How is it going with trying on happiness practices? Having a couple weeks between posts offers you an opportunity to invest in each practice for a limited time, to experiment. Kindness is a practice which all of you are familiar with.
Kindness is not only good for the recipient, it is also good for the doer. In health care you have many opportunities to be involved in acts of kindness. Sometimes so much so that you may feel burnt out and depleted when you’re not getting much positive back. You may end up feeling annoyed with a patient or family (perhaps your own family) and hold back on your natural instinct to be kind, then feel guilty and spiral into negative thinking. To get back in touch with your kind self and increase your well-being, contact me. You’ll have an opportunity to see what activities are the best fit for you to revitalize.
My assumption is that acts of kindness come easily for you. Even so, there are things that you can do to benefit from both random and intentional acts of kindness.
- Vary what you do so that you become conscious of your generous and compassionate acts.
- Choose one day a week or month that you’ll do multiple kind deeds all on the same day. This has been shown to boost happiness more than when you spread them all out. It’s like getting a bolus or loading dose of the benefits of being kind all on one day.
- Look for a way you can be kind that feels like it gives back to you. Perhaps you enjoy working with animals and can help take care of a pet, or cooking and will set aside food for someone who could use a cooked meal.
- Small deeds like smiling at people you encounter and using clerks’ names are simple kind deeds
Some health care professionals need to be kind to themselves first. It is important to notice if your helping behavior is interfering with your daily goals and functioning. If so, this strategy will backfire as a way to increase your happiness and may end up leading to more stress and contribute to burn out.
Contact me to explore how you can revitalize, so that you can lead your life of well-being.
Be Well,
Dina 203.744.YOU3 (9683)
