Health care professionals are surrounded by stress. They deal with life and death and everything in between almost every working day. How can you best cope with that anxiety and prevent burn-out?
The aging experts at Senior Living Options have a few suggestions that can help beat back the stress:
- Be aware of compassion fatigue. Helping people cope during some of the most stressful and difficult times of their lives can take a toll on caring health professionals. Be mindful of that in your work. It may require you to take a few short breaks during the workday to help separate yourself from the patient’s problems.
- Talk it out. When you witness trauma and complicated family dynamics so often, having a good support system in place to talk it through can make a difference. It may be an informal group of co-workers or even an online support group. But it is important to be able to express the anger and frustration you may feel.
- Exercise. Being active boosts your feel-happy endorphins. And the good news is that any form of exercise will do. Don’t feel like you have to become a marathon runner or the ruler of the tennis courts. Even less strenuous forms of exercise like walking or water aerobics can have the same effect.
- Practice Deep Breathing. It may seem hard to believe, but most of us don’t breathe properly. Short, shallow breaths are fairly normal for most of us. Especially in times of stress. But they don’t help us expel carbon dioxide like good, deep breaths do. These quick tips will help you learn the right way to breathe.
- Journaling. Getting your feelings down on paper in a stream of consciousness-style journal can help you process and cope with your unexpressed emotions and frustrations. The simple act of putting what you feel down on paper without filtering what you write may shed light on what the real source of your stress is. Are you struggling with the workload? Or with how poor the quality of life is for some seniors you help? Whatever the cause, journaling can help you pinpoint it.
Once you find the stress busters that work best, you decrease the risks stress can create for both your mental and physical health.
Are you a health care professional? How to you cope with stress?
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Author: Ann Jamison
Ann Jamison is an experienced senior advisor who has successfully worked with hundreds of families to help them find the best care and home-like environment for themselves or their loved ones. Prior to launching Senior Living Options, Ann was an eldercare advisor for a national placement agency and served as sales director at a senior living community. Thanks to her 25-year career in advertising sales and marketing, Ann is able to discern between hype and reality for her clients. Ann recognizes that there are objective factors that need to be weighed when making a life-changing decision, but she can also assess the important softer attributes by getting to know her clients and by using the gut instincts that can only come through extended experience.
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