Maintaining your own physical, emotional, and mental balance while caring for a loved one, meeting the demands of a career and the needs of other family members is tricky. (To say the least!) It’s a lot like trying to hold a beach ball under water. Just about the time you think you have your arms around it, the ball shoots out of your hands, your face gets splashed, and every bit of control you thought you had disappears.

Regardless of your care receiver’s injury, illness, or disability, you will experience stress. That’s a given. You will also have to learn how to adapt to a constantly changing environment. Just like holding a beach ball under water – as soon as you think you have control of the situation, something changes, and you find yourself coping with a new and different set of challenges.

When you’re in the middle of it, you may find yourself wishing that it would all just end. But it’s important to understand that when your caregiving journey ends, another journey through grief begins.

Join us as we visit with Jane Meier Hamilton, author of “The Caregiver’s Guide to Self-Care: Help for Your Caregiving Journey”. Jane is the CEO and Founder of Partners on the Path, a company that provides corporate-sponsored programs that help caregivers stay productive at work and compassionate when caring. We discuss how organizations can support employees as they go through the caregiving process. The cost to Corporate America is estimated to be as high as $35 billion annually, so organizations are starting to become aware that in order to prevent employee turnover and lost productivity, they will need to find ways to support their employees as they care for aging, chronically ill, or disabled loved ones.

We also visit with Dr. Renee Sunday, author of the book, “Sunday Grief” and co-host of the “Living Day by Day” TV show. Dr. Sunday is an anesthesiologist from Georgia who talks about her journey through loss and grief after the death of her brother.

Both guests talk about the importance of seeking support and the power of positive thinking, and Elaine tells how she learned to choose her attitude toward any given set of circumstances while watching her mother milk cows.

If you’d like help coping with the emotional stress of caregiving, please visit Elaine’s online, video-based caregiver support program, CaregiverHelp.com.

If you’d like to share a story, ask a question, or write a rant, connect with her on Facebook.