{"id":23,"date":"2008-08-07T20:35:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-07T20:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jennifercares\/2008\/08\/break-free.html"},"modified":"2008-08-07T20:35:00","modified_gmt":"2008-08-07T20:35:00","slug":"break-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/2008\/08\/break-free.html","title":{"rendered":"Break Free"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I had the pleasure of being reminded how nice it is to take a break from routine this past weekend. My family took care of the caregiver by taking me to visit friends who have a beautiful home at Deep Creek, Maryland; and then back closer to home out on a boat at Morraine State Park.The time away proved to me that you don&#8217;t need to invest a lot of time, energy, or money to plan out a little escape&#8230;just a change of scenery works wonders.In <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.takecaretips.com\/\">Take Care!<\/a><\/em> chapters on Stress Relief and Positive Thinking, I&#8217;m writing about why it&#8217;s important to think of creative ways to manage the stress in our lives. I&#8217;ve interviewed several doctors and psychologists who agree with research that says the stress involved with caregiving can take ten years off our lives! Those chapters include many easy tips for how to ease anxiety and be able to relax and enjoy the happy moments in your life.During our little getaway, our friends took us out on their boat late at night. It was very dark and very clear; and the sky was just gorgeous. I saw more stars than I think I ever have at one time. We even saw several shooting stars!I also got to do one of my most favorite things: wake up at 6 in the morning, take a book down to the lake and sit and read and watch the sun come up&#8230;so peaceful.Taking the time to look at and appreciate the beauty of our little patch of the big world really helped to put things in perspective, and recharge the mind and spirit.We got to experience the power of laughter, too. With the kids on go-karts, bumper boats, and a pontoon boat, there was no shortage of entertainment!I wanted to share a little of it with you&#8230;hope it puts a smile on your face.j.<object id=\"BLOG_video-74e93dbc38c4fd5b\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"320\" height=\"266\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"bgcolor\" value=\"#FFFFFF\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/img\/videoplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvp.video.google.com%2Fvideodownload%3Fversion%3D0%26secureurl%3DqAAAAHfApvOOOB_WlESfHfM9b02Zo8TdrOx9hKcGNWCOavghx_9DjDhROLuQqZfmHv5EuGjsbNZS6HKVizZLFgkmnL3XOrZCu3H6qQVyREkEL9Zb-GL2YvPeyAAkzT1VMJkpw5e4Xp3rcw8U618pN3Ld68AscEptjR1rspqWWSDM8QLuFk2MZmW1JctHBJwT2A8q5PvbppYUKtwj_D6Y3p8OiqRpnKsDizkJnLlLFFDx12iR%26sigh%3DXSp0Ua9nvoBcLYko4Cxg_YCFuKA%26begin%3D0%26len%3D86400000%26docid%3D0&amp;nogvlm=1&amp;thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer2%3Fapp%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D74e93dbc38c4fd5b%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw320%26sigh%3DzOIvAg1Q-td__Kf2e2LvVa5yiv8&amp;messagesUrl=video.google.com%2FFlashUiStrings.xlb%3Fframe%3Dflashstrings%26hl%3Den\" \/><embed id=\"BLOG_video-74e93dbc38c4fd5b\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"320\" height=\"266\" src=\"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/img\/videoplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvp.video.google.com%2Fvideodownload%3Fversion%3D0%26secureurl%3DqAAAAHfApvOOOB_WlESfHfM9b02Zo8TdrOx9hKcGNWCOavghx_9DjDhROLuQqZfmHv5EuGjsbNZS6HKVizZLFgkmnL3XOrZCu3H6qQVyREkEL9Zb-GL2YvPeyAAkzT1VMJkpw5e4Xp3rcw8U618pN3Ld68AscEptjR1rspqWWSDM8QLuFk2MZmW1JctHBJwT2A8q5PvbppYUKtwj_D6Y3p8OiqRpnKsDizkJnLlLFFDx12iR%26sigh%3DXSp0Ua9nvoBcLYko4Cxg_YCFuKA%26begin%3D0%26len%3D86400000%26docid%3D0&amp;nogvlm=1&amp;thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer2%3Fapp%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D74e93dbc38c4fd5b%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw320%26sigh%3DzOIvAg1Q-td__Kf2e2LvVa5yiv8&amp;messagesUrl=video.google.com%2FFlashUiStrings.xlb%3Fframe%3Dflashstrings%26hl%3Den\" bgcolor=\"#FFFFFF\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I had the pleasure of being reminded how nice it is to take a break from routine this past weekend. My family took care of the caregiver by taking me to visit friends who have a beautiful home at Deep Creek, Maryland; and then back closer to home out on a boat at Morraine State&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-care-strong"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Break Free - Jennifer Cares<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/2008\/08\/break-free.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Break Free - Jennifer Cares\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I had the pleasure of being reminded how nice it is to take a break from routine this past weekend. My family took care of the caregiver by taking me to visit friends who have a beautiful home at Deep Creek, Maryland; and then back closer to home out on a boat at Morraine State&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/2008\/08\/break-free.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jennifer Cares\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-08-07T20:35:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jennifer Antkowiak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Break Free - Jennifer Cares","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jennifercares\/2008\/08\/break-free.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Break Free - Jennifer Cares","og_description":"I had the pleasure of being reminded how nice it is to take a break from routine this past weekend. 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