Caregiving Comforts
By: Denise M. Brown
Language: en
Categories: Health, Fitness, Mental
You do the work without the title. You feel like you're constantly canceling plans, running on empty, and wondering how long you can keep up this pace. Sound familiar?Caregiving Comforts is the first and only podcast designed specifically for those overwhelmed moments when you need comfort, not another lecture about self-care.What Makes This Different:Episodes are just 2-3 minutes—perfect for your busy, unpredictable scheduleNo interviews, no experts—just authentic understanding from someone who's been thereContent comes from 30+ years of writing comfort for family caregivers like youPairs with weekly blog posts for deeper reflectionFrom the author of the Take...
Episodes
A Caregiving Comfort: Chirp
Oct 27, 2025Caregivers are surrounded by chirping—demands from others, doubt from within. In this week's comfort, we explore what happens when you decide to listen to a different kind of chirping. Step outside with us as we discover what the birds have to remind you about yourself.
Resources
Enjoy more Caregiving Comforts via our community, CaringOurWay.com.You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you. Image by Peter Schmidt from Pixabay
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her wo...
A Caregiving Comfort: More
Oct 20, 2025Sometimes You Just Crave More
When you're a family caregiver, you crave more—more time, more money, more support that actually helps. But when that good stuff feels out of reach, it's easy to reach for something else instead: more sweets, more scrolling, more of whatever numbs the stress. In this week's Caregiving Comfort, we explore what happens when you end up with more of what hurts instead of more of what helps.
Discover how adding in less of what drains you can create space for what truly nurtures you—and why your feelings and...
A Caregiving Comfort: Marathon
Oct 13, 2025Caregiving can feel like running a marathon you never signed up for, one where you suddenly find yourself at the front, heading into the wind, while everyone else follows at a safe distance. In this episode, we explore how to keep going when you're not sure how long the race will last.
Discover practical ways to invite others to run alongside you, give yourself permission to slow down, and create rhythms that sustain you through the intense days and the quieter ones. Because marathons aren't for those who minimize self-care. You care, which is why you must take c...
A Caregiving Comfort: Done
Oct 06, 2025You're done. Just done. Done doing it all on little sleep and with little help. Done trying, deciding, worrying, and supporting. In this episode, we explore what it means to feel completely finished and why that feeling deserves acknowledgment, not judgment.When you're so exhausted you can barely imagine continuing, it's not about your To Do list. It's about you.
Listen as we talk about giving yourself permission to be done, to release the weight of expectations, and to simply be for a few moments. Because sometimes, being allows you to continue.
This week's comfort: You c...
A Caregiving Comfort: Turn
Sep 29, 2025You're always the one taking the turn. Everyone else gets to step away, but somehow you're still there—stuck in place while the life you want seems to pass you by.
In this episode, we explore what happens when we compare our caregiving lives to everyone else's seemingly easier ones, and how that comparison can make us sell ourselves short.
How will you take a turn? Visit CaringOurWay.com and tell us.
Resources
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you. About Denise
Deni...
A Caregiving Comfort: External
Sep 22, 2025In this week's Comfort, we explore the reality that caregivers often work in silence, rarely receiving the recognition they deserve. While we all crave appreciation, waiting for others to acknowledge our efforts can leave us feeling isolated and undervalued.
Perfect for family caregivers who feel unseen, unappreciated, or are struggling with the emotional weight of caring for others without acknowledgment.
What's one of your achievements we can celebrate? Visit CaringOurWay.com and tell us.
Resources
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you. About Denise
A Caregiving Comfort: Start
Sep 15, 2025If you've ever had an idea or project you've been itching to start but keep putting off because of the uncertainty in your caregiving situation, this episode is for you.
We'll challenge the belief that starting something you might not finish is a waste of time, and reframe what it really means to waste your precious days.
This episode offers gentle encouragement for caregivers who have put their own aspirations on hold, reminding you that you deserve to pursue what energizes and excites you, regardless of how uncertain tomorrow may be.
Perfect for: Family...
A Caregiving Comfort: Score
Sep 08, 2025Feeling guilty about mentally "keeping score" of who shows up and who lets you down in your caregiving journey? In this week's Caregiving Comfort, we explore how that inner calculator isn't petty or vengeful—it's actually strategic intelligence. Learn to reframe your awareness of support patterns as the valuable information it truly is, and discover how you're not just managing tasks, but conducting a caregiving orchestra and creating the rhythm of life itself. This podcast is perfect for any family caregiver who's ever felt bad about noticing who's really there when it matters most.
(Image by marian anbu ju...
A Caregiving Comfort: Watch
Sep 02, 2025Watch.
It's what others check for the time so they can make their dinner reservations, arrive on time for their coffee date with friends and catch their favorite show when it airs live.
For you, it's not about the treat of going out for dinner or the joy of connecting with friends or the fun of catching the show everyone talks about.
For you, it's what you do.
Watch.
Resources
Stop by CaringOurWay.com and tell us about your impact.You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series s...
A Caregiving Comfort: Impact
Aug 25, 2025For everyone else, it's a simple run to the grocery store.
For you, it's a complex puzzle you put together to keep your caree safe while you literally run through the grocery store as quick as you can.
For every action you take, there's impact.
Resources
Stop by CaringOurWay.com and tell us about your impact.You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.=========
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, De...
A Caregiving Comfort: Title
Aug 18, 2025You do the work without the title. But what title could accurately represent the impact you make?
Resources
Stop by CaringOurWay.com and tell us about your title.You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.Enjoy the podcast, below.=========
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them i...
A Caregiving Comfort: Make Up
Aug 11, 2025You can't make up how hard your days feel. So you make do.
Resources
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
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About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help the...
A Caregiving Comfort: Break
Aug 04, 2025When you know you need a break yet can't take a break, you can feel like you're stuck in a broken life.
How to break free?
Resources
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
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About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals wh...
A Caregiving Comfort: Pace
Aug 01, 2025You may wonder:
How long can I keep up this pace?
Denise offers a suggestion to help you keep the pace.
Resources
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
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About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who c...
A Caregiving Comfort: Pace
Jul 28, 2025You may wonder:
How long can I keep up this pace?
Denise offers a suggestion to help you keep the pace.
Resources
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
=========
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who c...
A Caregiving Comfort: Cancel
Jul 21, 2025At times, you may wonder if life canceled you.
You can struggle so much to keep plans, to stick to a work-out schedule, to attend the events that mean so much to you. A caregiving experience can be the great life interrupter.
What to do about all the canceling?
Resources
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
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About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing dif...
A Caregiving Comfort: Creep
Jul 14, 2025A caregiving experience takes so much time and energy and thought that you just don't seem to have the capacity to consider much else in your life.
Except that your life continues.
How do you manage it all?
Resources
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
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About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, D...
A Caregiving Comfort: Gift
Jul 07, 2025When you share about your caregiving challenges, you may here:
"What's the gift that these challenges give you?"
The gift.
You can feel this constant pressure to discover the gift, to find that silver lining.
Resources
10 Things to Never Say to a Family CaregiverPurchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.Join our community, CaringOurWay.com, to receive more support. About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients f...
Caregiving Comfort: Schedule
Jun 30, 2025It can feel like you constantly hear: You have to take time for yourself. You have to take care of yourself.
When, you wonder. When will I have time in the day that's already scheduled minute by minute?
Resources
Our Soul Breaks give you time away right where you are.Join our free monthly planning session, Respite In Place Planning, to create a space that gives back to you. Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.Join our community, CaringOurWay.com, to receive more support. Abou...
A Caregiving Comfort: Sorry
Jun 23, 2025When you feel a pity party coming on, you may tell yourself:
"I shouldn't feel sorry for myself. I'm not the one who's sick."
What to do about the pity party?
Resources
Our Soul Breaks give you time away right where you are.Join our free monthly planning session, Respite In Place Planning, to create a space that gives back to you. Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.Join our community, CaringOurWay.com, to receive more support. About Denise
Denise suppo...
A Caregiving Comfort: Core
Jun 16, 2025Core means "the part of something that is central to its existence or character."
But caregiving takes up so much of our time. How do we build and keep a strong core when our day doesn't feel like our own?
Resources
Join our CORE Pilot Program for support as you build a Routine that helps you manage your stress. You can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and tra...
Take Comfort, Too, the Audiobook: Chapter 4: Winter
Jun 14, 2025In Take Comfort Too, the Audiobook, Denise M. Brown takes 108 words–including Parade, Green, Red and Glory–and then turns each into a reflection. The reflections focus on a family caregiver’s reality, sprinkled with hope.
Denise’s insights about the caregiving experience feel like a warm hug, a helpful smile and an encouraging nudge. Take Comfort, Too, the Audiobook, will become your daily companion, offering support, understanding and acceptance.
In Chapter 1, Denise shares her reflections on words and images related to Winter. The additional three chapters each focus on a season: Spring, Summer, Fall.
Denis...
Take Comfort, Too, the Audiobook: Chapter 3: Fall
Jun 14, 2025In Take Comfort Too, the Audiobook, Denise M. Brown takes 108 words–including Parade, Green, Red and Glory–and then turns each into a reflection. The reflections focus on a family caregiver’s reality, sprinkled with hope.
Denise’s insights about the caregiving experience feel like a warm hug, a helpful smile and an encouraging nudge. Take Comfort, Too, the Audiobook, will become your daily companion, offering support, understanding and acceptance.
In Chapter 1, Denise shares her reflections on words and images related to Fall. The additional three chapters each focus on a season: Spring, Summer, Winter.
Denis...
Take Comfort, Too, the Audiobook: Chapter 2: Summer
Jun 14, 2025In Take Comfort Too, the Audiobook, Denise M. Brown takes 108 words–including Parade, Green, Red and Glory–and then turns each into a reflection. The reflections focus on a family caregiver’s reality, sprinkled with hope.
Denise’s insights about the caregiving experience feel like a warm hug, a helpful smile and an encouraging nudge. Take Comfort, Too, the Audiobook, will become your daily companion, offering support, understanding and acceptance.
In Chapter 1, Denise shares her reflections on words and images related to Summer. The additional three chapters each focus on a season: Spring, Fall, Winter.
Denis...
Take Comfort, Too, the Audiobook: Chapter 1: Spring
Jun 14, 2025In Take Comfort Too, the Audiobook, Denise M. Brown takes 108 words–including Parade, Green, Red and Glory–and then turns each into a reflection. The reflections focus on a family caregiver’s reality, sprinkled with hope.
Denise’s insights about the caregiving experience feel like a warm hug, a helpful smile and an encouraging nudge. Take Comfort, Too, the Audiobook, will become your daily companion, offering support, understanding and acceptance.
In Chapter 1, Denise shares her reflections on words and images related to Spring. The additional three chapters each focus on a season: Summer, Fall, Winter.
Denis...
Take Comfort, the Audiobook: Chapter 4: Winter
Jun 13, 2025Which words describe a caregiving role?
In Take Comfort, the Audiobook, Denise M. Brown takes 100 words–including the unlikely blizzard, kitchen and umbrella–and then turns each into a reflection. The reflections focus on a family caregiver’s reality, sprinkled with hope. Denise’s insights about the caregiving experience feel like a warm hug, a helpful smile and an encouraging nudge.
In Chapter 4, Denise shares her reflections on words and images related to Winter. The additional three chapters each focus on a season: Spring, Summer, Fall.
Take Comfort, the Audiobook will become your daily companion...
Take Comfort, the Audiobook: Chapter 3: Fall
Jun 13, 2025Which words describe a caregiving role?
In Take Comfort, the Audiobook, Denise M. Brown takes 100 words–including the unlikely blizzard, kitchen and umbrella–and then turns each into a reflection. The reflections focus on a family caregiver’s reality, sprinkled with hope. Denise’s insights about the caregiving experience feel like a warm hug, a helpful smile and an encouraging nudge.
In Chapter 3, Denise shares her reflections on words and images related to Fall. The additional three chapters each focus on a season: Spring, Summer, Winter.
Take Comfort, the Audiobook will become your daily companion...
Take Comfort, the Audiobook. Chapter 2: Summer
Jun 13, 2025Which words describe a caregiving role?
In Take Comfort, the Audiobook, Denise M. Brown takes 100 words–including the unlikely blizzard, kitchen and umbrella–and then turns each into a reflection. The reflections focus on a family caregiver’s reality, sprinkled with hope. Denise’s insights about the caregiving experience feel like a warm hug, a helpful smile and an encouraging nudge.
In Chapter 2, Denise shares her reflections on words and images related to Summer. The additional three chapters each focus on a season: Spring, Fall, Winter.
Take Comfort, the Audiobook will become your daily companion...
Take Comfort, the Audiobook. Chapter 1: Spring
Jun 13, 2025Which words describe a caregiving role?
In Take Comfort, the Audiobook, Denise M. Brown takes 100 words–including the unlikely blizzard, kitchen and umbrella–and then turns each into a reflection. The reflections focus on a family caregiver’s reality, sprinkled with hope. Denise’s insights about the caregiving experience feel like a warm hug, a helpful smile and an encouraging nudge.
In Chapter 1, Denise shares her reflections on words and images related to Spring. The additional three chapters each focus on a season: Summer, Fall, Winter.
Take Comfort, the Audiobook will become your daily companio...
A Caregiving Comfort: Tattle
Jun 09, 2025It's awful to feel like the Tattle in Chief.
When you grow weary of being that reality check, it's okay to take a break.
Resources
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care fo...
A Caregiving Comfort: Terminal
Jun 02, 2025It’s such an odd way to live when you live between life and death with your caree. You feel odd enjoying your life as another’s life comes closer to the ending.
How do you live with terminal?
Resources
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a p...
A Caregiving Comfort: Tight
May 26, 2025You have no room for error. You also have no room to breathe.
How do you manage so much pressure?
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Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to he...
A Caregiving Comfort: Up
May 19, 2025The overwhelm, the worry, the struggle take their toll, sinking you into the quick sand of caregiving.
You can’t find your footing, you can’t grab the rope to pull yourself up, you can’t shout loud enough for another to hear.
How to get up and out?
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Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and trai...
A Caregiving Comfort: Nerve
May 12, 2025Everyone seems to have such nerve.
They have the nerve to ask so much of you when you already give so much.
They have the nerve to do so little to help while they watch you do so much.
They have the nerve to give their opinion while they check in with you from their vacation spot.
You can wonder: Where's my nerve?
Resources
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.About Denise
A Caregiving Comfort: Shape
Apr 28, 2025The shape you're in may be one of your greatest worries. You feel out of shape. Your caree loses her shape more and more every day, seemingly disappearing before your very eyes.
How do you cope with these changing, distressing shapes?
Resources
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise b...
A Caregiving Comfort: Retreat
Apr 14, 2025What to do when your heart says "Enough" and your mind says "Keep going"?
Resources
Our Daily Recovery Plan helps you retreat.Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to h...
A Caregiving Comfort: Hunt
Apr 07, 2025When what you want seems to have disappeared, you feel like you also lose hope for better days and faith that you can keep going.
What can you do when the hunt feels futile?
Resources
The Daily Healing Plan: https://join.caringourway.com/spaces/6930030/contentRead more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps cli...
A Caregiving Comfort: Reflect
Mar 31, 2025When you see your reflection in the mirror, you may wonder: Who is that?
You almost don't recognize yourself. You look so much older, so tired. Your face reflects the impact of caregiving: The heartbreak, the pressure, the stress and the worries.
That reflection leads to one more worry: Will my reflection always look so sad?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult li...
A Caregiving Comfort: Sneak
Mar 24, 2025Before you know it, the passage of time sneaks up on you.
How do we make the most of time?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help t...
A Caregiving Comfort: Guess
Mar 12, 2025During caregiving, we can feel like it's all a guess.
How do we manage the stress of all that guessing?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them i...
A Caregiving Comfort: Okay
Mar 03, 2025Because a caregiving experience doesn't feel okay, you wonder how you'll ever be okay.
You will. Denise shares 10 reasons why you'll be okay.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business t...
A Caregiving Comfort: Stun
Feb 03, 2025You can feel constantly stunned because of all that happens during a caregiving experience.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first o...
A Caregiving Comfort: Relevant
Jan 06, 2025During your caregiving experience, you remain relevant because you are the source of answers, solutions, support and wisdom. Everyone looks to you.
You can wonder, though: How will this caregiving relevance help me outside of caregiving? Am I relevant outside of caregiving?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities a...
17 Reasons Why Caregiving Makes You Awesome
Dec 28, 2024Caregiving can make you weary and, well, crabby. It also makes you awesome. I've got 17 reasons why caregiving makes you awesome.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. S...
A Caregiving Comfort: Sore
Dec 16, 2024You're sore.It's your muscles, mind, heart, spirit.
When you're so sore, how can you heal?
Resources
The Daily Recovery Plan offers a simple process to recover from these long days.Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and l...
A Caregiving Comfort: Show
Nov 25, 2024What can you show for your caregiving work?
We show you.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online caregiving c...
A Caregiving Comfort: Time
Nov 18, 2024I often read that we deny ourselves care, that we neglect to schedule and attend our own medical appointments and annual screenings.
Every time I read that we deny and neglect our own health, I shake my head. The author, I think, doesn’t get it.
I’m not denying.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
You also can purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and train...
A Caregiving Comfort: Without
Nov 11, 2024You can wonder:
How am I going to do this without enough help?
How am I going to afford this without enough money?
How am I going to manage this without enough time?
Without enough, we can lose faith. Without faith, we can feel lost.
How can we find what we need, including the belief that we will be okay?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. T...
A Caregiving Comfort: Motion
Nov 05, 2024As you go through the motions of your day, you always seem to hear the heckler. There's always one who believes they know better and can do better no matter they aren't actually doing what you do.
How do you handle the heckler in your life?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member i...
A Caregiving Comfort: Fall
Oct 29, 2024At one point in your life, fall simply meant a season, a time of bright colors, pumpkins, a crisp change in the air. You may have enjoyed some scares around Halloween.
Now, fall means something completely different -- your caree's falls, which are more frightening than any haunted house.
Some of the falls play on repeat in your head, reminding you over and over of what you saw, what you heard and how much they hurt both of you.
What to do about the falls?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support...
A Caregiving Comfort: Invest
Oct 14, 2024During your caregiving experience, you invest.
You invest time, money, resources, energy.
You wonder when you'll receive your return on investment.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online caregiving communities in 1996 which she managed until it...
A Caregiving Comfort: Tire
Oct 07, 2024You feel like that you've been driving on that tire that's been flat for 500 miles without anyone telling you.
How do you pull over so you can fill up?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online caregiving c...
A Caregiving Comfort: Late
Sep 30, 2024You seem to be running late regularly during your day.
It's not just for an appointment or because of a deadline or due to another delay beyond your control. You feel late in life, as if life continues while you stand still holding all the caregiving worries, stress and responsibilities.
How do we catch up?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path fo...
Caregiving Comfort: Inside
Sep 23, 2024When you look at yourself in the mirror, you may wonder:
Where did I go?
This week's Comfort, offers a reminder that you are still there.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online caregiving communities i...
A Caregiving Comfort: Cry
Sep 16, 2024You've had a long night which means you're having really long day.
You want to cope. Really, you're just moments away from a good cry. It's so frustrating when you can't sleep. It's awful that you are regularly robbed of rest.
Of course, you want to cry.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a...
Caregiving Comfort: Bet
Sep 09, 2024If only you could make some bets about what will happen next during your caregiving experience. You'd win more than you could count.
What about your chances?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online caregiving communities in 1996 w...
A Caregiving Comfort: Toil
Aug 26, 2024We toil.
Our days are back-breaking. Heart breaking. Soul breaking.
We toil, day in and day out.
How do we keep going?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online caregiving communities in 1996 which s...
A Caregiving Comfort: Lazy
Aug 19, 2024I wonder:
Because we do so much, do we allow others to be lazy?
Because we are so detail oriented, do we make it okay for others to be lazy?
Because we are so diligent, do we make it easy for others to be lazy?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a...
A Week Caregiving Comfort: Churn
Aug 12, 2024The caregiving experience feels like a constant churn. You go through it.
You can feel depleted of patience and energy and too full of body aches.
How can you feel good about a life with such high churn rates?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business t...
A Caregiving Comfort: Why
Aug 05, 2024After we clear our calendar in order to take a few hours for ourselves, why does the day immediately fill up with a caregiving crisis that needs our attention?
After we organize our day with careful, thoughtful consideration, why does the day have a different idea and derail our plans with problems we need to resolve?
After we share that we need help, why does the help agree to step in and then just not show up?So many situations leave us wondering, "Why?"
How do we find our answer?
Read more...
A Caregiving Comfort: Swing
Jul 22, 2024You take a swing, a try, an attempt.
The swings, though, just seem to exhaust you. No matter how many swings you take, the ball stays still. Or worse, you hit a foul ball or land in the sand bunker or in the water. You just don't see progress. Sometimes, you feel like you're moving back rather than forward.
Why keep swinging? Are our efforts just futile in the face of a relentless disease process, the reality of not enough help, the constant movement of time?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at...
A Caregiving Comfort: Sharp
Jul 15, 2024It's one of the ironies of the caregiving experience: Your day is full of decisions, pivots, advocacy, all of which take wisdom, agility and tenacity. So why do you feel so dull when you connect with family members and friends?
During those conversations, family members and friends seem to have such lively lives. They travel! They attend concerts, sports games, movies! They share reviews of restaurants and bars! They seem to be in the know.
As they share, you stay silent. Gosh, you may think, what a dull life I lead.
What's so sharp a...
A Caregiving Comfort: Clear
Jul 08, 2024Clear heads prevail.
With a clear head, we have the capacity to exercise every day, take time to shop for and prepare healthy meals. With a clear head, we want to work out. We crave fruits and vegetables. In order to have a clear head, we must be free of worries, pressure, stress.
How do we clear our head during our caregiving days?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise h...
A Caregiving Comfort: Watch
Jul 01, 2024It's what you wear and what you do.
The watch you wear reminds you that you are late, that you must rush, that you'll always be behind.
The watch you take means you watch for declines, for problems, for the next shoe to drop.
How do you take a different watch?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. De...
A Caregiving Comfort: Give
Jun 17, 2024You make it all happen.
How do you make it happen so you receive, too?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online caregiving communities in 1996 which she managed until its sale in 2020.
Denise now...
A Caregiving Comfort: Company
Jun 10, 2024You'd love some good company as you lead this company called The Caregiving Experience.
Because you're in the lead, you feel alone at the head of the pack. No matter how much room you give so others can share the lead, they slow their pace to remain a follower. They see how hard it is to be at the front.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities...
A Weekly Caregiving Comfort: Thank You
Jun 04, 2024You deserve our thanks and appreciation.
Share how we can thank you, read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online caregiving communities in 1996 which she managed until its sale in 2020.
Denise now develops and delivers training programs for...
A Caregiving Comfort: Tell
Jun 03, 2024It seems everyone has an opinion about what you do, how you do it, and when you do it. Their opinion really is a judgement. In their opinion, you're doing it all wrong.
They're happy to tell you all about it. Let's turn around the tell.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family...
A Weekly Caregiving Comfort: Good
May 28, 2024How do you manage when you may feel like you're failing?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online caregiving communities in 1996 which she managed until its sale in 2020.
Denise now develops and delivers training programs for the...
A Caregiving Comfort: Pile
May 06, 2024It's all a pile: The laundry, the paperwork, the dishes.
The excuses others make to get out of helping is also a pile of you-know-what. The way the systems work, especially the health care system and insurance companies, are another pile of you-know-what.
It all piles on you. It's terrible to be under the pile. It's awful when you can't find a way up.
How do you get up?
Caregiving Comforts offers exactly what you need: 2-3 minutes of genuine understanding, comfort, and hope. Every Monday, Denise M. Brown shares reflections that...
A Caregiving Comfort: Negotiate
Apr 22, 2024You're negotiating who does what when how and why.
You're negotiating while suppressing the utter frustration that you can't just get a simple, "Sure, I'll do just as you requested. No problem."
You crave the Yes.
Caregiving Comforts offers exactly what you need: 2-3 minutes of genuine understanding, comfort, and hope. Every Monday, Denise M. Brown shares reflections that speak directly to your caregiving reality—the exhaustion, the overwhelm, the moments when you wonder if life has canceled you.
A Caregiving Comfort: Forward
Apr 15, 2024Your progress in your life seems, at best, to stall.
How do you keep your life moving forward when so much looks backward?
Caregiving Comforts offers exactly what you need: 2-3 minutes of genuine understanding, comfort, and hope. Every Monday, Denise M. Brown shares reflections that speak directly to your caregiving reality—the exhaustion, the overwhelm, the moments when you wonder if life has canceled you.
A Caregiving Comfort: Fine
Apr 01, 2024They ask, "How are you?"
You answer, "I'm fine."
The problem, of course, is that you're not really fine.
Caregiving Comforts offers exactly what you need: 2-3 minutes of genuine understanding, comfort, and hope. Every Monday, Denise M. Brown shares reflections that speak directly to your caregiving reality—the exhaustion, the overwhelm, the moments when you wonder if life has canceled you.
A Caregiving Comfort: Costs
Mar 25, 2024The costs, it seems, are just too high.
We feel like we pay the price with our time, money and well-being.
The stress of our caregiving days becomes the expense that we can't control.
How do we manage our stress?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990...
A Caregivin Comfort: Own
Mar 18, 2024You'll have days when you wonder: What do I even own?
Time, money, choice all seem to be swallowed up your caregiving duties.
What can we own?
Caregiving Comforts offers exactly what you need: 2-3 minutes of genuine understanding, comfort, and hope. Every Monday, Denise M. Brown shares reflections that speak directly to your caregiving reality—the exhaustion, the overwhelm, the moments when you wonder if life has canceled you.
A Caregiving Comfort: Brew
Mar 11, 2024If only just coffee brewed.
It all seems to be brewing -- the next blow up, crisis or decline. Because you can sense something's coming, you feel like you're in a constant state of brewing. You're simmering, only a moment away from boiling over from the pressure of being ready to manage the next difficult moment.
How do you turn down the heat so the brewing ends?
In this episode, Denise leads you through a guided meditation.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
D...
A Caregiving Comfort: Orders
Mar 04, 2024Your day can seem to be about the orders. A life of orders can be exhausting.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online caregiving communities in 1996 which she managed until its sale in 2020.
Denise now develops and...
A Caregiving Comfort: Repeat
Feb 26, 2024You feel like you live life in a loop, repeating the same information over and over.
The repeating gets old. How can you make the repeating worthwhile?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online caregiving...
A Caregiving Comfort: Clean
Feb 20, 2024During our caregiving experience, it can feel like it's all a mess. That mess can feel like too much for us. We can feel like we have to live with a mess.
Do we have to live with a mess?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched...
A Weekly Caregiving Comfort: Light
Feb 13, 2024The day feels so heavy which means you feel heavy. Even your eyelids feel too heavy to lift.
If it's all too heavy, how do you carry your load?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the...
A Caregiving Comfort: New
Jan 22, 2024During a caregiving day, the drudgery of the same combined with the awfulness of the new can make the day feel endless.
What can help you cope?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online...
A Caregiving Comfort: Finish
Jan 15, 2024A caregiving experience seems to keep us in a perpetual middle between a beginning and an ending. It's why we crave a finish.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online caregiving communities in 1996 which she managed...
A Caregiving Comfort: Prayer
Jan 08, 2024Recent research that found prayer makes a difference inspires me to share a prayer for all family caregivers. We pray for you because we know how important you are.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online...
New Year Wishes for the Family Caregiver
Jan 02, 2024Bring our wishes for you into the New Year.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online caregiving communities in 1996 which she managed until its sale in 2020.
Denise now develops and delivers training programs for...
A Weekly Caregiving Comfort: Expand
Dec 20, 2023During our caregiving experience, we expand but not in the ways we want.
Our waistline expands because of the stress.
Our wait times expand because we wait. We wait in the doctor's office, the Emergency Room, at home for test results. We wait for our caree.
Our guilt expands as we worry we don't do enough, we can't be enough and we don't have enough.
All this unwanted expansion can really be discouraging.
Let's find some encouragement.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
<...
A Caregiving Comfort: Home
Dec 11, 2023In all that you lose during a caregiving situation, its loss of space that seems so surprising and so sudden, like it just happened over night.
How can you turn your house back into your home, a place that entertains, delights and refreshes you?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family...
A Caregiving Comfort: Too (and Two)
Dec 04, 2023During our caregiving experience, we live by the pressing needs of our carees because we know what can happen when we don't prioritize the pressing needs. As hard as it is to live by the pressing needs, it's worse when we can't manage those pressing needs. Our caree pays too high a price.
We do too.
How do we ensure we make for our own pressing needs, too?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with...
A Caregiving Comfort: Intricate
Nov 27, 2023A caregiving experience can sometimes feel clumsy. Clumsy, though, is an inside job.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online caregiving communities in 1996 which she managed until its sale in 2020.
Denise now develops and...
A Caregiving Comfort: One
Nov 22, 2023Logically, you know you're not alone. You're with your caree. You sit with co-workers in meetings. You sit with family members at the holiday table. You work your way through the crowds in the grocery store.
Yet, it feels like it's just you. You are the one.
No wonder we have days when we're tempted to run the other way rather than take the lead, especially when we don't have a map.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing...
A Caregiving Comfort: Hold
Nov 13, 2023During your caregiving experience, you can feel like your life is stuck on hold.
It's not stuck because you're not trying. It's stuck because caregiving is that intense and exhausting and demanding.
How do you go from holding to living?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990...
A Caregiving Comfort: Riddle
Oct 30, 2023Our caregiving day can feel like one awful riddle after another. Even worse, these riddles feel impossible to solve.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online caregiving communities in 1996 which she managed until its sale in 2020.<...
A Caregiving Comfort: Swift
Oct 16, 2023You know all too well how the swiftness of a caregiving day can leave you breathless. How do you tailor a day that works with and for you?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online caregiving...
A Caregiving Comfort: Think
Sep 25, 2023It should be so easy to think. You think through such tough problems to implement really creative solutions.
And, yet, at times you feel like you can't think. When a co-worker asks for your lunch order or when you have to pick out an outfit to wear, you feel like you just can't think.
We'll think this through with you so you feel better.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training...
A Caregiving Comfort: Noise
Sep 18, 2023Even when it's quiet, the noise of caregiving can drive you nuts.
How do we silence the noise?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online caregiving communities in 1996 which she managed until its sale...
A Caregiving Comfort: Story
Aug 28, 2023We feel the pressure to get our caree's life story before a disease process progresses or end of life arrives. We run the race against time -- trying to get what we can before we can't get anything.
Because we are the primary family caregiver, we also become the family historian, the keeper of the stories.
What if, despite our best intention, we really don't get the whole life story?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life...
A caregiving Comfort: Lapse
Aug 21, 2023It's really hard to hold onto quality of life for two. It's why we lapse.
Our lapse doesn't have to lead to a judgement of ourselves.
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online caregiving...
A Caregiving Comfort: Heavy
Aug 14, 2023The load we carry each day feels so heavy. The worries, the responsibilities, the pressure take up so much space in our day that we have little room for relaxation.
How can we relax when so much and so many depend on us? How can we take time for ourselves when we have so importance to manage?
Read more Comforts and enjoy our support at CaringOurWay.com.
About Denise
Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities...