Coping with stress or sadness

Unfortunately stress and sadness are big parts of life. To make matters worse, our minds tend to focus on these things significantly more than on the things that make us happy.
As a nurse, I am going to have to face major stressful situations and very sad ones. It is all part of the job. But the other day, it all really got to me. I experienced my first death of a patient.

This was the first time I had met this patient. And I only spent five minutes with him (to take his blood pressure where I discovered something was going wrong for him). But that was enough for me to have a significant reaction when I heard the news that he had died on his way to have an Xray. Now although I wasn't actually there to see his death, I felt somewhat responsible. Even though I had nothing to do with it at all. And I was not at all expecting to feel the rush of emotions that I sadly had to experience. He was a beautiful 97 year old man and he will certainly stay with me.

So what did I do to cope with these feelings? I am glad to report I came up with a much better solution than my usual moping in bed with a sad movie. I ran a hot, rose scented bubble bath. Made an iced coffee. Picked up what was left of my chocolate stash and watched youtube videos on my ipad. It was lovely.

It was a cold day so when I got out I got dressed into some snuggly winter pyjamas and suddenly felt much better about my whole day. I was exhausted from working a morning shift and just got into bed and continued my youtube marathon. Sans tears and tissues.

I'm very happy that I have found a much healthier way to cope with the stress life throws at me. And by healthier I obviously mean emotionally and not at all related to the chocolate and iced coffee lol. But I am glad that I responded the way I did and that I do have a heart for nursing.

Feel free to use my treatment for a crappy day. You can tell anyone you want that it was prescribed by a health professional ;) Also feel free to swap the iced coffee for an alcoholic beverage. I am currently on a alcohol fast but I was very close to pouring one for myself lol.

Have a HAPPY day and make sure you find time for yourself to unwind. Thanks for reading! xx