By Kyla King, B.A.
As a student working through my internship year, I have the opportunity to wear many hats. One of these hats is as a therapist, another is as a student, and yet another is as a healthcare worker that works in a local hospital. By managing this schedule I have learned a lot about how to cope with stress well and how to know when I am not coping with stress well. Because it is the hat that I have worn the longest, I will tailor this list to healthcare workers that want to get serious about managing stress– however many of these tricks work in other settings as well. Here is a list of 10 ways that I am able to cope with or reduce stress while I am working at the hospital:
1. Stop eating sugar! I love sugar, many people do, and we all know what effects it can have on our bodies. BUT did you know that it has also been shown to increase agitation around stress and increase overall anxiety? Food for thought. Or maybe rather than food, just some water.
2. Have some water. Not only will it help you to regulate your body by hydrating you, but it is also really hard to forget to breathe when you are drinking water.
3. Take a breath. Many of us have a habit of holding our breath, I’m sure that you can imagine what negative effects this can have on your body, and it can also wreak havoc on your cognitive abilities. After all if you can’t breath, how can you resolve the source of your stress?
4. Work through one stressor at a time. It is not uncommon that we allow many stressors to stack up into an unseemly pile of worries that tower above us, unable to be toppled. To do this, I think of a physical representation of my worry of stress and I physically hold it, this helps serve to ground your thoughts on that one worry and bring yourself back until you have been able to think clear and distinct thoughts about just that worry without catastrophizing.
5. Catastrophize. What? No really, lay it on thick. Think about the absolute WORST thing that could ever happen as a way of recentering yourself on the true troubles that you are facing. No doubt there are hardships around you, but it could always be worse. Or sometimes just bad in a different way.
6. Move around. Stress is our body’s way of keeping us safe. It is important and although it is not always linked to our needs today, in the beginning of people coping with stress, safety was linked to movement. I find that often the best way to “reset” my stress is by moving around. I prefer something vigorous so I can turn my brain off for a moment, but that is not always available. When I can, I will run the stairs at work, when I can and I am stuck on the unit I will do heel lifts (very simple, just lift your heels off the ground at the same time, and repeat), if I am stuck in one place, I will try to stand. If I cannot stand in the moment, and it is inadvisable to move around too much I will focus on how my body is already moving.
7. Listen to your body. I am learning to be a therapist. I miss cues at points that fortunately, my supervisor helps me pay closer attention to. I think often about a client that went from having a great session to all of a sudden being upset about everything we discussed. I was completely confused and like the diligent student I am, I reviewed the interaction, tried to think about where things went awry when seemingly out of nowhere my supervisor said to the client “would you like a snack?”. The client brightened up, had a snack and was back to the way they were feeling at the start of the session. I was amazed and learned a very simple lesson. Our bodies have wisdom beyond words. Here’s a small set of things I check on when I listen to my body:
A. Am I hungry, thirsty, or tired?
B. Is my heart at a regular rate or beating fast or beating slow?
C. How am I feeling? (hint: intense emotions like fear, anger, grief, etc make it hard to use our thinking and planning part of our brains)
D. Am I in pain?
8. Once you check in with your body is there some way that you can address the problem? Healthcare worker’s feet hurt, I try not to generalize, but I feel pretty comfortable with this one. It is hard to be on your feet for long periods of time. So, when it is safe to do so take a 2 minute break to kick off your shoes and rub your feet. Then wash your hands.
9. Wash your hands. Yes, it is one of the medical and social obligations of a healthcare worker. AND it can be a source of relaxation. If you are washing your hands well it should take 20 seconds. 20 seconds that you could use to be stressed about what you have to do next, OR 20 seconds that you could use to focus all of your energy on the simple task of washing your hands. You might be surprised at how your brain responds to just 20 seconds of mindful hand washing.
10. Mindfulness– about anything. This is my favorite activity at work to destress myself because no one knows I am doing it and it doesn’t disrupt my day at all. There are many tasks in the healthcare field that are repetitive and can be kind of mind numbing. OR they can be mind exhilarating! For example, I often have to check people’s vital signs. Put on the cuff, press the button, sanitize the thermometer, take the temperature, sanitize the thermometer, put it away, record the vitals, take the cuff off, set it in their room, and thank the patient for allowing me to take their vital signs. Over and over and over again. This seems like the exact same task to the untrained observer, but to me because I do this so often I can see all of the differences in how different people react to this process, how I pay attention to different numbers for different patients, and a million other factors. And I can choose to do this on autopilot or I can choose to do this with intention! So many choices.
11. Bonus round: Remember that you have choices, no matter how small. Giving some thought to how you would like to go through your day can make a big difference in how you feel at the end of it.
I hope that these are some skills that you find helpful throughout your days and are able to use to take a little stress out of the day and add a little more satisfaction. If you have another skill you would like to send out in the newsletter, or you would like to comment on how one of these skills went for you, please email king@ohanabehavioralhealth.com
