As a caregiver for a family member or friend, you may find these times more stressful due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While your main concern is keeping your loved one protected, it’s important to ensure your mental health doesn’t end up on the backburner. Anxiety and stress are understandable reactions to the situation, but try to reduce them as much as possible by: creating a backup plan for your loved one’s care if you get sick, practicing self-care like eating well and getting enough sleep, and seeking support from others like family, friends, or a professional.
Community News
Screen Time For Everyone
Our bodies are made up of approximately 360 joints, the majority of which are designed to move. If we sit for long periods of time, these joints lose motion and therefore function. This may lead to a variety of issues if we continue with a sedentary lifestyle and don’t incorporate healthy movement into our day. For those of you stuck at your desk, stand up every 20-30 minutes, look away from your screen and perform some chest opening stretches for 30-45 seconds. Balance out screen time for kids with running on the spot or some jumping jacks every 20-30 minutes.
Book Club: Hack Your Anxiety
How to Make Anxiety Work for You in Life, Love, and All That You Do. What if anxiety is not a monster to be tamed, but a resource to be tapped? In this revolutionary book, Dr. Alicia Clark recognizes anxiety as the unsung hero in the path to success and happiness. It can become the motivating force that will lead to a better you, and The Anxiety Advantage aims to restore anxiety to its rightful place as a positive resource. Reclaim your anxiety as a powerful energy source, and bring yourself peace, growth and success.
Words to Live By
“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
Words to Live By
“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.” Harvey Fierstein.
Words to Live By
“Energy and persistence conquer all things.” Benjamin Franklin
Words to Live By
“Fear less, hope more, eat less, chew more, whine less, breathe more, talk less, say more, hate less, love more, and good things will be yours.” Swedish Proverb
Disability Tax Credit Eligibility
When people have restrictions, physically or mentally, they may be entitled to apply for a tax credit. There are different ways in which a person can be eligible for the disability tax credit (DTC). In all cases, the impairment must be prolonged. Also, the person must meet one of the following criteria: 1. Is markedly restricted in at least one of the basic activities of daily living. 2. Is significantly restricted in two or more or the basic activities of daily living (can include a vision impairment). 3. Needs life-sustaining therapy. The credit can allow a person $2500 in tax savings each year as well as a $20,000 Lump Sum Refund. Expert help is available in applying for this substantial tax credit.
How Respite Care Can Help
Respite care is a type of assistance that allows you to take a break from caregiving. This break can be for a few hours, a few days or even a week. Respite care can be provided by fellow family members, friends, volunteers, contacts through community groups or by a health care provider. Respite care allows you to recharge, reduce your stress and avoid caregiver burnout. It also enables you to spend time with other family members or take a vacation. A break from the caregiver role means that you can return the focus to ensuring your own health and wellness.
Book Review: Healing Depression for Life
In Healing Depression for Life, Dr. Gregory Jantz offers a new way forward. Drawing on the innovative whole-person approach that has made his treatment center one of the top 10 depression treatment facilities in the US, Dr. Jantz reveals the treatments, practices, and lifestyle changes that can provide lasting relief from depression–by addressing its chemical, emotional, physical, intellectual, relational, and spiritual causes. Not all depression is the same, and not all people with depression are the same. Healing Depression for Life will help you find the missing puzzle pieces that could make all the difference in overcoming your feelings of helplessness and hopelessness and put you on the path to lasting joy.
Care for Fall Hair
Sun, wind, sand, great for you – although tough on your hair. Here are some tips to help: 1. Nourish your scalp, use a scrub along with a clay mask to help exfoliate, clay acts like a magnet drawing out impurities. 2. Repair your strands. Apply a repairing serum/mask to mend sun and wind damage. 3. Start taking Vitamin D, your stores will run out quickly once fall arrives. 4. Go see your hairdresser. Get those wind-blown ends trimmed. 5. Scalp massages. Wash often, using the pads of your fingers, using circular motions to get the circulation moving. We hope you had a great summer, wishing you the best in the fall.
