I am continuing a series for our newsletter to include a leadership topic along with passing along news in the #nursing community. This series we are focusing on our Be-Attitudes, those attitudes we need to cultivate to win business and life. I wanted to focus on the positive in nursing and leadership. Subscribe to receive notification when our newsletter comes out. We publish twice a month.
Today is a bit of a dreary day. It is raining off and on as I write this article. Our last beatitude is to Be Grateful. Be grateful for the gifts you have received and the people in your life. Focus on what you have and not on what you do not. C.S. Lewis is quoted as saying, “When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place.” We can focus on what we have lost or we can focus on what we must gain. I applied for a job as a writer. It did not work out (for various reasons) but ultimately, they were looking for someone to work for them full-time and not freelance. I could have been upset by this, and sure I was temporarily bummed, but I decided that if that opportunity was the right opportunity for me, I would have been chosen. There are more opportunities out there. Bam! A new opportunity presented itself and I may not have had the opportunity to say yes if I had been tied up with this other assignment.
Painful events can leave us reeling. It is when we make gratitude for our daily practice, we find that we can better last through the storm. I am reminded of the song, Be Grateful by Walter Hawkins. Here are the lyrics:
Verse 1
God has not promised me sunshine,
That’s not the way it’s supposed to be
But a little rain mixed with God’s sunshine
A little pain, makes me appreciate the good times
Chorus
Be grateful, be grateful, be grateful
Because there’s someone else who’s worse off than you, be grateful
Because there’s someone else who’d love to be in your shoes
Be grateful. God said that He would never, never forsake you.
Be grateful.
How does this translate into the workplace? In a Japanese study by Komase et. al. (2021), “a gratitude trait at work is defined as the tendency to recognize and be thankful for how various aspects of a job affect one’s life. Worker’s gratitude has a significant favorable correlation with well-being (e.g., positive affect and life/job satisfaction), mental health (e.eg. depressive symptoms and distress), and work-related outcomes (e.g.., job performance, organizational commitment, and citizenship behavior.”
In another journal article looking at the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and stress (Fekete & Deichert, 2022), noted that the use of gratitude-writing interventions as being effective as “they allow individuals to engage in cognitive processing and the meaning-making process.” It was further noted that, “Individuals with higher levels of gratitude experience, better psychological well-being, including lower rates of depression, anxiety, and greater emotional functioning, including more positive affect, less negative affect, and higher life satisfaction”.
Why not start your gratitude journal today? Here are some prompts to get you started.
· What is the best gift you have ever received?
· What do you like most about yourself?
· Express gratitude for the 5 things that you use daily.
· What is something that you can do today that people could not do 30-40 years ago?
· What is your favorite thing to do in your free time?
· What excites you about the future?
· Write about one positive thing that happened to you today?
· Write a thank-you note to yourself.
· Make a list of people that you would like to thank.
· Write about what made you smile today.
· Write about a lesson that you learned and how it made you feel better.
I recently had a productive Saturday. I used this in a day in the life video for my Instagram. I happened to be up early for a shower, minifacial, off to the massage therapist, ran errands, went to get my hair done, a mani-pedi, and to the office by 2:30 pm. I worked on editing the podcast, completed my invoicing, wrote emails to go out on Monday, and finished a project to be sent to the printers. I finished off with a late dinner with my husband. I was able to hop on Instagram to express my gratitude for having a super productive day. I finished the day noting that I completed what was important and celebrating this with the plan for dinner and a movie on Sunday. I felt energized and refreshed at the end of my day, looking forward to the future. Gratitude is catching. Share what you are grateful for in the comments.
Nursing News
A controversial article was published by Bloomberg News seemingly disparaging the work of advanced practices nurses. The American Association of Nurse Practitioners responded with a letter to the editor. Here is an excerpt:
The American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP) is writing to address the recent article, "The Miseducation of America’s Nurse Practitioners." In a recent podcast, one of the authors of this article stated that “A bad reading of the story would be nurse practitioners bad, which is not what the story says.” However, the authors have failed to write a balanced story by cherry picking negative information and failing to report the enormous contributions nurse practitioners (NPs) make to patient care and across the health care system.
The authors have omitted the fact that NPs have consistently risen to meet our nation's health care challenges — including risking their lives with other health care professionals to treat patients during the pandemic despite a limited supply of personal protective equipment (PPE); setting up mobile clinics or going door to door in disadvantaged communities to provide care; being among the first clinicians to treat patients with opioid use disorder in hundreds of rural counties; and providing care in rural counties, after other clinicians left and hospitals closed, to ensure continued access.
For the full letter, access it here: https://www.aanp.org/news-feed/aanp-responds-to-recent-article-in-bloomberg-news.
About The Nurse Shark Academy
My mission is for you to own your seat at the table of nurse entrepreneurship, gaining the confidence, skills, and freedom to live your life on your own terms. You will dream big and expand your consciousness as an entrepreneur.
I have added the 10 Be-Attitudes Gratitude journal to the website and as a thank you for reading our newsletter, you can pick up a complimentary copy of the PDF with promotion code: Gratitude.
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