5 Effective Ways to Motivate Your Self Care
Are you taking enough care of yourself - or do you focus way too much on your patients...leaving yourself way too tired and stressed out?
It's a very important question.
Self-care is SO important for nurses.
And sadly, it's a skill that many nurses neglect.
We often invest too much of our time, physical and emotional energy into our patients and families that we tend to put ourselves behind.
As much as our job is rewarding and fulfilling, without caution and care to our own being it can lead to too much stress, burnout and health problems.
And these pose threats not just to ourselves but to our patients too.
You owe it to yourself to be taken care of the same way you take care of your patients and the people around you.
To be able to take care of others, you should take care of yourself first.
And self-care doesn’t have to be stressful - despite your busy schedule!
As the #1 brand for nurses' health, we take it as our responsibility to make sure that you’re looking after your own health properly! These are five simple ways to do it.
1. Have the right mindset.
This is a MUST and should always comes first.
Setting the right mindset is very important.
This means you should dedicate time and effort in addressing and prioritizing your personal needs.
This may mean setting time at the end of the day to plan for your next day.
Another key component? Create a different way of looking at a challenging situation, person, or relationship - because we KNOW we get into a lot of them.
For example, instead of thinking “This is going to be hard”, tell yourself “what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger”...
Instead of “2020 has been a tough year”, let it become “This was a tough year, but I survived. My family and I have some amazing friends and this will one day pass.”
You know what they say, “What you think is what you feel”.
If you can change your outlook into a more positive one, your feelings and emotions will change for the better too!
2. Avoid toxicity and negativity.
There is plenty of chaos going around right now with the pandemic; politics, economic issues and a lot more.
And we know how tough it is listening or reading about all these.
The simplest solution is to avoid it as much as possible. Engaging yourself to such negativity will impact your mental and emotional well-being negatively too.
Of course it’s important to stay updated with what’s going on with the world but don’t expose yourself too much.
Invest your time to something more productive!
And when we say productive, we don’t mean work.
You’re doing enough of that already!
Do something for yourself. Go out, meditate, read a book. Embrace the peace and quiet.
Some time alone can do plenty of good for yourself too.
As tough as this year has been, it's still very possible to make it your best year yet from a personal development standpoint!
3. Do regular exercise.
We’ll never be able to stress enough how important this is to your overall health!
Choose exercises that you enjoy so you’ll be able to stick with it.
Routines like brisk walking, running, yoga or pilates can all be great - just find something that's fun for YOU!
As a nurse with a very busy schedule, we know how hard it is to exercise regularly.
We have a very easy and simple program you can follow which you can do at the comfort of your home.
No matter how you decide to do it - exercise is a crucial part of feeling good and keeping that positive momentum going!
4. Practice healthy eating habits.
Eating the right food is very important as well!
Unfortunately, this can easily be overlooked in our profession.
We’re busy almost all the time that we can’t even take a proper meal or water break.
Various studies show that nurses are prone to stress eating, which is very unhealthy.
With all the fast food options and very accessible processed foods, we find it difficult to keep up with a clean and healthy diet.
We know it’s tough with your tight schedule but once you get the hang of it, it becomes way easier.
Start with sneaking in high protein foods in your diet, staying hydrated, eating regularly (but in small portions) and avoiding too much caffeine.
Need more help? We have an awesome bundle designed just for nurses' busy schedules!
5. Get enough sleep.
Oh yes, here we go again!
As nurses ourselves we KNOW it ain't always easy to get sleep. But we always have to try our best by prioritizing it.
Sleep is important not just for health, but to keep you positively motivated.
When you sleep better you just feel more motivated to take care of yourself.
Of course, sleep plays a vital role to your health and body.
Without proper or enough sleep, you’d feel tired, irritated and can hardly focus on anything.
And look, taking some overtime at work is not bad IF moderated.
But if you feel like your body needs to rest, then rest!
Another thing you can do to make sure you avoid the toss and turns at night and get amazing sleep instead is to reduce exposure from harmful blue light.
One way to do this is to wear our blue-light blocking glasses!
Conclusion
Self care requires time and effort too but it's something you get into the habit of! This will make you happier, healthier and a better care provider.
Sometimes it can feel like a lot of work and stress but you need to always make time for it.
And look - we know you can get sidetracked from a lot of tough days in a row and lose momentum. If this happens - you just have to get back in gear!
Exercise, eat a healthy meal, meditate - whatever works for you to kick yourself back in the game mentally and physically.
Make self-care a priority and never feel guilty to have a long, healthy career!
We hope this helped. If you found this article helpful, please share it with someone who needs it!