Carer Wellbeing
Lanarkshire Carers has developed an On-Demand Wellbeing Library, which includes short self-help videos and online courses on subjects including mindfulness, guided meditations, back care, yoga and self-massage.
Carers have busy lives and we want everyone to have the opportunity to practise self-care whenever they can. Taking time for self-care can also give you a break away from your caring role and help you care with confidence.
We also have live online training courses in these subjects as well which you can book by clicking here.
On-Demand Wellbeing Library
Guided Meditation (5 Mins Audio)
This audio will give you 5 minutes of uninterrupted relaxation time to quiet a busy mind.
Guided Meditation (10 Mins Audio)
This audio will give you 10 minutes of uninterrupted relaxation time to quiet a busy mind.
Action for Happiness: Mindful Moment - One Mindful Breath
A guided meditation from Action for Happiness.
Many of us have heard that mindfulness is really good for us - but we may not find it easy to do or to make time for.
Maybe you tried meditating once and had a frustrating experience, feeling like you weren’t doing it right.
Or maybe you had a good experience - but find it hard to keep it up in the busyness of daily life. When life gets tough and you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed - these are actually the times that mindfulness can help us the most.
So, today we’re going to try a mindfulness practice that will be there for us whenever we need it. We call it: One Mindful Breath
Action for Happiness: Mindful Moment - Just like me
A guided meditation from Action for Happiness.
Empathy and connection with others are hugely important to our own happiness.
In our very individualistic world, we can easily get into the perspective that we are different from others.
In this exercise, we will explore the ways in which others are in fact, just like us.
Action for Happiness: Mindful Moment - Mindful, Grateful, Kind
A guided meditation from Action for Happiness.
We all want to live a happy and meaningful life. It is not just something we want for ourselves - it’s also the thing we want most for the people we most care about.
But given how important and universal this need is, it's surprising that so many of the things we do in pursuit of it seem to be so ineffective.
We all have moments of wishful thinking, pleasure-seeking and suppressing the things we find difficult - which might give us a temporary boost, but rarely lead to sustained happiness long-term.
Luckily, there are some actions that consistently help us to find more happiness no matter the circumstances we find ourselves in.
In today’s practice, we are going to be trying out three of them, which we call Mindful, Grateful, Kind. Enjoy your practice and share it with others!
Action for Happiness: Mindful Moment - Cultivating and sending Warmth
A guided meditation from Action for Happiness.
We all have the capacity to experience deep feelings of appreciation and connection with others.
If we were to remember all the good things that have ever happened to us and appreciate all the conditions that make our lives possible, we would walk around in a near-permanent state of awe. For understandable reasons, this is not the case for most of us. The stresses and pressures of day-to-day life easily get in the way of our ability to feel grateful for what we have and close to the people around us.
So in today’s practice, we are going to see what can be done about this by cultivating and sending out feelings of appreciation and warmth.
Enjoy your practice and share it with others!
Action for Happiness: Mindful Moment - Seeing with New Eyes
A guided meditation from Action for Happiness.
We all have our own way of seeing things. Our views are shaped by everything from our upbringing to the media we consume, and they help us to navigate our lives with confidence.
Sometimes though, our views let us down: we can end up hanging on to unhelpful assumptions about ourselves and others, and get fixated on some things, while other opportunities pass us by.
That’s why it can be helpful to learn to look again and see things in new ways - which is the focus of our practice today… Seeing with new eyes.
Action for Happiness: Mindful Moment - Finding Hope
A guided meditation from Action for Happiness.
It’s not always easy to feel hopeful. In a world with so many harsh realities, it is risky to expect things to go our way. Painful disappointments soon make a neutral, or negative outlook, feel safer and more realistic.
But hope is about something much deeper than how we think and view the world. It is a fundamental feeling that lifts us and motivates our actions. So how do we cultivate a hopeful mind, without having to take on naive or unrealistic beliefs?
Well, that is exactly what we will be exploring today... Finding hope.
Action for Happiness: Mindful Moment - Active Self Love
A guided meditation from Action for Happiness.
It can sometimes feel easier to love others than to love ourselves. We judge our own mistakes harshly and when we treat ourselves, we can feel like we are being selfish or rude.
Accepting and loving ourselves as we are is fundamental to our happiness. When we treat ourselves as someone deserving of love, everything goes better. For us, and for those around us.
So that’s what this practice is all about… Active self-love.
Action for Happiness: Mindful Moment - Loving Kindness
A guided meditation from Action for Happiness.
The feeling of caring for others is in fact very nourishing for our happiness too. By bringing up feelings of warmth and care for others we can experience more relaxation, joy and freedom in ourselves.
This mindful moment is designed to help us do just that.
Enjoy your practice and share it with others!
Action for Happiness: Mindful Moment - Breathing through Difficulty
A guided meditation from Action for Happiness.
Life has its ups and downs - we all experience moments of difficulty.
Having tools we can rely on when times get tough can be really useful.
This mindful moment is designed to help us tune in to our breathing as a way of making it through difficult moments.
Action for Happiness: Mindful Moment - Feeling Gratitude Deeply
A guided meditation from Action for Happiness.
When we focus on the good things in life we have the opportunity to retrain our mind.
Gratitude really can compensate for our natural negativity bias and put us in touch with a more positive worldview.
Not every day will be good, but there is something good in every day.
Action for Happiness: Mindful Moment - Connecting to something Bigger
A guided meditation from Action for Happiness.
When we make time to reconnect with the whole of ourselves and all of the many wonderful conditions that support our life we have the opportunity to really feel how meaningful it all is.
Action for Happiness: Mindful Moment - Whole Body Awareness
A guided meditation from Action for Happiness.
By bringing the mind back to the body we can help ourselves feel more grounded and connected and have a real chance to rest and heal.
Headspace: Five-minute Guided Meditation
A guided meditation from Headspace.
How can I make time to meditate if I’m so busy with daily responsibilities? How do I practice self-care if my schedule is too hectic for meditation?
In this calming meditation guided by Headspace Meditation and Mindfulness Teacher Eve Prieto, we’ll learn to practice self-compassion and prioritize taking care of ourselves by making time for “me time,” especially for caregivers and people who provide care to others.
We’ll take a few minutes to be kind to ourselves with a self-care mindfulness exercise so that we can take a break, rest, relax, and continue to show up for the people in our lives.
Samaritans - Muscle Relaxation Exercise
Progressive muscle relaxation involves tensing and releasing pairs of muscles in sequence. It can help if you imagine tension leaving your body as you release your muscles.
Samaritans - Controlled Breathing Exercise
It might sound simple, but controlled breathing can be a useful tool for feeling calmer quickly and reducing feelings of stress and anxiety. This technique is easy to memorise and can be practised almost anywhere. Practise this for as long as you need to to feel the benefits. To practise this technique, all you need to do is this:
- Breathe in for four seconds
- Hold your breath for four seconds
- Breathe out for four seconds
- Wait four seconds before repeating
Keep repeating this until you start to feel calmer. Look for both mental and physical signs, like your thoughts and your heartbeat slowing down. You may already know what triggers your negative thoughts and feelings.
If you do, try using this breathing technique if you know you will encounter a certain trigger, or immediately after.
Mindfulness – Carer’s General Session
This video will give you 5 minutes of general mindfulness techniques to help slow you down and begin to live in the moment.
Mindfulness – For Anxiety and Stress
This session will take you through mindfulness for anxiety and stress to help calm you down and feel more in control.
Introduction to Living Life to the Full
A highly beneficial video to watch in times of high stress and anxiety to give you instant help and get you back to feeling calm again
Creating a Wellness Plan
This video will give you tips on how to improve your mental and physical health when you are feeling overwhelmed and will help you turn around your mind-set instantly.
Introduction to Soul Success
An Introduction to personal development and life coaching and how it can help improve your outlook on life.
Back Care - Tips for a Healthy Back
This video will give you simple tips on how to prevent back pain and help you to keep your back healthy
Self Massage – Facial Massage
An, easy to follow, video to help you to be able to do a home Facial Massage as part of your self- care routine. It would be helpful if you have the following items to hand- Cleanser/Toner/Face cream or oil/tissues/cotton pads and a bowl of warm water.
Self Massage – Hand Massage
A calming video of simple steps on how to carry out a hand an arm massage at home. It would be helpful to have the following items to hand – Bowl of warm water/Soap or hand wash/towel and oil or cream
Introduction to Yoga
This video is a short introduction video to Yoga for Carers and what is involved in a yoga session.
Yoga for Everybody
This video will give you a 30-minute yoga session which is suitable for all levels. You can work to your own ability. Have a mat or towel ready to practice on.
Beginners Guide to Air Dry Clay
A beginners guide on using Air dry clay.
How to look after your Feet at Home
A short video, produced by Scottish Allied Health Professionals, to give you advice on personal foot care. This video will give you helpful tips on general foot grooming , allowing you to take good care of your precious feet at home
MorphFit Gentle Movement
This video will give you an introduction to the wonderful benefits of the Morphfit Gentle Movement class. These are gentle exercises that help with your mobility and general wellbeing. You will be able to join a class online by accessing our training program.
Action for Happiness - Recordings of Online Events
Action for Happiness has regular special online events. If you've missed one or want to rewatch an event that you may have attended, visit Action for Happiness's Youtube channel where there are over 180 recordings of the events that you can watch at any time.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv8qC1Am9cePMLbI_6G91E2rm_igigJ2x
Headspace - Get Some Sleep (Music, Meditations, and Sleepcasts)
Headspace has created a YouTube playlist to help you sleep.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW8o3_GFoCBO7CfVk2lWqunKVl0vnFMlU&feature=shared
Headspace - Breathers for Parent Carers
Headspace is here to help Carers show their minds some love. In Headspace Breathers, family mindfulness expert Samantha Snowden shares her favourite tips, games, and mindfulness techniques for helping children and parents manage their emotions, find positivity, focus, and more.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW8o3_GFoCBMF3eH6Ck6WGPYFBDxbmZPJ&feature=shared
Headspace - Support in Challenging Times
During a period of heaviness and challenges, Headspace has created a YouTube Playlist to help you deal with anger, sadness, uncertainty, and grief.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW8o3_GFoCBNWV3KtiiXNsg3zDgZqEyFf&feature=shared
Online Courses
A new online course from NHS Lanarkshire Psychological Services all about emotions, coping and wellbeing. This course is made up of five videos, each one lasting about 20 minutes, giving you lots of useful information. There are booklets to go alongside the videos, which can be downloaded to dip into further and keep track of progress.
A new online course from NHS Lanarkshire Psychological Services based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, the course is made up of 8 online sessions and helps you to understand the link between how you think and how this influences your feelings and behaviours.
The programme teaches strategies to help you cope better in the short term and workable skills for life so that you can face the future with confidence.
You need to be referred to the course by a professional. Your GP practice will be able to tell you more about this and make a referral on your behalf for you to be issued an activation code.
Further information on the this online course can be found by visiting the NHS Lanarkshire Mind Matters website by clicking here.
Daylight is a new online course from NHS Lanarkshire Psychological Services about anxiety and worry.
Designed specifically for your smartphone, it provides a tailored program for managing anxiety, based on your own needs, and keeps you on track with bite-size suggestions and check-ins. Written by psychologists and researchers, it has been shown in clinical trials to help with worry, depressive symptoms, wellbeing and quality of life.
Sleepio is a new online course from NHS Lanarkshire Psychological Services is about getting a better night’s sleep.
Designed to be used on a computer, a tablet or a phone, it offers a personalised program to help overcome insomnia. Produced by an expert team with decades of experience in sleep research, it brings tried-and-tested techniques directly to you in a friendly, step-by-step way.
This online course from NHS Lanarkshire Psychological Services is designed for parents and carers of young people aged 12 to 18.
Teenage years are a time of changes and challenges, and as adults it can feel hard to help. This comprehensive, easy-to-follow course is for parents and carers of young people aged 12 to 18. It is designed to give you the skills and confidence you need to support them through the difficulties they might be facing — while at the same time exploring valuable new strategies they can use themselves.
The course has eight parts, which you can work through any time, going at your own pace. You will learn about different ways of looking at anxiety; about how to help young people understand their complex feelings; and about how to support and empower them to deal with common difficulties such as worry and low self-esteem. This includes exploring new ways to talk to your teens about what they are going through — and to help them learn valuable problem-solving skills they can use now and in future.
This online course from NHS Lanarkshire Psychological Services is designed for parents and carers of children aged 4 to 11.
It will help you support young children to deal with anxious thoughts and feelings, and to help them face their fears — perhaps the most important thing any of us can do in terms of tackling anxiety.
You can access the course any time, and work through it at your own pace. As you progress, you will learn lots more about the unhelpful patterns we can all fall into — wee ones and adults alike! At the same time, you will be helping your children learn new skills they can put into practice day by day.
There are eight parts to the online course, including activities, quizzes and lots of helpful things to try with your children, including relaxation and building self-esteem. All of this is rooted in high-quality psychological approaches which are powerful yet kind.
10 Days of Happiness is a free online programme from Action for Happiness to boost your wellbeing, through daily actions for happier living.
It is designed for challenging times, based on the latest research from positive psychology, neuroscience, and behavioural science.
And it takes just a few minutes each day!
Active Hope Training is a video-based online course designed to nourish and strengthen your capacity to act for positive change in the world.
The course is designed as a seven-week course that takes you on a journey through seven areas that can nourish our ability to make a difference in the world. While a week for each module is suggested, you can do it at your own pace and take longer if you prefer.
Joining the course is a simple two step process. First please sign up to this online learning platform by clicking here. Then click on 'enrol now' button on the course information page at https://activehope.training/p/active-hope-foundations-training
Lanarkshire Carers Centre: Hamilton
Ground Floor Left
Princes Gate
60 Castle Street
Hamilton
ML3 6BU
Monday - Friday:
9:00am to 4:30pm
Lanarkshire Carers Centre: Airdrie
Airdrie Locality Support Services
92 Hallcraig Street
Airdrie
ML6 6AW
Monday - Friday:
9:00am to 4:30pm