Our job is stressful. We all know this and to one extent or another, we’ve accepted this.

But we don’t have to accept the effects of stress.

Instead, we can do things to relieve stress and add peace to our lives.

First Things First...Let’s Talk About Your Schedule

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In Part 1 of our new NursePower Empowers Nurses! Series, Stress-Relieving Techniques for Nurses, we are going to focus on Mindful Breathing.

Stress relief doesn’t get simpler than Mindful Breathing. The problem for many of us is that we don’t actually commit to doing it and setting aside 15 minutes a day to engage in it.

So before we discuss how to perform Mindful Breathing, let’s discuss your schedule. When can you carve out 15 minutes every day?

Is it in the morning before you start your day?

Is it at lunch when you take a break?

Is it in the afternoon, before you commute home?

Is it in the evening, after dinner and before bedtime?

Take a moment and think realistically about when you can carve out 15 minutes from your day. This may require you to shut off Netflix for 15 minutes, leave for work 15 minutes early, tune out the kids for 15 minutes, or put off errands and chores for 15 minutes. In other words, this requires commitment and maybe a little bit of sacrifice.

If you are a beginner to mindful breathing, I recommend you start by setting aside the same 15-minutes every day for one full week. Commit and block out the time in your calendar right now. Go on, open up your calendar and block out 15 minutes each day for the next 7 days.

Done? Great, now let’s talk about Mindful Breathing

Mindful Breathing Techniques

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There are multiple benefits to routinely performing mindful breathing:

• Greater sense of calm, peace, and happiness
• Reduce chronic pain intensity
• Increase self-awareness
• Decrease negative emotions
• Improve cardiovascular function
• Sharpen concentration

And since we spend our whole lives breathing (duh!), mindful breathing is one of the simplest and most effective stress-relieving techniques we can choose to do.

First step is to find yourself a peaceful location and a comfortable position, either sitting or lying down.

Second step is to consciously relax your body by paying attention to how it feels. Notice the sensations you are feeling — the touch of your skin to the floor, a breeze on your cheek, your hands resting on your stomach...notice and breathe.

Third step is to tune into your breathing. Feel the inhale and the exhale. Notice your chest expanding as you inhale, the sound of your inhalation, the feel of the air in your lungs, and then the release of breath.

Fourth step is to try different breath counts as you inhale, hold, and exhale. Counting will help train your focus on your breathing and keep your mind from wandering. Try these different patterns:

• For relaxation: Inhale for 4, hold for 7, exhale for 8
• For lowering your heart rate: Inhale for 2, immediately exhale for 4
• For boosting energy: Inhale in 4 equal segments, exhale in 1 long, smooth segment

Fifth step is to recover when your mind wanders. Your mind is bound to wander as thoughts creep into your awareness. When this happens, simply resume your breath count, resume your attention to your breathing and how your body feels as you breathe.

Sixth step is to end your session. You may want to set a gentle timer to tell you when your 15 minutes is up because it is important, especially when you are just beginning this practice, to not overdo it. You want to build your capacity for mindful breathing incrementally because your mind will wander. If you spend too much time re-focusing your attention, you may start to think that you can’t do mindful breathing. So start out with a specific amount of time like 15 minutes (or 10, or 5 if you’re more comfortable with that at first).

NursePower Empowers Nurses!

While NursePower is dedicated to helping more people age safely and gracefully in the comfort of their own home, our NursePower Empowers Nurses! initiative is dedicated to helping you, the nurses, take better care of yourselves. 

Every week, we’ll share helpful recipes, exercises, wellness tips, fun things to do locally, and ways to improve your work/life balance. 

If you’d like to suggest some topics that are important to you or if you’d like to contribute a blog post, please send us a message!