If you are a nurse and have found only little happiness in your life, you may not only be suffering your own health and well-being, but also suffering those of patients you attend to when you are on duty. That’s why it is important that you should be happy —all the time.
What Experts Are Saying About Happiness
There is one study that involved observations on health and aging from a 75-year-old. The study, headed by Robert Waldinger of Harvard University, followed the lives of men — 237 college students and 332 youth from inner-city Boston. Several factors were monitored, like material wellness, social relationships, health and disease. The subjects were interviewed repeatedly from the start of the study until the subjects died.
Here’s what the researchers learned, according to Waldinger:
- Subjects who built close relationships with family, friends and people around them were happier, healthier and lived longer than those who normally kept to themselves.
- Subjects who were in more stable, quality relationships were happier.
- Subjects who lived most of their lives in happy marriages performed better in memory tests compared with their counterparts who were in high conflict marriages.
The results of the study were first published in the Journal of American Psychiatry Association and was presented recently on TED Talks.
8 Tips To Be A Happier Nurse
To lead a more fulfilling life, take off from the study findings and practice these 8 tips to become a happier person:
- Learn to love yourself more.
Stop wishing you were somebody else. Don’t ever think that most people are ever absolutely contented of who they are or what they’ve turned out to be. However, while some recognize their limitations, they choose to love who they turned out to be. Make that choice and you’ll be a much happier person. - Love what you do everyday.
You have a great profession that involves taking care of people, some of whom probably do not even have people who care about them. Be more than just instrumental in their recovery. Be a part of their lives. - Spend time with people you love and who love you back.
Everybody needs to feel loved. Give love and take it. Hold hands with your significant other. Hug and kiss people who matter to you, and don’t ever be afraid or shy to tell them that you love them. - Stop yearning for things you don’t have.
Cherish the ones you do have. Trust this truth: even if you had all the money you need to buy anything your heart desires, you will never be able to possess everything you want. - Do things for yourself.
There are people who feel guilty spoiling themselves every once in a while. If you’re one of them, don’t be! Feel free to make yourself feel special. You don’t just deserve it, you have the birth right to do things that makes your heart feel happy. - Do things for others.
Outside of your work as a nurse or regular roles like a mom or wife, go out of your way to help or support people you love. Simply helping strangers cross the street will make you feel good about yourself. - Be well. Eat healthy, exercise regularly — generally, live well.
The right foods, a more active lifestyle, and getting sufficient hours of sleep will lift up your mood. Meditate and listen to your thoughts whenever you can. - Relax and learn a new skill or hobby.
Stop thinking you’re too old to enroll yourself in a knitting school or cooking class or even a swimming class. There should always be time for new adventure and you will never be too old for one.
You spend hours every day and every week attending to people you don’t even know. Even in health care settings, the better nurses, the ones patients grow to like, are the ones who genuinely attend to their needs with care and compassion, not just because it is their job to be nurses but because they’re certified happier people.