Weekly Newsletter:

June 24, 2026

We are back this week with an addition to our Tips for a Busy Lifestyle series! This week we will be talking about emotional wellness. At this point, many of you have seen articles from us on self-care and the importance of it in your caregiving journey. We have offered some ideas on how to implement self-care into your life, but how do you do so effectively when there just aren’t enough hours in the day?

Similar to the ideas expressed in previous Tips for a Busy Lifestyle articles, the most important consideration is finding something that works for you that minimizes negative impact on your day while maximizing self-care. Emotional wellness is an essential aspect of self-care. Prioritizing your emotional wellness sets the stage for so much stability in your life. Complicated or difficult scenarios are much easier to navigate when emotional wellness is prioritized.

Including emotional wellness self-care in your day-to-day life may not be as complicated as it sounds. Emotional wellness is an incredibly broad category of things, and finding what is uniquely supportive for you is essential. Emotional wellness can include larger time commitments, but it can also include much smaller time commitments. Balancing larger time commitments with smaller time commitments to create a broad base of emotional wellness in your life is essential. See below for some tips on adding emotional wellness support into your daily life:

Give yourself 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night just for you. Whatever those 10 minutes look like is entirely your choice! Having time set aside for you, to do what makes you feel refreshed, and supports your emotional wellness can make a huge difference in your day to day peace. Those two 10 minute time periods can become something you look forward to every day. If you can afford more time, make it 20 or even 30!

Here’s a few ideas to get you started:

• Taking a walk
• Listening to music
• A guided meditation video
• Calling a friend or family member
• Reading a book
• Engaging in art
• Journaling

Larger time commitments can be harder to build into your busy life, but it is important to try to do so as some of the larger time commitments, even if less frequent, can support your emotional wellness just as much as daily smaller time commitments.

Mental health care is one of these larger time commitments. Everyone can benefit from mental health care, even at their peak emotional stability. Having a safe place to discuss anything and everything can only be beneficial. Especially as a caregiver, having an outlet to discuss the complicated and difficult emotions around caregiving can be a huge boost to your emotional wellness. Consider looking into a caregiver support group and/or mental health therapy. Dedicating anywhere from one hour a week to one hour a month can support your mental health immensely, thus supporting your baseline emotional wellness. For more information on navigating mental health care, please see this previous newsletter article: https://conta.cc/3MOoHAQ.

There are also other larger time commitments to consider as you are able to implement them. These may seem difficult to build in with your caregiving duties; consider alternative care providers occasionally to help make larger time commitments possible.

Here are a few ideas:

• Occasionally taking a Friday or Monday off from work for a long weekend (or whatever days provide you with three days off from work)
• A yearly vacation (or even a staycation!)
• A once a week or month outing with a friend, spouse, or family member

Balancing caregiving duties while caring for yourself may seem daunting, and that’s okay! Doing what you can to support your emotional wellness, no matter how small, is a huge accomplishment. Try different things, explore what makes you feel happy and supported, and adjust as needed. You deserve the same love, care, and support you provide others.

— Jayde Hart, BA

Memory Care Cafe Program Coordinator at DayBreak

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