Everyone has an emotional savings account from which they make withdrawals and add deposits, and nurses are no exception. Nursing can be a challenging profession, and emotional resilience is essential for nurses to develop throughout their careers.
When it comes to your emotional savings account, what are five positive deposits that you can regularly make to support yourself in achieving a successful career while living a healthy and happy life?
Deposit #1: Leave Work at Work
Many nurses can relate to allowing the stresses of work to cloud their emotional skies, even when work is far in the rearview mirror. You don’t want the joys of home life to be diminished, but how do you manage to leave work at work?
Some compartmentalization helps keep work in its little box. Learning to leave work behind is a skill, and we aren’t always 100 percent successful.
Unpacking the emotions of the day with your spouse, a friend, or colleague can be helpful, as well as addressing the more trying aspects of work in therapy or counseling.
Leaning on alcohol and other substances is not generally productive, so turning in a different direction is typically best.
Hobbies, exercise, volunteer work, and socializing are all positive distractions from work, helping to redirect your thoughts to the present. Meditation and mindfulness practices are also valuable tools, but you should always rely on what works best for you.
Deposit #2: Do What You Love (Or at Least Like)
There’s nothing like doing work you don’t love or even don’t like. Few jobs are perfect, and many workplaces have their share of problems, but working at a job you don’t even like is soul-destroying and emotionally draining. We can’t always have a job we love, but it’s not asking too much to have a job we at least like.
If you find yourself working with the wrong patient population, you can slowly deplete your emotional savings account, making it hard to compensate for the losses. If you’re in a toxic work environment, it can erode your emotional reserves.
While you might feel stuck in your job, there’s almost always an avenue to find something new. If you’re in a job that genuinely doesn’t fit and makes you unhappy, consider making an effort to find a new situation, whether you work with a career coach or do it on your own. Your time and emotional well-being are too valuable to waste on work that drains you.
Deposit #3: Explore Other Avenues for Joy
American culture often defines us by what we do, but work can’t be everything. It’s essential to have other things that feed you emotionally and spiritually, and if you don’t have that something in your life, you have some work to do.
Call it a hobby or a pastime, but whatever you call it, it’s something that holds your attention and makes you happy. Some people create art, while others garden, volunteer, knit, watch birds, or keep bees — whatever it is, if it feeds your soul and positively impacts your emotional and spiritual well-being, it’s valuable. Having avenues for joy outside of your professional life can only be beneficial and add positively to your emotional savings account.
Deposit #4: Get the Support You Need
Since the stigma about psychotherapy has primarily become a thing of the past, please make use of this crucial tool when you need it. Life can be complicated in the 21st century, so being able to unpack what’s happening can be extremely helpful.
Nursing is an emotionally demanding career, so it’s priceless to process your emotions with an objective professional. If you need support, there’s no shame in engaging the services of a therapist, whether for the long term or a targeted period.
As nurses, we are often skilled in giving others advice that we may need ourselves. If you encourage your patients to seek out a professional counselor when they could use that extra layer of support, you should consider doing the same for yourself.
Deposit #5: Seek Community
The concept of community means something different to everyone, but the basic idea is that we need to feel a sense of connection. After all, many studies clearly show that high-quality social connections can be directly correlated to happiness and longevity.
Your sense of community may come from your family. You may also look to your church, synagogue, mosque, or other spiritual group for that feeling of connection. Or maybe you’re a member of a cycling group, a mother-and-daughter book club, or a local master gardeners’ society. The type of community you seek is up to you, and you can bet money on the fact that having that sense of belonging will make enormous deposits to your emotional bank account.
Stay in the Black
Your emotional savings account is just like your actual bank account — it needs regular deposits to remain vibrant and healthy. If you consistently withdraw money from your checking account without replenishing it, it will eventually run out of funds. The same goes for your emotional well-being — you must nourish it for it to thrive.
Whatever you do to bolster your emotional savings, use those activities and strategies to your advantage. Nursing can be tough, and the healthcare industry can chew you up and spit you out faster than you can say, “emotional bankruptcy.” Do what you need to do to take care of yourself and ensure that your emotional savings account remains robustly in the black. You’ll be happier and healthier for your efforts.
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