The greatest gift you can give to the person you’re caring for is the gift of your own physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. If you’re a caregiver for someone with a chronic illness, disability, mental illness or who is frail aged then you need to care for you first. If you make time for YOU first, you’ll have boundless energy left over to care for others. Remember, you’ll never FIND the time. You need to MAKE the time because caring for the carer and building your resilience is vital!

Get Help if you’re fretting or depressed about the future, for yourself or the people you care for, feel stuck, tired or experience conflict on a daily basis. Call the Quest for Life Centre on 1300 941 488.

Are you an exhausted carer?

KEEP HEALTHY AND ACTIVE

• Exercise regularly – 20 minutes daily will help you sustain the physical demands of caring and provide a break from your daily activities
• Eat regular, healthy meals to fuel the strength and stamina you need for caring
• Get enough sleep – tiredness and exhaustion increase the stress of caring
• Look after your back – if you need to lift the person you’re caring for, get professional advice on the safest way to do so. Is there equipment that can help?
• Talk to your GP about your caring role and the demands it makes on you.

PRACTICE RELAXATION

• Make time to relax. Do these activities while practicing being present:
• Breathe in to the count of 4. Hold for the count of 4. Breathe out to the count of 4
• Take a walk
• Meditate or practice Coming to Your Senses
• Do some gentle stretches
• Listen to music with eyes closed
• Mindful colouring in.

TAKE TIME OUT

• Continue with activities you enjoy. Make time to follow your interests outside your caring role.
• Take a break (respite). Respite is a break from the responsibility of looking after someone. It may be for a few hours, a day, a night or longer. Respite is a way of relieving the stress of being a carer.

STAY CONNECTED

• It’s easy to become isolated as a carer. You might be too busy to keep up with friends and family. People may visit you less often. Loneliness can be a serious side effect of being a carer.
• Talking to someone who understands can be a relief. Sharing your experiences with someone you trust – family, friends, neighbours, other carers or workers – can help.
• Support groups offer a safe place to talk about your role as a carer. Being in touch with other carers experiencing similar things to you allows you to share stories and support each other.

Feeling overwhelmed?

It’s common to feel overwhelmed at times, to reach a point where you feel like everything is getting to be too much. It can be difficult to work out why you’re feeling so hopeless. Sometimes the feeling of being overwhelmed doesn’t come from the tasks themselves, but from the mental clutter that occupies our minds. Remember, nothing lasts forever.

Below are some quick and easy ways to calm down when you’re feeling overwhelmed:

LET GO OF THINGS

• Take a look at your to-do list and ask yourself, “If I don’t do it today, will it matter a month from now?” Sometimes the urgent tasks aren’t the really important ones.
• If you’re feeling overwhelmed, break tasks down into manageable goals and focus only on the things that really matter.

MAKE ‘JUST ONE THING’ YOUR MANTRA

• When you’re feeling overwhelmed by the number of things you need to do, it’s hard to know where to start.
• The best way to get your mind to quieten is to focus on just one thing. Pick one small task and begin. One task at a time.

MEDITATE AND COME TO YOUR SENSES

• Meditation is conscious relaxation for the mind. It’s an extremely effective way to increase focus and address the problems you’re dealing with.
• Whenever you feel overwhelmed by tension, close your eyes for 5 minutes, and focus solely on your breath.
• One of the most effective ways of bringing our minds to rest is to focus on the senses of our body. Try Coming to your senses with Petrea King and see the difference it makes.
• If you enjoyed this meditation, you might like to visit our online meditation shop to see the range of meditations we have.

GET MOVING

• Any exercise you engage in – be it walking or dancing to your favourite beat – helps pump some ‘feel-good’ hormones called endorphins, through your body. They also clear your mind.
• Staying active increases your productivity, enhances your ability to cope with stress and helps relieve nervous tension – boosting your mood and changing the thoughts that induce the sense of being overwhelmed.

CHANGE YOUR SURROUNDINGS

• Go outside for a few minutes and enjoy the sunshine.
• Stop at a park instead of driving straight home from work.
• We need fresh air and time in nature. Sometimes changing surroundings and doing something different is all it takes to change your perspective and find creative solutions to complex or overwhelming challenges.

PRESS PAUSE AND LAUGH

• Literally, stop everything and take a break to tickle your funny bone. Laughing and smiling frequently have been proven to reduce stress levels, making you less prone to anxiety. Next time stress builds up, take a moment to browse through funny images on YouTube or watch a comedy.

MORE OMEGA-3 AND VITAMIN B PLEASE!

• Anxiety affects our brain and body therefore, recovery involves nourishing the brain and body. Give them the nutrients they need by eating foods rich in omega-3 and vitamin B.
• Studies have linked vitamin B with good mental health, and omega-3s can help reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.
• Cut down on sugar, processed food and caffeine as these foods increase symptoms of anxiety.

DEEPER RELAXATION

• In meditation we unveil the treasure of our human ‘being’ beyond our human ‘doing’. Meditation is like relaxation for the mind. It is very simple. Observe and let go. Not holding onto thoughts or feelings, not adding to them, not resisting them, just observing and letting go.
• As we quieten the chatter of our minds we discover an inner wellspring from which insight, joy, inspiration, imagination, wisdom, creativity and contentment can effortlessly flow. Meditation becomes a sacred space in which we replenish and refresh ourselves.
• The practice of Coming to our senses can become a way of life, a way of being in the world that gives us access to our intuition, creativity, clarity, humour and more. It’s simply about coming to our senses, wherever we are, in whatever activity we might be engaged. It is worth remembering that our bodies are always in the present.

Immediate Help

• Speak with your GP or other trusted and qualified health professional.
• For crisis support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14

Connect with Quest

If you’re on Facebook, you can connect with Quest from the comfort of your own home in a variety of ways including through online group participation or by watching our weekly wellbeing livestreams.

Join the Petrea King Meditation Group to join and hear from Quest Founder and CEO Petrea King most Monday nights from 7.30pm-8pm.

@Home with Quest is our free wellbeing livestream each Wednesday at 11am on Facebook LIVE. Join the stream to hear from an experienced Quest facilitator who will explore techniques to manage anxiety and fear, strategies for self-care, deep relaxation, and the things we can all do to help ourselves and others.

Quest Connect is our monthly wellness livestream hosted on the first Sunday of each month on Facebook LIVE from 2-3pm. Join the stream to take a deep dive with a Quest facilitator into a topic around easing anxiety and restoring resilience.

Toolkit

Some of these practices can help you to calm your mind and improve your wellbeing and can be found on our toolkit page:

• Keys to help you sleep better
• Meditation practices

You may also find some of Petrea King’s Podcasts useful to listen to.

Resources

• Wellbeing books Including Your Life Matters by Petrea King – a guidebook for life
• Meditation CDs including Be Calm, Sleep, Learning to Meditate

How Quest for Life can help

If you are a Carer, our 5-day residential programs Healing Your Life and Maintaining Your Memory can help you find hope, healing and peace of mind. We provide a safe, nurturing and compassionate space to think about your needs and hear others’ experiences. Learn how to relax deeply, sleep better, reduce stress, create an environment for healing and feel empowered to make informed choices in your healing journey.

Our Self-Paced Online Courses – Befriending Anxiety; Beyond Burnout and Healing Sleep – provide practical, positive and easy to follow guidance and advice. They encourage and help you to identify and implement strategies to build your resilience, and to incorporate these into your own personal plan for each course.

Workplace Programs and Community Workshops for Carers

Quest for Life provides culturally sensitive workplace workshops to carer organisations to support the physical, mental health and emotional wellbeing of carers – Caring for the Carers.

Programs can be tailored to suit an organisation’s objectives and budget and delivered face-to-face and/or online at the Quest for Life Centre or at another venue.

Related Articles

• Tailormade Carer Workshops Focus on Caring for the Carer
• Professor Gordon Parker on burnout: free advice from a leading psychiatrist and Quest Board member
• Recognising Burnout

For more information, please complete the form below and our Programs Team will be in touch.