For a little more than a week now, my mom has been quite ill. Thankfully, she is on the mend. She finished her second round of antibiotics yesterday. Although her energy level is still pretty low, she’s starting to engage in some activities again. Today she potted flowers in planters for family gravesites in observance of Memorial Day. I’ve been kept pretty busy coordinating and providing care. I have to admit that it was pretty stressful seeing her so frail. One small thing that I did was give myself permission to put blogging on hold. But a more powerful self-care strategy was my deliberate use of mindfulness with several activities throughout each day. I also made a conscious effort to stop multi-tasking, which seems more efficient than it really is.
Mindfulness doesn’t have to be part of a formal meditation or a religious practice to be effective. Just bringing one’s focus or awareness to the present moment or on what is happening now, is enough. I found that I was calm and able to enjoy doing mundane tasks. I also profoundly felt the exchange of love as I was providing physical care and doing Healing Touch for mom. There was more of a sense of peace than I would have otherwise expected during this time.
Washing dishes is one such example. I focused on each individual element of the experience. I observed the bubbles forming in the dishpan when the soap was added while the water was running. I felt the soothing warm water on my hands and observed the force of the sprayer while rinsing each dish and utensil. I made stacking dishes in the drainer an artform. I noticed stray crumbs and spots of various shapes and colors on the stovetop, counters, and table disappear as I cleaned them with my purple sponge. When I wiped the surfaces dry, they gleamed in the sunlight streaming through the kitchen window. Well, you get the idea. Then when I drained the dishwater, washed and rinsed the sink, I engaged in a little imagery and symbolically sent any remaining tension down the drain.
Now that I’ve experienced some emotional and physical effects of mindfulness, I’m actually finding more ways to maintain the practice. Brushing my teeth has become a new cue to remind me to be here now and not creating a grocery list in my mind or ruminating on an earlier conversation.
Mindfulness is evidence-based. More and more studies are showing that being mindful can help us enjoy life more, cope effectively with illness, and improve physical and emotional health. It’s been about twenty-eight years since Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., founded the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, and brought mindfulness into the clinical arena and everyday life. http://www.umassmed.edu/content.aspx?id=41252 Now the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) http://nccam.nih.gov/ sponsors research investigating mindfulness-based stress reduction for symptom relief in conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and chronic low back pain.
There are several resources available to assist individuals in learning and integrating mindfulness-based stress reduction: books, audio CDs, online instruction, retreats, and trained practitioners. If you’ve never tried mindfulness, I invite you to explore it further. For readers who practice mindfulness, what tips do you have to share? How has it affected your health and wellbeing?
Caregiving Solutions 
