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What Makes You Feel Loved and Appreciated?

What Makes You Feel Loved and Appreciated?

What Makes You Feel Loved and Appreciated? As a support person for your friend or family member with a serious or chronic illness, do you sometimes wonder how best to help them? Do people tell you often how amazing you are in all that you are doing in your role as caregiver but somehow you still feel unappreciated? Within each of us is an emotional “tank” whose level fluctuates just like […]

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Compassion Fatigue – Finding Rest From Emotional Exhaustion

Compassion Fatigue – Finding Rest From Emotional Exhaustion

FINDING REST FROM EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION COMPASSION FATIGUE is the name given to a collection of behaviours and symptoms that appear when we offer empathy and caring to someone we love for a prolonged period of time without adequate support. Our normal sense of kindness and compassion begins to fade and resentment and overwhelming fatigue begin to grow. Where we would normally step up to support the needs of our care […]

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I Love My Husband But I’m Exhausted

I Love My Husband But I’m Exhausted

     I LOVE MY HUSBAND BUT I’M EXHAUSTED! Are you feeling burned out and exhausted?   Do you love many parts of your life yet long for a little time to yourself? Do you love your husband but sometimes feel resentful of the changes his Parkinson’s disease has imposed on your life? Feeling overwhelmed as the caregiver of someone with Parkinson’s disease is common! The diagnosis has altered your plans for […]

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Help! I’m Exhausted!

Help! I’m Exhausted!

Help! I’m Exhausted! Are you feeling burned out and exhausted? Do you love many parts of your life yet long for a little time to yourself? Do you love your family member or friend that is ill but sometimes feel resentful of the changes their disease has imposed on your life? Feeling overwhelmed as the caregiver of someone with a serious or chronic illness is common! The diagnosis has altered your […]

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Bad Hair Days!  The Healing Power of Laughter

Bad Hair Days! The Healing Power of Laughter

BAD HAIR DAYS! The healing power of laughter Ever had one of those days? The kind of day when your hair isn’t quite right no matter how much gel you use and the shirt you really wanted to wear has a huge stain from breakfast. We all have days like this. Things don’t seem to work out as well as we had planned and it feels as though life is conspiring […]

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Transitions – From Letting Go to New Beginnings

Transitions – From Letting Go to New Beginnings

TRANSITIONS – FROM LETTING GO TO NEW BEGINNINGS Being a caregiver of someone with any chronic illness requires resilience and an ability to adjust to ongoing changes. The changes may be large and planned on the long term or they may be adjustments and adaptations to daily situations. William Bridges in his book entitled “Managing Transitions” makes an interesting distinction between a change and a transition. Change is doing something in […]

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Nurturing Buoyancy as a Caregiver

Nurturing Buoyancy as a Caregiver

                 NURTURING BUOYANCY AS A CAREGIVER There are many images and metaphors that could be used to describe the experience of being a caregiver. I love images that that speak to the resilience that I have witnessed in the many caregivers that I know. Buoyancy reminds me of a lovely, multicoloured beach ball that, while it can be pushed under the water temporarily, it actively resists staying there. The following […]

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Improving MD With Diet – A Courageous Doctor’s Story

Improving MD With Diet – A Courageous Doctor’s Story

  This inspiring story tells of a female physician who refused to believe that the progression of her Multiple Sclerosis was inevitable and that her only route of treatment was more and more medication.  Through the use of diet, she went from being wheelchair bound to being able to again ride her bike and work full time.  Her tireless efforts at finding answers for her own situation have led to […]

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What If Despair is Only Unfed Hope?

What If Despair is Only Unfed Hope?

Have you ever found yourself in a state of despair - a place where you can't see a way forward in your situation and feel you have run out of options?  What do you do then?  Do you throw up your hands and give up, accepting your situation as hopeless or do you continue to look for a ray of hope somewhere new? What we call despair is often […]

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Did You Know that 70% of Your Immune System is in Your Gut?

Did You Know that 70% of Your Immune System is in Your Gut?

The body contains many specialized cells that allow it to absorb nutrients from the food that we eat without responding to it as a foreign substance.  The specialized tissue known as GALT (gut-associated lymphoid tissue) is present throughout the bowel walls and allows the body to differentiate between healthy food and disease causing organisms. If the balance of bacteria in the bowel is upset as a result of a poor […]

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