Nurses are great at prioritizing when there is an emergency. We know which things can be dropped until later, which ones need some rearranging, and where to focus our attention. We do this at work all the time and it carries over into our everyday lives as well.
In our personal lives we don’t call it prioritizing, we call it doing what needs to be done. We do it with purpose and determination.
Not sure what I mean?
When was the last time you dropped everything to take care of something unexpected? Maybe it was an emergency with your child, a family member or a close friend. You had a full schedule that somehow you managed to put completely on hold to help someone else, to run to the hospital, to support a grieving friend, to watch someone’s kids while they dealt with an emergency.
Sure, it’s inconvenient but that doesn’t even come into your consideration. You can help. You want to help. Helping is more important than anything else on your schedule.
So you make it happen.
And the exhaustion is no big deal because the purpose and meaning behind the action is so non-negotiable in your mind.
Were you able to come up with a time that this was true for you?
It’s easy to be overwhelmed with all the things we have on our schedules, especially when work (or life) seems to be sucking you dry. Today I had 2 lectures that needed to be recorded and uploaded for a conference. But I couldn’t upload them…for hours. What I thought would be done by noon was only successfully finished by 6pm which meant everything else got bumped off of my schedule (yes, of course the recording was due today and I waited until the last minute). I was borderline homicidal by 3:30 despite my reframing and deep breathing. I just couldn’t ignore the fact that my day off was spent inside fighting with a computer instead of outside in the gorgeous fall weather.
AND now I had so much to do and the daylight wasn’t going to last until I caught up and got everything done.
So I made a decision to drop everything, the same way I would if my child needed something for their health. I decided that if I can make it work to drop everything for someone else, I can drop everything (and make it work) for myself.
Caring for someone with no thought of the hardship it may bring, of what may need to be rearranged, is a beautiful way to show them love and support. When we make these choices in our lives, we don’t have regrets.
Today I wanted no regrets. I didn’t regret focusing on the recorded lectures, or putting the time in to getting it done. Equally, I didn’t want to regret not taking care of myself. I ignored the laundry chime as I put on my sneakers. Yes, it would wait until I got home. I waited to write this blog, I knew I could do it after the sun set and my lovely friends would wait for me for dinner if I needed a few minutes.
And everything else, I cancelled from today’s agenda. It will wait. I could cancel dinner with my friends and get my laundry done, pack for my conference and do 10 other things but today I need some restoration. It was a difficult week crowned by a very frustrating Friday.
So I closed my computer, ignored my laundry and went for a walk at a beautiful park near me. I didn’t settle for a walk around the neighborhood. I needed a real break. I needed to see the fall leaves, I needed to move my body, I needed to listen to all the sounds outside. I needed to calm my nervous system.
We are worth dropping everything for if we really need some care. I won’t do this every Friday, but I also won’t need to.
If you need to, drop everything to support yourself for a little while. You know you can make it work, you always do.
Maybe you have trouble with some of these types of self-care strategies because your brain is just going too fast. If this is the case you should come to my next free workshop Debunking Mindfulness for Type-A Personalities, happening on Wednesday, October 30th at 7pm EST. You can register here
Not a nurse but still intrigued? You can come too :)
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