Peg and I have been writing a book on preventing Caregiver Burnout. This work integrates an energetic/spiritual approach and brings it to the issue of stress management and burnout prevention that is such a big issue for caregivers.

We have our own experience to draw on as well s our other partner, Tony Pace’s experiences, but we would love to hear from you as we develop this work. You can join the conversation on our Monday morning radio show, fill out the confidential questionnaire that appears on the homepage on this website or email us.

Here are some of the questions we are exploring in our book and on our radio show:

What do you see as the biggest issues in care-giving?

 What do you think is important to address for this growing population?

How does care-giving fit into one’s sacred path?
 
How did your life change as a result of caring for elderly parents? 

What has been the most difficult or challenging aspects of caring for elderly parents?
 
What has been most satisfying about caring for others?
 
What really works when it coming to caring for oneself?
 
How do you deal with frustration or angry feelings toward those you care for?

Awareness is a process that encourages change. The first step is to pay attention. Begin to observe your thoughts, feelings, sensations, and actions. Observation leads to having more information about yourself so you may begin to have more choice regarding your inner world and also your actions. From there you can start to experience more ability to feel in charge of yourself and life as well as to have the beginning of learning to develop a sense of inner peace.

  Learn to Use Your Breath Properly

Learning to breathe properly has many health benefits on a physical level. It makes you feel more energized, lifts the spirits and can relieve many symptoms of anxiety. It can also help you to experience less of a sense of inner stress, and to create feelings of acceptance, peace, and tranquility. These qualities remain thoughts unless there is a process to move them from the head to the heart!

 In addition, focusing on the breath provides a means to interrupt obsessive negative thoughts. Learning how to breathe in a slow, full, easy, rhythmical way can help calm difficult emotions.

 Acceptance

Resistance, whether it is emotional or physical, intensifies pain. Learning to experience an inner state of acceptance not only helps you to feel better, but also contributes to positive change and empowerment from the inside out!

 Practicing acceptance of minor daily circumstances such as a traffic jam or a computer glitch can help train us for acceptance of life’s larger events. All these approaches contribute to a natural slowing down of the mind. This helps provide clarity and the ability to distinguish between what we can   change and what we cannot.

 Practice gratitude

We all have positive and negative traits but often focus on the negative as if it were all there is. At some point we begin to feel heavy, burdened, deeply flawed. This may be the result of early conditioning. However, no matter where it originated, it is possible for you to take charge and create something different for yourself.

A way you can begin to create this shift is to name five things you are grateful for in your life every night before sleep. Upon arising in the morning name five things that are positive about you and that you are grateful for. Focus on these frequently throughout the day.

You can begin with simple things such as the fact that you can see, hear, feel, taste or have good teeth! Progress to positive emotional qualities as you gets more comfortable with the process. Work toward naming 100 traits to be grateful for within a month’s time—watch your energy change!

Work with these practices one a ta  time or include as many as you wish.

Keep a journal and document changes that you see/feel. They may be small shifts at first so without a way to track them you may think that nothing is happening.

The effort you make toward making your peace of mind and happiness a practice instead of waiting for it to fall upon you is worth it!

Strengthen Your Art of Allowing
Balance, Health and Wellness Retreat 
June 4-6, 2010
Sandy Island Camp 
Lake Winnipesaukee, NH  

“Elements of Enlightenment is a grassroots organization of conscious souls, raising awareness of the many dimensions of healing.”

Live on purpose
Create conscious communities
Leave this world a better place
-Elements of Enlightenment 

 Imagine spending three scrumptiously self-ful days on a beautiful island nourishing your soul, replenishing your spirit, reclaiming inner balance and discovering your authentic self. Meet new like-minded friends in workshops, over delicious meals or simply relaxing to the sounds of the lapping waters of Lake Winnipesaukee, all while enhancing your spiritual tools to move forward on your purposeful path.

Event Description: 3 day, 2 night retreat on the private, secluded Sandy Island YMCA Camp on Lake Winnipesaukee with workshops, speakers, and recreation activities designed to help you return and embrace your authentic self.  You will have three workshop opportunities to learn from.

Karen and Peg will be presenting

 Subtle Energy: 8 Keys to Unlocking Your Art of Allowing.

 There will be many other workshops to choose from as well that will provide you with new tools to live on purpose from the ease and flow that is the center of YOU!   

For complete description and details go to:  http://www.elementsofenlightenment.com/

Steve also spoke about how to realistically integrate Law of Attraction principles into your life, the importance of attitude and action and the energy of being authentically aligned with your deepest self and values—-all topics near and dear to our hearts!

 Steve’s simple, straight forward, honest approach mixed with his wit is refreshing to listen to while adding wisdom for your life. 

To have your time outside be most effective as it relates to your energy: be mindful of your body, your feet on the earth, how it feels to be in the present moment; from your inner center be aware of the air, the sun, the breeze blowing past you; feel drinking in the sun,, the air, the warmth.

In Tai Chi there is a wonderful movement to gather up chi of the morning and bring it into yourself.

As you move through your day periodically tune into yourself, intentionally feel spaciousness in your heart and you bathe yourself with love, peace, joy or gratitude. Not only will you benefit but those around you will “catch” your good feelings. This simple method helps to keep your energy strong, can protect you from stress, make for more meaningful interactions and help prevent fatigue.

We would enjoy hearing your comments on how this exercise affected your day!

Consciously developing and navigating our human energy system helps turn these concepts into reality. An energetic perspective regarding our selves and our lives opens the door to a deeper awareness concerning our true nature; it offers a broader lens to look through; provides more options for discovery, promoting health and healing, and developing higher level human capacities including creativity, intuition and spirituality.

For a moment imagine a free flow of energy sweeping through you like a river that is free to flow through the landscape. Feel what it would be like to BE this river, at first meandering, then rushing along more strongly, perhaps stopping to pool in a happy little eddy just for the joy of it, once again picking up speed as the current moves forward toward the future, exhilarated by the prospect of a new adventure around the next corner.  Feel how this river moves smoothly and evenly through a variety of landscapes shifting, moving, and shaping itself to navigate the terrain but never fighting, stopping or stagnating. Of course rivers do hit obstacles just as we do in life. But unlike the river we have choices, free will and the ability to not be at the mercy of the elements….if we know the appropriate skills to navigate the territory.

When our river of energy is negatively impacted by life, people, events, traumas or stresses, automatic reactions occur as mechanisms of protection and survival. Unfortunately these can then become a source of obstruction to the free flow of energy that would fully enliven us. If all of our energies are not fully charged, properly flowing and coherent, we can not meet the world with the full force of our being. Our view of the world and our place in it then tends toward negativity, limitation and feelings of deficiency. We may experience suffering and pain in our lives as a result of these ‘wounded’ energies reverberating through our being. The good news is that there is a lot we can do to remedy these situations.

In our next post we will begin to talk about the specifics of working with your personal energy system.

Listen to the download when you can!!

The Practice of Happiness

What’s Your Happiness IQ?

Why are some happier than others?

How can you change your happiness set point? 

Join us on Monday, April 26 @ 8-9:30 PM as we discuss these topics and more! 

Where: On your phone, in the comfort of your home

Cost: FREE! 

You will:
Discover your happiness IQ
Learn effective ways to change your happiness set point
Experience fun, easy to use methods to bring more happiness to your mind and heart 

We will be using the Maestro Conference calling system for this call. This state of the art technology makes classes much more interactive, dynamic and fun as it allows for an easy way to queue up for questions, greater interaction with the whole group, as well as more ability to share with others in small breakout groups.    

If you are interested in being on this call click on the link to register:

http://myaccount.maestroconference.com/conference/register/SA907QB0RIJFJX4

karen@livingenergyworks.com

Russell Targ, Limitless Mind

Another thought along the same lines is: carrying anger, rage and hostility toward another is like drinking poison and hoping the other will die!

Often people seem to think that forgiveness is condoning hurtful behavior by others but it is not—it is really about freeing ourselves from carrying around burdens that weigh us down.

Another misperception is that we can think our way to forgiveness. That is a first step—to intellectually understand it,  but we must engage our emotional energy as well. Why? Because that is the place where all our ‘meaningful” life experience is stored. By engaging the emotions we can access the actual energies that are blocked or distorted, release them, straighten them out and open up more space for freedom, inner peace and joy to flow.