My resilience often falters when someone else causes me grief, stress, anxiety, or you name it. My desire to find wine goes up, I complain more and I loose sleep. The truth is that it is easier for me to blame someone else for my own lack of resiliency than to take responsibility for it.Continue reading “When It’s Someone Else’s Fault”
Category Archives: Emotions
The Overdone Escape
Have you heard a coworker say, or maybe you are saying it yourself, “I need a bottle of wine”. Where the normal “glass of wine” used to preside, the whole bottle has become the lingo. Or maybe someone wants to “numb out” and binge watch their favorite show all day. Maybe it’s a routine stopContinue reading “The Overdone Escape”
Keeping Life-Giving Routines
One of the ways I recommend finding resilience during stressful situations is through routines. For example, when I experience a difficult shift at work (either I have lost a patient, it was too busy and stressful, or someone was rude) I launch into a specific routine to help me process and find my way backContinue reading “Keeping Life-Giving Routines”
Writing a New Story
As I shared last week, a resilient life is one where stress can be managed at a good baseline. There are seasons where we are more heightened or stressed, but after the season ends, we should be able to return to our former level of stress or something close to it. This can be incrediblyContinue reading “Writing a New Story”
Stress at Baseline
It’s not uncommon as a nurse to bring stress from regular life to work, especially to the first part of a shift. Stress from home, piled on top of an abnormally busy assignment, can cause stress for anyone. To have a patient become critical on top of it all has the potential to push aContinue reading “Stress at Baseline”
When the sun is out, but it’s still grey inside…
The sun is very bright today here in the west side of Denver. This morning I photographed an extended family who was finally able to come together to celebrate a little one born during the CoVid-19 quarantine. The photos will show spring’s arrival. I then had lunch outside with a friend. My arms soaked upContinue reading “When the sun is out, but it’s still grey inside…”
When the flashbacks prevent sleep…
My heart and prayers go out to the community of Boulder. Thank you to all the courageous men and women who were present and who arrived to rescue and to protect. I am humbled by your sacrifices and grateful to your entire families for theirs as well. Reflection – in case sleep has gone byContinue reading “When the flashbacks prevent sleep…”
Music, a piece of resiliency
(This blog might be tough to read if you have suffered the loss of a young person.) For any nurse our first death of a patient, whether we took care of the patient intensely or walked into a code situation, takes residence easily in our memories. At an instant, we can recall where we were,Continue reading “Music, a piece of resiliency”
Belonging: What Matters Most
The pressure to be productive can go right out the window this week. I realized after a stressful meeting where I felt distant and walked away not feeling like I belonged, that questioning my sense of belonging decreases my desire for productivity. If I feel as though I belong, I am more invested and theContinue reading “Belonging: What Matters Most”
My 3 p.m. Habit
Intro: This week I spent the time working on determining the “cue” for my 3 p.m. slump and down spiraling mood. Author Charles Dihugg talks about this in his book The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in life and business about determining the cue first before changing the habit. Here isContinue reading “My 3 p.m. Habit”
