Caring for Yourself

Dedicated to our Healthcare Heroes!

Stressful times evoke strong emotions

During times of stress such as a pandemic, as a healthcare worker, you may experience strong emotions from time to time. People you attend to, or others whom you work with may display strong emotions as well.

Some of these strong emotions can include fear, irritability and helplessness amongst others. Such emotions can overwhelm us and affect our well-being, performance of tasks and relationships with the people around us. Doing the following can help keep strong emotions in check.

3 Ways to regulate strong emotions

1. Use a Mood-meter

Becoming overwhelmed with emotion occurs when you are only aware of your emotions at a point that is beyond being able to manage them. You can take steps to be aware of emotions before they become too intense, allowing you to manage them and the situation better.

You can use a Mood-meter to help you be aware and track the intensity of your emotions, similar to the way you use a thermometer to measure and track body temperature.

2. Tap into your best self

3. Make a "map" of how you ended up in this state

"Feelings are much like waves, we can’t stop them from coming, but we can choose which ones to surf."

Jonatan Martensson

Next up: Learning Self Compassion

Ref : L20