Gratitude and Self Care
The importance of gratitude can make a hard, stressful day better. Allowing for gratitude to be effective both parties have to participate, it works both ways. Gratitude allows for staff to not feel alone and allows for them to be appreciated, any little act of kindness can go a long way. In a professional setting gratitude is often seen through thank yous’, and kind acts As well as asking if someone needs help or anything if they have time or eating lunch together. Acknowledging kind acts as well as being grateful are both other examples. While being stressed I try to take a moment to catch my breath and think to myself that everything will be ok. Each situation is different though, sometimes i need to take a step back and reassess or I can listen to music.
One strategy I use to decompress is listening to music. I can cancel out other noises in my atmosphere that are distracting me and just listen to something I enjoy. It helps to calm me as I feel a little separate from the world and it separates my stressors from myself. I could potentially use this strategy in a professional setting only on breaks though. Its hard to find decompresses while on shift and working but while on break I could step outside and get some fresh air and listen to a song or two.
