Category Archives: Habits

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”

Celebration, a Pause from the Mundane

Today is my youngest’s birthday. It’s been four days of festivities so far with more to come. She gets a pass on chores today and doesn’t have to eat things she doesn’t like. She has enjoyed three pieces of cake. She says her favorite part about her day is the notes she received from herContinue reading “Celebration, a Pause from the Mundane”

A Few Minutes of Mindfulness

Last month I grabbed the “Yoga Journal: The Power of Mindfulness” from the magazine rack at the store in preparation for this year’s blogging adventure. I have often heard the word “mindfulness” and have been curious how it applies to life other than being mindful of others, especially when interacting with people different from you.Continue reading “A Few Minutes of Mindfulness”

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”

The Balance of Productivity

Let’s talk about productivity. It may seem odd to talk about this before jumping into resiliency, but we are laying a foundation. The Oxford dictionary defines productivity as: the effectiveness of productive effort, especially in industry, as measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input. I have heard a person isContinue reading “The Balance of Productivity”

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”