The Gift of Prioritizing Yourself
As the year comes to an end, we pause to reflect on the challenges, triumphs and quiet moments that have defined the past 11 months.
For nurses, each year carries with it a profound mix of joy, exhaustion, courage, and unwavering dedication. Nurses are the heartbeat of healthcare, making up 60% of healthcare professionals.
This year may have tested your resilience in ways you never imagined. Staff shortages, increasing workloads, and the lingering changes we are all too often faced with.
As I spoke with many of you, one thing has remained the same … your unwavering dedication to the craft of nursing. Although we can go to school to obtain the teaching of the science behind nursing, we cannot be taught the empathy of nursing. Empathy, grace, and kindness that we as nurses often extend to strangers daily. Nurses give so much of themselves in their role as a nurse, often leaving the best of who we are at the hospital. The exhaustion we are faced with by the end of the day leaves little time for ourselves or our families.
As we move forward into the new year, let us carry with us the lessons we have learned. Let us reflect on where we have been in this career and what lies ahead for us.
Do we need to make pivotal changes next year? Perhaps a change in the position. Perhaps we are looking to retire in the next 5 years. Perhaps we need to say “no” more to all the holiday demands. Maybe it’s time to pass the hosting torch over to someone else! Over the holiday season, take time among the holiday bustle to get back to you
Prioritize your mental, emotional, and physical health. In the beginning, this can feel oh so wrong!
Trust me, I get it … I am the queen of the “get it done” mentality. Especially around the holidays! Here is what I found over the years: by the time the actual holiday date arrived, I was either too exhausted to enjoy it or I was harboring feelings of resentment.
These feelings stemmed from the fact I did it all. You know the thoughts … shopping, wrapping, decorating, hosting, sending out Christmas cards and not to mention the school projects among the midst of all of it. Or the dreaded, “I have to work this holiday.”
Here is what I learned once I left that overwhelmed state. Our bodies adapt to the environment that we present to it. Our wrecked, overloaded nervous system has been fueling us since nursing school. Eventually this lifestyle weighs on our own health. While we were so concerned with taking care of everyone else’s health, we forgot to look at ourselves. You must take care of your body, or your body will force you to take care of it.
So why not make YOU the priority this holiday season? It could be as simple as getting more rest, drinking enough fluids, or taking 10 minutes to sit in your car in silence. No scrolling, just be with yourself in the quietness.
You will be surprised how these micro steps can extend into other areas of your life if you just begin by giving yourself the gift of prioritizing yourself.
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