Dealing with stress

Stress is an inevitable part of our lives.   Learning how to handle stressful situations was one of the most beneficial things I learned at Green Mountain.  But just like with everything else I learned at Green Mountain, incorporating these techniques into my life takes effort and does not happen overnight.  In other words, while I am doing better dealing with stressful situations, I am not an expert at it yet.    Recently, I have found myself in some very stressful situations.  I can't say that I have handled the stress in stellar fashion. However, I also think I'm doing good considering the circumstances that I was put in. And while I would like to say that I feel like everyone has been supportive, there have been some instances where I've felt like I was thrown under a bus and run over. Repeatedly. 

I've tried to use what I learned at Green Mountain to help me deal with this stress.  But in a highly stressed moment, it is hard to remember those things.  It's all well and good for me to know that my most effective stress relieving techniques are to remove myself from the situation, such as going into the bathroom and locking the door so that person can't follow you, washing my hands or putting lotion on my hands, taking deep breaths, and slowly drinking water, preferably through a straw.  Others may not understand that those are stress relieving techniques  and take offense, especially the one where you remove yourself from the situation, i.e. walking out of the room while someone is causing you stress.  I try to remind myself that not everyone has effective tools to deal with stress and it might be less than helpful to recommend they should learn some. I do have a habit of handing out handwritten affirmations to my workmates.  So far I've been met with favorable responses to that.  

My eating habits seem to always be the first to suffer when I get stressed.  While at Green Mountain, we were encouraged to eat on a schedule.  However, there are days that I've been so busy I realize it is 2 or 3 in the afternoon and all I've eaten so far is a yogurt and a banana.  As a nurse, I often skip lunch or wait until late in the afternoon to eat lunch.  When I finally get a chance to eat, I am so hungry that I grab the first thing that comes to hand.  Sometimes it is a healthy lunch that I have packed myself.  Other times it is a cupcake, donut, or bag of chips that has been brought in by a well wishing organization or family.  And yet, how can we expected to do our jobs effectively if we are hungry?  How can we handle the stress effectively?  No wonder people lose their temper or act rudely when they are under stress.  Maybe they are just hangry (hungry and angry).  It's like those Snickers commercials where a person is losing their temper at another person and their friend hands them a Snickers bar.  You just don't act yourself when you are hungry (or hangry, whichever). 

Of course, we are trying to provide our patients the best care possible.  I often feel guilty if I delay going to draw a patients labs by 5 or 10 minutes so that I can eat a few bites of lunch.  I know that the patients want to be done in clinic so that they can go home.  But, in reality, does that patient really want a nurse who has a pounding headache and feeling slightly lightheaded because she is so hungry to draw their blood or give them chemo??  We must first take care of ourselves if we are going to take care of others.  

So in this high stress time, I am going to try very hard to stop myself before I get too worked up.  Once my stress level has gotten to a certain point, it is hard for me to calm down.  I got out my Green Mountain binder to remind myself of some of the great stress relieving techniques that we learned.  I wrote out some new affirmations to tape to my computer.  I cannot rely on others to know how to control their anger and stress.  But I can try to not let myself react in the same way.