Do the words, “stressed out nurse” ring a bell for you?

There are a number of articles published on the effects of stress and burnout in nursing (footnotes, 1, 2; below). If you haven’t read any of these articles, you’ve probably had your own experience with stress, if not in your workplace, then in your life. How do we deal with stress?

For many people, stress is just a “part of life,” something that we tolerate and deal with when we can. The problem is, our bodies don’t always handle stress as well as we think our minds are handling it.

Stress and Its Effects on You as a Nurse

Just like you, I’m a nurse who cares about how I show up at the bedside and about making a difference in the lives of those I care for. I’ve also known the effects of working in stressful situations; having to complete my tasks, take heavy patient loads, wanting it all to work out by the end of my shift.

I’ve come home after work, exhausted and depleted. I’ve gotten sick, lost sleep, and felt wiped-out after working multiple 12-hour shifts in a row, sure that if I have to go back to work one more day I’ll collapse.

You know exactly what I’m talking about. As a nurse, you can probably define “what stress means” better than most other professions.

Through your professional training and, maybe even more, through your personal experience, you also know what stress does to the human body.

Yet, even though you’re armed with knowledge about stress, and your own personal experience of it, you’re still experiencing it and suffering because of it.

Meditation and Stress-Reduction

Research began on meditation has shown repeatedly (please see related posts on Science), the benefits of meditation in dealing with stress. And, that’s all well and good. But, how do you motivate yourself to practice meditation, and what can you expect from your efforts?

Get this! In one article, researchers concluded that the expectation that a mind-body technique will work can have dramatic effects on an individual’s willingness and ability to participate in a practice.

That means, when you expect benefits, you’re more likely to commit to something. When you consider what research has shown about how a meditation practice can have positive health and wellness benefits, it’s almost a no-brainer that you should commit to a meditation practice.

So, how do you commit to meditate and practice?

(Hint: it has to do with expecting and working towards results)

1. Raise your expectations. Although this may sound funny, we really need to check-in sometimes with what our expectations are around our meditation practices. Begin establishing within your mind a few expectations about how your meditation practice will positively affect your health and wellness.
2. Raise your standards. We set our own standards around many things in our lives; our standard of living, our standard for wellness, our standard of practice in our profession. How about raising our standards in what we expect of ourselves in our commitment to learn how to meditate and/or to continue with our mediation practice.
3. Raise your energy. Seriously, just like our expectations, when we generate a bit of enthusiasm meditate and for our meditation practice, and approach our commitment with “enthusiastic energy,” our practice will become that much more enjoyable.
4. Raise the bar for how much time you’ll commit to. If we’ve only committed to 5 minutes of practice a day, our expectations of our outcomes may be pretty low. How about, just for 30 days, committing to practicing at least 10-minutes at a time, twice a day! Taking 20 minutes from our day? Yes, but just for 30 days. Then, see how you feel and reassess yourself.
5. Raise your awareness of how your practice positively affects you. There’s a chance that your meditation practice may be having a positive affect, but you may not even be aware of it because it’s too subtle. So, raise your awareness; check in with yourself every day to see how you’re doing. Keep track of situations where your “meditative mind” has been of help to you. See if you’re sleeping better, feeling better, eating more slowly.

These five techniques are based on one thing; committing to meditate, meditation practice and knowing that it will help us in our work as well as in our lives. What we’re doing is committing to ourselves and realizing that making changes in our lives can take not only time, but a change in how we do things.

So, try to commit to raising your expectations, standards, energy, time spent practicing, and awareness of how your practice may positively affect you.