Transcript:

As caregivers, we need to get really real about stress.

Stress is a sticky syrup made of a combination of worry, future projecting, resistance, fear, and catastrophizing.

Stress is a sticky syrup that WE pour over the pancakes in our lives. We are the ones adding the stress syrup.

Doing meal prep for your loved one week in and week out is just a stack of pancakes. Waiting for the doctor to call with the results of a test is a stack of pancakes. Helping your loved one get dressed is pancakes.

The pancakes are still going to be there no matter how much syrup you pour on them.

So I’m challenging you to start experimenting to see if it’s possible and what it’s like to just eat the pancakes without adding syrup – or at least adding waaaaay less syrup than usual.

You may have been taught or conditioned to pour stress syrup over your pancakes. You may be doing it automatically and unconsciously. You may believe that pancakes with syrup is simply a combination that Mother Nature intended. But it’s not.

Your circumstances and your stress about your circumstances are two separate things.

Your stress is generated by your mental habits. The stories you tell yourself. Your lack of healthier coping mechanisms.

Which is good news because that means it is in your power to greatly reduce the amount of stress you feel EVEN WHILE difficult and challenging and awful things are happening.

Try just eating the pancakes. Allow yourself to feel the sadness of not being able to fix or control all of this and just eat the pancakes.

Thank you for spending this time with me – and thank you for being one of the ones who care.

P.S.
Details about my group coaching program for caregivers are here.