Jennifer Cares

Not eating properly is one of the common fallouts from caregiving, and it’s also one of the big reasons family caregivers are becoming patients themselves. Way too many family caregivers have poor dietary habits. I’m sure you know that food is your body’s fuel.  You need it to make you go.  Not giving your body…

We’ve talked before about how we all have the power to create hope in our lives.  With a goal of moving through life with a higher level of hope, this week instead of wishing—or hoping—to feel more hopeful, let’s create a strategy for hope. To create a strategy, I want you to think of a Plan…

Wednesday’s Caring Questions posts are geared toward helping you break through barriers to meaningful communication—even if difficult times—and strengthening your bonds with those you love.  This week I’m offering you conversation starters that will get you talking about things that matter: 1.  Have you ever made anything with your hands that you were really proud…

Caregiving can be consuming. Putting your life goals on hold while you care for a loved one can be extremely frustrating. It’s important to get a grip (and then keep a firm grip) on your priorities.  Taking care of yourself needs to be at the top of the list. Holding on to your dreams and goals…

Don’t feel happy all the time? Afraid that means you don’t have much hope? “Discontent and disorder are signs of energy and hope, not of dispair.”                                                                     —English historian Dame Cicely Wedgwood Love this quote.  Let’s think about this for a minute as we look for ways to increase hope in the week ahead. On the…

Statistics show, and I notice myself when I speak to caregiver groups, more and more men are becoming caregivers for loved ones. We know that men and women are wired differently, and that wiring means men cope with caregiving responsibilities differently.  They generally approach situations from a problem-solution standpoint.  Men seem to be better able…

When I was caring for my mother-in-law during her end-of-life journey with cancer, getting any kind of physical activity wasn’t even on my radar. Between the running from our house to theirs, working as a TV news anchor, breastfeeding a newborn daughter, and taking care of three toddler sons and a husband I didn’t have time or energy to…

Caregiving situations can make us struggle to find a way to communicate with someone we love.  I’ve learned that when you’re able to push through awkward silence and connect with your loved one, the rewards are many. (You can read more about that here). This week, I’m offering you some questions that will help you…

The National Sleep Foundation reports that more than half of all adults in the United States experience sleep problems more than once a week. In fact, about 40-million people have diagnosed sleep disorders, and–get this–fewer than 3-percent of those people are being treated for it. Sleep is a big deal.  We know that sleep is…

I was so honored to share my experiences as a family caregiver, along with make life easier strategies for caregivers at an American Cancer Society Survivor’s Conference over the weekend. 350 or so cancer survivors and their caregivers were there.  Their faces…their stories will be with me for a long time.  As I sit here to write…

Jennifer Antkowiak
about

Jennifer Antkowiak

Jennifer Antkowiak's expertise in the caregiving field is authentic and inspiring. She is a busy mother of five, wife, award-winning TV news anchor and talk show host, author, and speaker. Jennifer knows how long-term illness affects a family. Her mother had post-partum depression and died of a heart attack at age 50. Jennifer feels blessed to have been a caregiver for her mother-in-law who died of cancer, and most recently, for her live-in father-in-law who died of cancer. Her real life experiences fuel her passionate mission to help the world's caregivers.
Through her work, she connects with caregivers to deliver help and hope. You can find out more about the Jennifer Cares mission and join Jennifer's free White Feather Club.

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