エピソード

  • How Do We Cope with Our Painful Caregiving Days?

    How Do We Cope with Our Painful Caregiving Days?
    2026/03/16
    Twice the pain. That's what family caregivers carry — their own suffering and their caree's. In this episode, we sit with the moments when we really, really want caregiving to end, and we explore what that wish is really telling us. Because inside that longing is something healing. In our being, comes our healing.

    Resources
    • Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
    • Image by congerdesign from Pixabay


    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.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    10 分
  • When Caregiving Saturates

    When Caregiving Saturates
    2026/03/09
    You are filled with the stuff of caregiving — the decisions, the schedules, the unexpected problems, the constant adjustments. You cannot take in any more. Yet more keeps coming. That's when saturation turns to drowning, and drowning turns to tears.

    In this episode, Denise offers a gentle reframe: rather than letting caregiving soak you, think about what you can soak in. Solitude. Music. Support from people who get it. And a quiet room where your tears have the space they need to flow.

    You can say, "I need a few." And when you take them, you give yourself a better tomorrow.

    Resources
    • Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
    • Read our Comforts in our community, Caring Our Way.
    • Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay


    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.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    6 分
  • During Caregiving, the Search for Completion

    During Caregiving, the Search for Completion
    2026/03/02
    Caregiving can feel like one long list of incompletes — the to-dos unfinished, the routines abandoned, the projects stalled. But what if life isn't grading us at all? In this episode, Denise explores what it means to be a beautiful work in progress, and why moving from one moment to the next is enough. You are not failing. You are not lacking. You are complete, just as you are.

    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.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    7 分
  • The Weariness from Sharing a Life with Caregiving

    The Weariness from Sharing a Life with Caregiving
    2026/02/23
    Caregiving asks you to share everything — your family's private details, your caree's fragile state, your needs, your fears. It can feel like you're an open book with no say in who reads it.In this episode, Denise explores the quiet exhaustion of constant sharing and the relief that comes from reclaiming your privacy. She offers practical ways to protect your quiet spaces, create boundaries around what you share and with whom, and find moments to simply be behind the stage — so you can connect with your life outside the life of caregiving.

    Resources
    • Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
    • Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay


    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.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    7 分
  • During Caregiving, Missing What's Gone

    During Caregiving, Missing What's Gone
    2026/02/16
    What happens when caregiving takes away the life you had — your schedule, your patience, your joy — and leaves guilt in its place? In this week's Caregiving Comfort, we explore how to grieve what's gone, release the guilt, and discover that what you've kept is enough to build something even sweeter.

    Resources
    • Read our Caregiving Comforts.
    • Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
    • Image by Gabi from Pixabay


    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.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    5 分
  • During Caregiving, You Can Wonder: What's the Point?

    During Caregiving, You Can Wonder: What's the Point?
    2026/02/09
    When schedules fall apart by Monday afternoon, when you're training yet another home health aide, when that weekend away seems impossible—you can't help but ask: What's the point of all this? Why bother?

    In this week's Caregiving Comfort, Denise talks about what to remember when caregiving feels pointless and you feel like giving up. The answer might surprise you: You're the point. Your future is the point.Denise shares why being in the midst of discouragement makes it hard to see how all the points of your caregiving journey connect, and how the wisdom you're gaining now—about time, priorities, and what truly matters—will shape your memories and your future.

    This is for every family caregiver who's questioning whether their efforts make a difference. You matter. You're worth the bother. And it's okay to receive the care you've been giving.

    Resources
    • Connect to our support.
    • Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
    • Image by eko pramono from Pixabay


    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.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    6 分
  • During Caregiving, Why Can't Someone Else Just Take the Lead?

    During Caregiving, Why Can't Someone Else Just Take the Lead?
    2026/02/02
    Why does it always fall to you? Why are you the one making the difficult decisions, starting the uncomfortable conversations, and speaking the heartbreaking truths?In this episode, Denise explores the weight of caregiving leadership—and why you're actually the one best equipped to carry it. You'll discover how understanding your natural leadership strengths can transform the way you see your role, and learn practical ways to lead effectively without doing it all alone.

    If you've ever wondered why the burden falls on your shoulders, this episode offers both validation and clarity—plus three concrete ways your leadership creates solutions, gets the help that helps, and protects your own wellbeing.

    Resources
    • Connect to our support through our programs and services.
    • Read our Caregiving Comforts.
    • Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
    • Image by Edar from Pixabay


    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.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    6 分
  • During Caregiving, How Do We Manage Uncertainty?

    During Caregiving, How Do We Manage Uncertainty?
    2026/01/26
    n this episode, Denise shares her latest Caregiving Comfort, "Thank You for Being Our Certainty" and the real conversation that inspired it—a community member's honest reflection on searching desperately online for answers that don't exist, only to pretend those fragments of information provide clarity.When so much of caregiving is unknowable—how long will this last? How will we afford it? What comes next?—where do we find solid ground?Denise explores what is certain in the midst of all that uncertainty: you. Your commitment. Your effort. Your resilience. Your ability to keep going, even when the storms are darkest. And how your refusal to pretend caregiving is fine is actually changing the conversation about what family caregivers need.This episode offers grounding and perspective for anyone caught in the exhausting cycle of searching for certainty in an inherently uncertain experience.Related resources:"Do We Search for a Way Out?""Thank You for Being Our Certainty"Join us for Coaching for Caregivers on January 31 and receive a free coaching session.Read our Caregiving Comforts.Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.(Image by Annette Meyer from Pixabay)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 workplace and for individuals who want to coach family caregivers. More than 600 individuals from eight different countries have enrolled in her training programs offered through her company, The Caregiving Years Training Academy. Her training programs have been approved to provide Continuing Education Units to health care professionals, including nurses, and human resource professionals.Denise also hosts an online community, CaringOurWay.com, that supports individuals during and after their personal caregiving experience. Community members enjoy free workshops and special events like the Caregiving Listener Project and the 36-Hour Christmas Chat. Denise is the author of several books that provide insights, comfort and hope to those who care, including The Caregiving Guide, Your Go-To Reference and Companion During All Stages of Your Caregiving Experience, and After Caregiving Ends, A Guide to Beginning Again. Her free resource, A Workbook for Your Workplace Wellness, helps individuals who care, grieve and work.Denise began helping her parents in 2004 after her father’s bladder cancer diagnosis. Her mom, who had Parkinson’s disease, died in August 2022, one year to the date after Denise’s brother died. Her father died in July 2023.Next Avenue named Denise a 2017 Influencer in Aging, one of “50 advocates, researchers, thought leaders, innovators, writers and experts who continue to push beyond traditional boundaries and change our understanding of what it means to grow older.” Her insights have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, US News & World Report, USA Today, SmartMoney.com, Time magazine and Chicago Tribune.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.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    8 分