When Life Feels Overwhelming, This Five-Minute Practice Helps Me Reset

I have written about this strategy before but I am relying heavily on it this week. Let’s face it, working in a role dedicated to helping others is great AND fulfilling but it is also emotionally demanding. Most of the time, we navigate this but when life outside of work gets crazy too, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. When our emotional and physical stores get tapped by a new stressor, it’s normal to feel like we have no control.

This was one of those weeks.

The details don’t matter; I know that no one escapes this life without experiencing unpredictable hardship, worry, loss, or illness. It is part of our shared humanity. 

Admittedly, it took me a few days to remember that I already had tools to support myself through difficult moments and feel better despite the hardship. 

I have written about this before but thought I would share it again,

This is a go-to strategy I learned from my coach, Stacey Boehman; she calls it a Rampage of Gratitude. 

Gratitude does not erase hardship. It does not mean pretending everything is okay or ignoring what is painful. It is simply a way to remind our brains that the difficult thing happening is not the only thing happening. 

A rampage of gratitude is exactly what it sounds like- a list of everything you can think of to be grateful for.  It doesn’t take deep thought, a special skill set, or even a big chunk of time. (If it does, YAY- your list is really, really long).  You can do it when you are tired, frustrated, crying, or overwhelmed. You can do it when you can’t seem to do anything other than scroll social media. You can do it at work, between patients (yes, it’s ok if you need to pause between patients- it will help them if you are feeling better). 

You just start a list of things you are grateful for and keep going. Not sure where to start? The first line can be that you are grateful that you can write a list, that you have an education, that your hands work. Or start at the beginning of your day: you are grateful that you woke up, that you have coffee every morning, and that you have hot water (take a minute to think about what your morning would be like without coffee or hot water).

My husband is away this weekend, which meant I had to make my own coffee this morning. Gratitude for him making the coffee every other day of the year made it onto the list. Gratitude that I could make cinnamon-flavored coffee this morning since he wasn’t drinking it was also on the list.

It doesn’t have to be every day. Some studies have shown that even a single session of a gratitude intervention can have lasting effects on stress levels at a month post-intervention. Some show that the benefit grows with repetition. The bottom line is, research consistently demonstrates an association between gratitude practices and improved measures of stress, well-being, and resilience. 

So why aren’t we using a Rampage of Gratitude, or even a simple 10-item list, when things are tough? Why don’t we fit a gratitude practice into our routine as we do with brushing our teeth?

Typically it’s not because we aren’t grateful; it’s not because we don’t WANT to feel less stressed and more in control. It’s literally because we just don’t know to try it. We aren’t taught this in school. We are taught the pharmacologic management of hypertension, diabetes, and countless other conditions, but we are rarely taught how to regulate our own nervous systems so that we can continue doing this work that is so hard, but so important. Intentional gratitude is not just some sappy activity or a state of mind; it’s a real intervention, with predictable outcomes. Gratitude is a coping mechanism.

This is WHY I write these articles. Like any nurse practitioner, when I learn something new that can help people, I want to make sure that I spread the word. If I learned about a new supplement that could help high lipoprotein-a, I would share that just as quickly. When advances are made in neuromodulation, I want to share that with my patients and my colleagues. It’s the nature of nursing to promote self-efficacy; learn, then educate.

Giving nurses the tools to not only prevent burnout but to thrive is crucial not only for the survival of my nursing friends and colleagues but for the survival of healthcare at large. It is crucial not only for our jobs but our happiness in life.

The strategies aren’t hard. We just need to learn them and practice them. I hope this helps you consider trying the strategy of gratitude; it has turned things around for me when I am struggling and has been a useful tool for my patients who suffer from chronic pain.

We cannot always control what enters our lives. We cannot prevent every hardship, disappointment, or season of uncertainty. But we can build practices that help us navigate those moments without losing ourselves in them.

Gratitude is one of those practices. It is simple, accessible, and always available. Sometimes the smallest shift in focus can help us find enough strength for the next step.