May 12, is the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.
The nursing profession began around 300 A.D. in the Roman Empire. Thousands of years later, nurses have progressed to be recognized as the Most Trusted Profession in 2019.
Nurses should be recognized with respect, they have a wealth of knowledge about life, health, and the human body. Nurses have a high degree of responsibility, the smallest of errors or oversights can have potentially disastrous or life-threatening consequences.
Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. It can be used as a therapeutic technique.
Have you ever driven your car to a destination only to realize you can’t recall how you arrived there? Most of us have! According to research done by psychologists at Harvard University, the average person is on autopilot 47% of the time. In this busy and hyper-connected world we fail to notice the true meaning of being alive. Our minds are stuck wandering around in the past and future, it’s almost as if we lose touch with present reality. Mindfulness is the state of being consciously aware, to be aware moment-by-moment of our thoughts, feelings, and surroundings. It is the fundamental human ability to be fully present, no matter what we are doing or where we are.
The opposite of mindfulness is Mindlessness, it makes us susceptible to anxiety, stress, and depression.
If you take time to realize where your mind is throughout the day, you will find out it is never in the now. Our mind is filled with worry and planning. We get upset about the little things that happened and even more upset about things that didn’t. We are blasting through the day and squeezing the present moment to make time, it feels like there aren't enough hours in a day. Every day we rush to work, school, shopping, eating, and checking our phone. When do you take time to be grateful, be in peace, and be with the present? Mindfulness opens the door to many great opportunities, it offers a new perspective on life. This perspective is seeing yourself in the present. How can you ever accomplish anything if you only focused on your past failures or how can you attain your goals if you’re always thinking about the next big thing. Mindfulness is the power of now, it is what you do now that will create your future. We think a lot of people, as well as ourselves, are very prone to not being in the moment. We are taught to always look at the past because that’s what shapes your future but in all reality what you do now is what impacts your future and what you did in the past puts you in your current position.
We want you to be mindful, that includes mindfulness in the workplace.
Remember, being mindful is available to you at all times. Your mind is always with you; you just need to choose when to become aware.
A study was done on “The effectiveness of mindfulness meditation for nurses and nursing students”. The results of this study identified that mindfulness meditation has a positive impact on nurses' and nursing students' stress, anxiety, depression, burnout, sense of well-being and empathy.
They concluded that contemporary healthcare is challenging and complex. This review indicated that mindfulness meditation is an effective strategy for preventing and managing the workplace stress and burnout, which so often plague nursing staff and students. Further studies with larger sample sizes using rigorous research methods would be useful in extending this work.
Mindfulness will take time to develop, patience is the virtue to have for this journey. You won’t open your mind and have confetti drop from the sky. You will feel a little more present and a little more alive. With practice mixed with patience, you’ll notice your ability to be mindful will improve. Remember, mindfulness is just like a muscle. The more you train the muscle, the stronger and more efficient it becomes. As individuals, we need to grow mindfully, and with proper training, you’ll harness the power of mindfulness to achieve peace and happiness in your life.