Happy Mental Health Awareness month!

“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong relationship” -Oscar Wilde

Jean Watson is a nursing theorist I particularly admire because her Theory of Human Caring so beautifully reflects the role of a nursing in caring for others, but also emphasizes caring for yourself. Self-care is an integral part of healthcare as it will help clear your mind, improve performance, and allow better care of patients. 

In the wake of tough work weeks, life stress, and a lion attitude in a caged environment- I needed to take a little time to myself. I recently took up the practice of a bit of meditation, gratitude, and journaling. I’m not dropping my career to become a new-found life coach, but these practices certainly have offered improvement in my life. I find that taking some time each day to reflect and be grateful, it seeps into other moments of my thinking. My brain becomes a little more saturated with sunshine, offering growth of flowers where I once had weeds.

Something happened when I started making small changes. Other small changes occurred. “Small changes lead to big results”, the butterfly effect, physics concepts- who knew they all had some validity to their popularity? An extra work-out here and there, a moments grace every now and then, and a quick smile at a stranger all build up to a better sense of self-love. Not just a superficial sense, but a true this is a good life sense.

Though pushing lavender oils in the face of low staffing rates upsets me, there is something to be said for encouraging a moment of relaxation, even if only a deep breath. 

Take care of yourselves. Make sure your friends are okay.