Bread making for stress relief...

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Specializes in Emergency room, Neurosurgery ICU.

I learned when I first became a nurse the importance of 1)not bringing work home 2)not taking home to work 3)how very important it is to find ways to decompress and destress on days off. I am not a "social" person by nature, I do not find comfort in crowds of people, in fact the last thing I want to do on my days off is deal with the general public. I have a few close friends that I can have good times with, but often our schedules just don't mesh. Working opposite shifts from most of my friends and even my husband doesn't help much. Trying to juggle work, home, kids, errands all add up, and usually it all adds up to stress! Mix in traffic and lines, bills, etc and there you have more stress.

I used to try to do everything on my days off, setting unreasonable and unattainable goals for every one of them. I have learned to spend my time more wisely now, as I have gotten a bit older. Yoga is my go-to. Reading in a comfy chair with a pot of tea, for hours (hey, the laundry will get done, eventually, I promise, right after I finish this book; 3 hours and 8 chapters later). Chilling in the recliners while watching a movie with my husband. Gardening when the weather is nice. Taking the dog for a walk in the woods. Sitting outside and just listening to the trees talk to each other as the birds sing their little hearts out. and my ultimate autumn/winter destresser? Making homemade bread, the old fashioned way... yes, that means mixing, pouring and kneading it all by hand. Waiting for it to rise, then punching it down again. Frustrated with a patient? mad at management? fed up with co-worker drama? knead that dough, pound it, take all your frustrations out on it, it won't care.... and when you are done, you will feel better, the bread will bake up light and airy.

The best part is taking it out of the oven, tearing off a huge chunk, slathering it with freshly made preserves/butter/apple butter/pumpkin butter, whatever and eating it. In my world, the moment you get the first whiff of bread baking in the oven, all stress dissipates.

I made bread today, what did you do to relieve your stress?

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Love this post, thankyou! I am a nursing student and have actually started making bread myself in my down time, it at least makes me feel like i am doing something special for my family and lets them know that even though i am constantly in school or studying that i still love them and want to do stuff for them. but the laundry can always wait =)

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Thank you for this lovely post; just what I needed today! I love making bread the old fashioned way. The whole process is the best aromatherapy and the kneading is good exercise and sensuous and a kind of meditation too. I am baffled by the fad of no-knead bread! The kneading is half the fun! For me the only downside to making bread is that I end up with too many carbs and calories in my diet. Oh well...

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Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

I used to bake bread several times a week. I loved everything about it. For some reason I stopped. I'm not sure why.

I think I'll buy some yeast and bake some bread.

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Love your post. I have all the same stresses and also garden, walk the dog and do my yoga for stress relief, a night out with two or three friends, watching a movie with hubby, I no longer have nice woods by my house- but I love to sit on the back porch and listen to my wind chimes. I read my books in a bubble bath with a glass of wine instead of an armchair with tea, and I don't worry about laundry- that is my husbands chore, but I have been known to turn a blind eye to some serious dog fur until I am done with just a few more chapters and the bath water has turned unbearably cold. I may try the hot tea thing this winter, (wine is getting expensive!) :) Thank you for your nice post- I am totally going to goggle bread recipes now. I already have some yummy butter recipes saved on pintrest. I think that sounds like a great new thing to try.

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Thank you for your post! It was relaxing just reading about how you relax! I am a nursing student and am always looking for ways to decompress. I love baking (although I have never tried making homemade bread) but living in southern Arizona there are not many months that are friendly to a 400 degree oven! My AC already has a hard enough job keeping the house cool, try not to make it work any harder! Luckily with fall approaching, we should be down in the 80's by halloween and i plan to make pumpkin muffins as soon as we have a little cooler weather!

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Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.

I think as nurses we are so good at taking care of others, we seem to really struggle when it comes to taking care of ourselves. And lets be honest it would be really easy to have work on our minds 7 days a week 24 hours a day

I'm fast learning that if I dont take care of myself no one else will.

One of my destressing methods is crafting, anything from card making, scrap booking, am currently making a wooden advent calender.

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Specializes in Cardiac, ER, Pediatrics, Corrections.

I love to bake as well!! Pinterest is a way I destress. I BLARE music while my husband is at work and I dance while I clean!!

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Specializes in CVICU.

I love baking. I love it, love it, love it. This may seem out of place, since I'm a male nursing student who is also a weightlifter. I go to the gym six days a week and work part-time on top of nursing school. Baking is such a stress reliever because I can zone out and not worry about studying or my manager's ridiculous nonappreciation of her hardworking employees.

I bake something at least once a week. Last week, it was chocolate chip cookies with milk & white chocolate chips and pecans. The week before that, it was snickerdoodle cookies. The week before that, peanut butter cupcakes & cinnamon cupcakes. Tonight, I'm making homemade chex mix, and despite my upcoming test being over kidney issues, I'm going to salt it SO BAD that I'll likely become hypovolemic after the first bite. Don't even care.

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Specializes in Emergency room, Neurosurgery ICU.
Thank you for your post! It was relaxing just reading about how you relax! I am a nursing student and am always looking for ways to decompress. I love baking (although I have never tried making homemade bread) but living in southern Arizona there are not many months that are friendly to a 400 degree oven! My AC already has a hard enough job keeping the house cool, try not to make it work any harder! Luckily with fall approaching, we should be down in the 80's by halloween and i plan to make pumpkin muffins as soon as we have a little cooler weather!

have you tried baking read on the grill? there are lots of ways to do it, here's a link to a site about it:

Baking Bread in an Outdoor Grill

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Specializes in Home Health, Palliative Care.

Let me add my voice to the choir- I love this post:yes:. I tend to destress by taking it out on the weeds in the garden. In the Autumn I plant bulbs then and snuggle into my couch to read Nora Roberts! I also try not to bring the work of the day home with me, I pump out the music in the car on the way home from my shift! I have learned that having things to look forward to outside of work is important.

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

I love to bake too!! Although I do rely on my Kitchen Aid to do the kneading for me, beating my cake batters etc. :) I like to decorate cakes also. Here's one I did for a bridal shower a few years ago; the only thing non-edible is florist wire and the ribbon. The flowers and butterflies are gum paste and gelatin.

I used to scrapbook, but I just don't have the time now. Now though I do photo books on Shutterfly for my kids; it's all the fun of scrapbooking in a fraction of the time, with none of the mess. :)

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