Dealing with stress

[sydney3]

Having been a nurse for over 20years, I always enjoyed the luxury of working part time. I was raising a family, and we all know how busy things can be with home life. Well,two years ago I was offered an amazing position at my hospital. It was everything I ever dreamed it could be. The catch--it was a full-time position. When offered this full-time position, I remember thinking, I can do this,” and asking myself how hard can it be? Well, I can honestly say that after two years of trying to juggle work and continue being Mom” to my family, I am truly exhausted! The stress at times is palpable in my shoulders, not to mention the headaches and fatigue that plague me sometimes on a daily basis. Although I have not suffered from high blood pressure or depression, these too are symptoms of our stressful lives that we must learn to overcome or find ourselves in an early grave! In a quest to live a better, less stressed, healthier life, I have some solutions that have helped me gain better life-work balance and hope that someone else may benefit from them as well.

First and foremost, I began prioritizing. I now make a daily to-do list to ensure that I accomplish the tasks that I know must get done. This helps me not to procrastinate, and there is something about the satisfaction that comes from checking off a task on my to-do list. Making a to-do list helps me to prioritize and also helps to eliminate the unnecessary things that may pop up and try and steal my precious time. I realized in the past that I felt overwhelmed just knowing there were a lot of things that needed to be done in the day, but this way my to-do list helps me to feel organized and accomplished at the end of every day which seems to melt the stress away.

Another big problem I have encountered with spending more time at work is constant fatigue. It is not only the physical demands of the job,but also seems to come from the stress of trying to juggle everything. The stress of it all just zaps all your energy. The biggest cure to this problem has been regular exercise along with healthy eating. Taking care of ourselves as women is a constant struggle. We are so quick to help everyone and anyone, but when it comes to taking care of ourselves it just never seems to happen. I will say if time gets tight the first thing to go is the me” time. The best way I have found to avoid this happening is by planning. Let me assure everyone, we are worth it! If we take care of ourselves we can better take care of the ones we love. This includes our families and our patients. Also, I have found that scheduling exercise time into your schedule as if it were a bona fide appointment and treat it as such is very helpful in getting it done!

In conclusion, we must take care of ourselves! With today's hustle and bustle along with the stress and consequences to our health that go along with it, we have to make ourselves a priority. We cannot say we do not have time. We are an integral part of holding our families together, and we are very important in the lives of our patients.

[Eleven011]

Very good advice.