In the second part of this series, Why Do You Get Stressed..., we looked at why we become stressed due to our thoughts and thinking. In this final part, we’ll explore how mindfulness and meditation can help us to work differently with our mind and emotions.
In the first part of this series, Is Nursing All About Stress?, we looked at the definitions of stress, stressor, emotions and feelings. We also looked at some of the statistics on the causes of stress in nursing, the negative effects on the body and mind and how emotional and mental reactivity to stressors and stress can perpetuate the stress that we experience. In the second part of the series, we’ll look at why we become stressed and begin to explore ways to stop our habit of “stressing out."
As nurses, we know the meaning of stress. In fact, we may know its meaning more intimately than most of our peers who work in other professions. This is partially because we’ve seen the devastating effects that chronic stress has on the bodies of our patients. It’s also because nursing is reported to be one of the most stressful professions. Why is it that when we enter into discussions on how to decrease stress in nursing, we usually point to changing things external to ourselves and that when we try to change how we deal with stress, we usually end up stressing out about that too?
How comfortable are you with pain? Does it depend on whether it’s your own pain or someone else’s? Would you like to find comfort in pain…or at least in pain management? For many of us, pain is something to be avoided, whether it’s our own pain or the pain of another. When confronted with this most daunting physical experience, we’d rather turn and run…or at least walk quickly, in the other direction.
The topic of bringing our meditation practice into our workplace, whether as a nurse or as a supermarket cashier, requires of us an understanding of what we mean when we use the word, "meditate."
Are you a nurse? Are you compassionate? Do you feel fatigued? Could it be...compassion fatigue? (Is there really such a condition?) There's a lot of talk in nursing, in healthcare and in the literature about "compassion fatigue." When I searched Google® for the keywords "compassion fatigue in nurses " I came up with 168,000 links...168,000! Seriously?! You’d think that we’re all suffering from this syndrome, which can’t be possible…or, is it?!
Previously I've written that, Seeing My Nursing Peers Stressed Makes Me Weep! Well, it does! I love nursing and I love nurses! I'm proud to be a nurse and am heartbroken to see so many of my peers stressed beyond belief. So, I'm here to tell you how to stop being stressed, now. There's no more time for excuses. Read on...
Don't have time for a meditation class? There may be a solution for you! What if you could take a class just once, and with practice, attain a degree of meditative skill that would positively benefit you?
Please read this week's post. It contains a number of posts written by a group of nurses who've contributed their views on what it means to make resolutions for the new year. It's my pleasure to share their work with you, my reader. Have a great New Year's Eve!
While I've written a lot about the science of how meditation can help to alleviate severity of illness, decrease symptoms such as pain and depression, and promote immune function, I haven't spent a lot of time addressing how meditation can help to impact healthcare in general.