helped run the virtual reality experiment. Research has shown that viewing natural scenes can lower heart rate and restore focus, both of which are important for combating physical and mental health disorders.
Even more intriguing, he says, was the result that the rated pleasantness of smells was the strongest predictor of stress—with high pleasantness being associated with lower initial physiological stress responses and faster recovery—suggesting that smells might have a much more profound effect on reducing stress compared with sights and sounds. Adding the smell stimuli “is very exciting,” says green-space researcher Matilda van den Bosch of the University of British Columbia who was not involved in the study. “I honestly don’t know of any high-quality study that has been able to incorporate the smell sense.”
Smell is an intriguing sense because of its wiring in the brain, says study coauthor Johan Lundström, a neuropsychologist at Karolinska Institute in Sweden. It’s “unique among the senses,” he says, because it is not first processed by the thalamus—the brain’s switchboard. Instead, the smell signal is sent straight to the hypothalamus, a brain region involved in stress responses, in addition to the olfactory cortex, where odors are processed and perceived.
From the olfactory cortex, the signal is relayed to the amygdala, the brain region that detects threats, and to the hippocampus, which is responsible for forming and recalling memories. Bypassing the thalamus means that the hypothalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala can respond faster to smells than they do to other sensory inputs, Lundström says.
Such direct wiring, specifically to the hypothalamus, has led researchers to suspect that smell might regulate stress. But past studies that have tried to measure the impact of odor on stress have not used control odors or other sensory stimuli and therefore haven’t been able to determine if natural scents induce a general pleasant feeling during the experiment that then helps to reduce stress or if the odor itself directly drives the reduction.
The new study suggests that there’s at least some direct stress-reducing effect, Lundström says. Although the visual and auditory stimuli in natural environments got generally higher pleasantness ratings from participants than odor stimuli did, the natural odor stimuli had the greatest impact on physiological stress reduction.
So do take a walk in nature...
In addition to being able to “walk off” those negative emotions we are all currently experiencing, a walk in nature has countless health benefits such as improving the management of various conditions including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, joint and muscle pain and stiffness. It also increases our muscle strength, gives us stronger bones and reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke. And while you’re at it, make sure you’re still keeping a distance of six feet from other people!
If for whatever reason going outside for a stroll isn’t an option, add plants around your home. Or watch YouTube videos of nature!!!
0 * 0 * 0 * 0 * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
https://www.the-scientist.com/critic-at-large/opinion-crafting-a-cure-for-plant-blindness-67177
Kleier told me that an important first step in acquainting oneself with plants is similar to meeting people: you have to learn their names. Not the full Latin name of every last species. Knowing a few family names will suffice. “Just to be able to say, ‘That’s an aster,’ or to tell a fir from a pine. They become like someone you recognize.” Asked what her students are most struck by, Kleier answers that most of them simply “never realized how much plants actually do.”
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Learning to avoid or control stress can help you avoid the cycle. You can learn tips to help you relax and learn breathing techniques to get more air into your lungs.
American Academy of Cardiology
If we were able to breathe “naturally” for even a small percentage of the more than 15,000 breaths we take during each waking day, we would be taking a huge step not only toward preventing many of the physical and psychological problems that have become endemic to modern life, but also toward supporting our own inner growth—the growth of awareness of who and what we really are, of our own essential being.
There is a profound effect to people’s health when they start dropping off a few of those thousands of breath. If 15,000 is about normal what would life be like if we reduced that to 10,000 breaths a day or less?
1. Breathing detoxifies and releases toxins.
The Calm
The Calm Breathing Room starts at a calming pace of five breaths per minute for one minute and then slows you down even more into a breathing rate that relaxes you and allows you to sink into a state of calmness and relaxation, which releases stress and allows your body, mind and soul to experience peace.
http://www.doasone.com/BreathingRooms.aspx?RoomID=2
2. Breathing releases tension.
3. Breathing relaxes the mind/body and brings clarity.
4. Breathing relieves emotional problems.
5. Breathing relieves pain.
6. Breathing massages your organs.
7. Breathing increases muscle.
8. Breathing strengthens the immune system.
9. Breathing improves posture.
10. Breathing improves quality of the blood.
11. Breathing increases digestion and assimilation of food.
12. Breathing improves the nervous system.
13. Breathing strengthens the lungs.
14. Proper breathing makes the heart stronger.
15. Proper breathing assists in weight control.
16. Breathing boosts energy levels and improves stamina.
17. Breathing improves cellular regeneration.
18. Breathing elevates moods.
Dr Mathew White is on a mission to garner Mother Nature the respect he thinks she deserves when it comes to human health. For decades, scientists and health-care professionals have recognized that exposure to green spaces, such as public parks or forests, is linked with lower risks of all sorts of ailments common in the developed world—including cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, and mental distress—and even of mortality.
Do watch the Podcast...
Experimental work has demonstrated myriad physiological responses that occur when people spend time in natural environments:
- blood pressure drops,
- heart rate decreases,
- immune function improves, and
- the parasympathetic nervous system directs the body to rest and digest.
As humans increasingly populate urbanized areas, they are spending less and less time in natural environments—perhaps to the detriment of their health.
This is just SO true. Many thanks for drawing attention to this All Important Aspect of our lives. Breathing just cannot be underestimated. It's called, Living Your Life...
"When we deal with a person’s breath in a medical way we are able to quickly intervene on the most basic physiological parameters that affect the health of the cells. The second we pay attention to our breath our breathing changes and when we are emotionally upset we can see how quickly conscious breathing can bring us back to emotional tranquility. That’s what we feel on an emotional level but on a cellular level the cells start to sing a more beautiful song as oxygen and CO2 levels rise together through slower breathing."
"The fragile nature of life and health has never been more apparent, but the partnership of human and artificial intelligence promises to accelerate new discoveries, new therapies and new hope for patients."
Joanna Shields — CEO, BenevolentAI
https://www.benevolent.com/
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Connections matter:
Strong ties with family, friends and the community provide us with happiness, security, support and a sense of purpose.
Being connected to others is important for our mental and physical wellbeing and can be a protective factor against anxiety and depression.
Loneliness is a feeling of a lack of companionship or quality relationships with other people. As we get older, changes in our personal circumstances and lifestyle can result in us feeling less connected to others and increase the risk of us becoming lonely. However, loneliness is not an inevitable part of getting older - there are lots of things you can do to expand and strengthen your social networks.
Beyond Blue’s Connections matter booklet provides practical and evidence-based suggestions for older people and their families and friends to help them strengthen and maintain their social networks.
If you are experiencing elevated stress levels, especially on an ongoing basis, it is important to become aware of it and take steps to maintain your own health.
The symptoms of stress that you may be aware of are physical, mental and emotional in nature.
They include:
- muscle tension,
- headaches,
- elevated heart rate,
- indigestion,
- fatigue,
- difficulty concentrating,
- preoccupied thoughts,
- forgetfulness,
- difficulty problem solving,
- irritability, sadness,
- impatience.
These symptoms of stress are rooted in the physical changes your body undergoes to deal with a stressor. This reaction, known as the fight or flight response, was effective in the days when most stressors were physical in nature (when your body geared up to fight or run very quickly from the sabertooth tiger). In order to survive one’s heart rate quickened, hormones were excreted into one’s system, one’s digestion slowed, blood sugars were released, muscles tensed, etc. all to improve one’s physical performance. Unfortunately in the face of psychological challenges these physical changes are not only unnecessary but lead to difficult symptoms at the moment and can prove to be damaging in the long run if not addressed.
By taking inventory of your stress symptoms you can utilize them as helpful indicators that a change needs to happen. Just as the sun announces the arrival of the new day, stress symptoms announce the need for you to focus on self care. When faced with the reality of a chronically stressful situation, and if you see yourself experiencing the common symptoms of stress, how can you help yourself? Ideally you can address the stress from two directions: try to deal with the stress at its source and work to protect yourself from any negative impact.
Proactively reducing stress at the source involves dealing with your thoughts and emotions with regard to the stress provoking situation. In the case of coping with mental illness developing and maintaining a positive attitude of hope is a key to reducing distress and involves addressing many realms. Actively seeking support and education about mental illness and resources as well as ideas for dealing with your particular challenge. Thus reducing your feelings of isolation and empowering you to create change.
Acknowledging and dealing with the difficult emotions that accompany having a mentally ill loved one, may not be easy but can be more doable with help from understanding supporters. Eventually stress levels are further reduced when you have learned to better accept the individual and their illness (situation) for who they are, and yourself for your capacities to deal with the challenges. Certainly all of this does not happen overnight but efforts to move the situation or your experience of it along will be helpful.
Certainly for most, dealing with mental illness of any kind can be quite stress provoking. The uncertainty over what is wrong and how to help;
- the myriad of difficult emotions:
- the sense of isolation;
- the frustration over the lack of a tangible solution to the situation are all significant sources of psychological stress.
"Both inside and outside the research lab, humans tend to prize remembering so much that we sometimes ignore its counterpart, the equally essential art of forgetting. While writing our book, Adventures in Memory, we explored both sides of the memory coin, uncovering fascinating insights about the science of how and why we fail to remember.
We learned, for example, that a great deal of forgetting occurs shortly after an experience takes place, through processes in our attention and working memory apparatus that select which memories to keep and which to discard. This natural filtering system allows us to focus on the moments that matter most: those with high emotional import and personal significance. But forgetting is important in the long run too.
New research investigating the active cellular processes that contribute to long-term forgetting suggests that neuro-genesis—the production of new neurons within the hippocampus—may actually aid the capacity to form new memories by destroying existing memory traces. In memory, as in life, we need to clear out some of the old in order to make space for the new.
Yet, even when we’ve forgotten most of an experience, our recollections can seem convincingly complete. How can this be? A memory, it turns out, is more than the sum of its traces. Using existing knowledge, our brains fill in for the specifics we’ve forgotten, recreating the scene with people, surroundings, actions, and emotions. This way, we don’t actually need all the details to “remember” a moment—just a vague sense of what took place. The same is true for cumulative memories, recollections of events that have been repeated many times."
https://www.the-scientist.com/reading-frames/why-forgetting-is-a-critical-part-of-remembering-64835
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"Stress-related disorders, such as depression and anxiety, are the most common and debilitating psychiatric diseases around the world. Extensive evidence has shown that stress, especially chronic stress, is one of the most important factors responsible for depression.
The Australian Government is rolling out a range of new early-intervention services and support for carers in late 2019. Getting help early can make a big difference to a carer’s life. These new services can help you to reduce stress, improve wellbeing and get the support you need before reaching crisis point.
A full suite of practical resources to improve carer wellbeing, skills and knowledge are progressively being available on Carer Gateway:
The individual’s coping style to psychosocial stress impacts the stress-induced pathological changes and the risk of psychological disorders such as depression.
For an in-depth understanding of Mental Health topics - A - Z.
Download booklet beyondblue’s 'A guide to what works for anxiety'
Anxiety program: An educational program from NPS MedicineWise focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety disorders – conditions that often remain undiagnosed for many years but for which effective treatments are available. Resources for health professionals and consumers are available at
https://www.nps.org.au/professionals/anxiety
7 Carer Coping Skills and Planning tips for those Special Occasions
Those Special Occasions/Celebrations are a challenging time for Carers, for many it can be overwhelming, stressful with mixed emotions such as anxiety, love and sadness. Some family members that you don’t often see may find it difficult to understand the complexities of a mental illness, which could lead to loved ones feeling rejected.
Resilience refers to the capacity of an individual to avoid negative social, psychological, and biological consequences of extreme stress that would otherwise compromise their psychological or physical well-being.
Recent reports indicated that resilience in humans represent an actively adaptive process, and not simply the absence of pathological responses that occur in more susceptible individuals. Previous evidence showed that treatment with pharmacological and/or nonpharmacological strategies, such as environment enrichment and intermittent hypoxia, could increase the resilience of individuals to the subsequent stress. Our previous study demonstrated that predictable chronic mild stress in adolescence enhanced stress resilience in adulthood. It is proposed that the stronger resilient ability an individual has, the lower the risk of psychological diseases. Recently more attention has been focused on elucidating the mechanisms underlying resilience, and to construct new strategies for enhancing the resilience of individuals."
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-10362-6 Keep reading down under "Introduction".
COMMUNICATING WITH INDIVIDUALS WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES, AND/OR MENTAL ILLNESS
Kathy Schafer, RN CDDN
Department of Mental Health
- Describes techniques that can be used when interacting and communicating with people who have mental illness, intellectual disability or functional support needs.
- Define stigma and stereotypes.
- Working with someone with a learning disability may challenge your idea of what communication is, and how you make yourself understood. It may make you think about your tone of voice and your body language as well as the words you use, and remind you that communication is not just about talking but also about listening.
- Families are also affected by stigma, leading to a lack of support. For mental health professionals, stigma means that they themselves are seen as abnormal, corrupt or evil, and psychiatric treatments are often viewed with suspicion and horror.
https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/04/2-mindfulness-practices-to-help-cope-with-covid-19.html
Stop whatever you’re doing and pay attention to the physical sensation of three or four breaths as they come in and go out of your body. You should feel a sense of relaxation in your mind and body—a shedding of stress. If you don’t, wait a few seconds, and try this mindful breathing exercise again. When I do this, I realize that at this very moment, I’m OK. Yes, there’s a background of sadness because of all the suffering this virus is causing around the world.
But right here, right at this moment, I’m OK.
This realization brings with it a sense of relief and a feeling of equanimity even in the midst of these difficult times. You can get back to this place anytime time by repeating the exercise.
Take a Walk... https://www.healthline.com/health/walking-meditation
and just Breathe... Quick and Easy Breathing Exercises to Cope with Stress, Anxiety and Emotions
https://hubpages.com/health/Breathing-Exercises-for-the-High-Stressed-Individual
Alphabet of Stress Management and Coping Skills
A to Z
The other tactic for dealing with stress is to actively protect yourself from the impact of stress. Given the journey involved in dealing with mental illness, with its ups and downs, it is wise to take precautions to minimize the potential impact chronic stress can play on your well-being. It is important to ensure that the illness and caregiving do not eclipse other aspects of your life and to pay special attention to diet, sleep, exercise and relaxation as they can be especially helpful to both counter stress and fortify yourself against it.
Tyler W. LeBaron of the Molecular Hydrogen Foundation adds his input for those battling stress. “We recently used an excellent stress model in mice to mimic the effects of acute and chronic stress. Our results, published in Nature, suggest that inhalation of molecular hydrogen was effective at reducing the anxiety and depressive-like behavior caused from too much stress.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-10362-6
Having exercise as part of your routine has positive impact in ways that you can both easily see and in terms of the longer term health of your body. Exercise works to reduces muscle tension, release toxins that build up within your body and thus minimizes the damage caused by excessive stress. Physical exercise also can have a direct positive impact on your mood and energy level.
We know that when experiencing stress, the digestion of food slows down (hence the stomach upset, heart burn.), and nutrients are not absorbed as efficiently (contributing to a lowered immune response and energy level). To make matters worse, under stress many people will not eat adequately for even normal living, leaving them physically even more susceptible to illness and less able to function. It is in your best interest to be extra mindful of your diet when dealing with a chronically stressful situation.
Paying attention to your sleep is also very important when facing stress. You may be prone to laying awake trying to solve your problems or from anxiety thus losing sleep. Your body is operating in an “aroused” state, which leaves your energy reserves depleted. It may be challenging, but it is important to do your best to ensure that you get adequate sleep to help you to restore your body and better enable you to problem solve and be emotionally stable. For some short term use of sleeping medication may be advisable.
The final aspect to consider is relaxation. The Stress Response is incompatible with the Relaxation Response, so any time spent relaxing means your body and mind have a break from the demands of stress. When relaxing you are trying to achieve a period of time where your mind is not preoccupied with worried thoughts. This state can be achieved through deep breathing, meditation, yoga as well as through pursuing enjoyable and stimulating activities that are personally satisfying. It is difficult to be aware of your concerns while dancing, gardening, building hobby trains, painting, reading a stimulating book, watching a funny movie.
It is a great gift to yourself and those you love, that you take time to take care of yourself.
https://www.asmfmh.org/en/
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Of course, there is that All Important Need for YOU to be able to move freely about the home and yet still be within call of your loved one. Have you considered a Pager?
When pressed, the Nurse Call Buttons send a wireless signal to the pager, alerting the caregiver that assistance is required. This simple, streamlined system allows you to eliminate in-room alarm noise and with a range of up to 300 ft., caregivers have the freedom they need.
Increased Caregiver Freedom. The TL-5102TP is a stand alone personal paging system and includes two call buttons and one caregiver pager or browse their medical directory for equipment & devices
https://www.medicalsearch.com.au/
Click here to go directly www.healthsaveralarms.com.au/
Interested? You can download their Brochure here.
-------------------------
and in the middle of all of this!!! Don't forget to B R E A T H E ... :-)
Learning to avoid or control stress can help you avoid this cycle. You can learn tips to help you relax and learn breathing techniques to get more air into your lungs.
American Academy of Cardiology
If we were able to breathe “naturally” for even a small percentage of the more than 15,000 breaths we take during each waking day, we would be taking a huge step not only toward preventing many of the physical and psychological problems that have become endemic to modern life, but also toward supporting our own inner growth—the growth of awareness of who and what we really are, of our own essential being.
There is a profound effect to people’s health when they start dropping off a few of those thousands of breath. If 15,000 is about normal what would life be like if we reduced that to 10,000 breaths a day or less?
1. Breathing detoxifies and releases toxins.
The Calm
The Calm Breathing Room starts at a calming pace of five breaths per minute for one minute and then slows you down even more into a breathing rate that relaxes you and allows you to sink into a state of calmness and relaxation, which releases stress and allows your body, mind and soul to experience peace.
http://www.doasone.com/BreathingRooms.aspx?RoomID=2
2. Breathing releases tension.
3. Breathing relaxes the mind/body and brings clarity.
4. Breathing relieves emotional problems.
5. Breathing relieves pain.
6. Breathing massages your organs.
7. Breathing increases muscle.
8. Breathing strengthens the immune system.
9. Breathing improves posture.
10. Breathing improves quality of the blood.
11. Breathing increases digestion and assimilation of food.
12. Breathing improves the nervous system.
13. Breathing strengthens the lungs.
14. Proper breathing makes the heart stronger.
15. Proper breathing assists in weight control.
16. Breathing boosts energy levels and improves stamina.
17. Breathing improves cellular regeneration.
18. Breathing elevates moods.
This is just SO true. Many thanks for drawing attention to this All Important Aspect of our lives. Breathing just cannot be underestimated. It's called, Living Your Life...
Managing your health can be challenging at times; while one facet of your wellness demands more attention than others, you may end up struggling to maintain a good balance in other areas. To be of sound body, mind, and spirit, it’s important to pay attention to all aspects of health—your mental, emotional, and spiritual sides all play a role in your physical welfare, and vice versa. A state of optimal well-being means more than just the absence of disease or disorder; it also means having the resources to cope with problems and circumstances beyond your control and recover from difficult or troubling situations.
Angels Carer Support Group. Held the last Tuesday of each month at St. Paul's Anglican Church Hall, 69 Palm Beach Ave, PALM BEACH - Come just after 1.00pm for that cuppa and a chat. Often we have Speakers on subjects of interest to us as Carers - they start about 1.30pm and go to about 3.00pm. Other times we just sit, relax and enjoy each other's company and support each other as we face the daily caregiving tasks. Sit and chat, and take a brief break - for YOU :-) We hold our meetings on the last Tuesday of each month (In January on the 19th as the last Tuesday is Australia Day). Father Phillip is a Great Supporter of the Angels.
YOU are most welcome to join us :-) when this crisis passes and we are able to resume... Do take CARE of YOU too...
and to find out what else is going on in the Palm Beach area: http://palmbeachgoldcoast.net.au/events/
30 December 2020