R&R for your brain?

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What do you do when you're away from work to yank your brain off of going over and over your day at the hospital? Not that your are upset, just that you cannot turn it off and relax already!

A doctor told me that he runs a tricky path where he has to watch for dips and turns so that he has to keep his mind on it and nothing else or he'll trip and hurt himself. That way he says, the day at the hospital doesn't invade his thoughts and he can rest his brain a bit.

What do you all do?

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my rescue dogs, it's hard to think about anything else when you pull up in the drive and see the little fur balls jump out of the doggie door and race the fence line waiting for you to unlock the gate and come in. they dance on their little back legs then when you come in and collapse on the sofa, they take turns jumping up and down in your lap wanting some quality time.

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I meditate (eventually go to sleep), go to the gym, watch a DVD, do my school work, talk on the phone, or I'll go "windows" shopping.

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Specializes in HH, SNF, LTC, Hospital.

Read a novel, play online scrabble, or work in my vegetable garden. Brings me 'back to earth' :)

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Specializes in PCU (Cardiac).

I watch television and go to the gym.

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Specializes in psych, addictions, hospice, education.

I take a bubble bath or lay down on the floor in front of the CD player and play LOUD music. My kids call it "mom volume".

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

Fawlty Towers. If you can watch that show and not laugh, you don't have a pulse.

I also have a nice selection of the little useless "for looks" bed pillows. When I have a bad night, I come home and throw them around and cuss in foreign language. German's good for cussin'....

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

Novels, documentaries, treadmill, gossip, hang out here in Allnurses (but I guess AN doesn't count for keeping my mind off of nursing...:D).

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Specializes in LTC, SNF, PSYCH, MEDSURG, MR/DD.

i have a very spoiled cat named myprecious who is always happy to take my mind off work.

and if im still ranting and raving he will listen with a sympathtic purrrrrrrrr:yeah:

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Specializes in ER, Cardiac Tele/ICU Stepdown.

A hot bubble bath and a glass of wine, or two.. :wink2:!

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Specializes in Peds Hem, Onc, Med/Surg.

I play video games. Nothing makes you lose yourself like a good video game. Especially the action adventure where you have to figure stuff out. If I don't have a good game, a trip to the library always calms me down and let me go on my own adventure without ever leaving my bedroom.

And the internet. I read alot of online books(mostly manga), that always gets me laughing.

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Specializes in School Nursing.

Ebay surfing. I can get lost in doing searches for all kinds of mess that I don't really need. Reading also does it for me. Sometimes something superficial and mindless like a magazine does it. If I need to really get something off my mind, I try to read something that you have to pay attention to very closesly to keep up, something that requires my full concentration. Michael Crighton's (spelling?) novels come to mind. Music helps too. Anything that you can get lost into that has nothing to do with nursing (so put down that Nursing2009 journal!)

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