Caregiver Stress
20+ Ideas for Managing Caregiver Stress
Caregiver wellness looks different for everyone. It can often feel difficult to focus on yourself and manage your stress because of all your caregiving demands. Remember that taking care of yourself essential. By taking time to put your wellness first, you will feel more well-rested and energized to take care of your care recipient.
There is also no right or wrong way to take care of yourself! See the list below for examples of activities to help you manage caregiver stress.
- Go for daily walks
- Eat a healthy meal
- Exercise
- Yoga
- Create art
- Garden
- Get a massage
- Take a bath
- Light a candle with a calming scent
- Read
- Organize your photos
- Write a letter
- Listen to your favorite music
- Meet up with friends
- Call someone you love
- Listen to guided meditations
- Talking with your care recipient
- Pray
- Attend a caregiver support group
- Attend therapy
- Gratitude journal
- Drink tea
- Clean your space
- Bake or cook a favorite recipe
- Sit outside in nature
- Go to a park
- Play with your pet
- Go to a religious service
- Take photos
- Others:
Put It Into Action!
Now that you’ve identified some stress relieving activities, try to schedule them into your routine. Answer the following questions to help you get started:
- What would you like to spend 15 more minutes doing today?
- What are you willing to spend 15 minutes less of to make time for this?
Feel Like You Don’t Have Time?
Use these tips to help:
- Start with doing an activity for 2 minutes rather than 15 minutes.
- Break down an activity into smaller steps. For example, make cookie dough today and bake it tomorrow.
- Write down why that activity is important to you.
- Be time specific instead of task specific. For example, set aside 15 minutes for yourself at 3:00pm. At 3:00 you can decide how you will use that time.
- Complete an activity despite how you feel, you might feel differently after you do it!
Consider This!
Write down a detailed goal that includes:
- What activity do you want to do more of?
- Who needs to be included?
- When do you want to do this?
- How often will you do this?
