“It’s helped me stay grounded.” How Jess used meditation to be well at work | News from St Bartholomew's

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“It’s helped me stay grounded.” How Jess used meditation to be well at work

Cath lab nurse Jessica Filoteo reveals how she introduced her team to the practise at St Bartholomew’s.

I was one of the many nurses who got redeployed to intensive care last year.

To help me deal with the anxiety and stress, not only of having to work on the frontline but also of losing the general sense of control I had of my life because of the situation I found myself in, I started a regular meditation practice.

Every morning before coming to work, I would start off with a gentle yoga practice followed by a 10 to 15 minute mindfulness meditation. And at night before I would go to bed, I would practice a short breath awareness meditation, too.

I cannot stress enough how having this practice has helped me cope with all the challenges I faced working on the frontline.

It has helped me manage my thoughts and emotions better. It has helped me stay grounded and focused at work. It even improved the quality of my sleep.

With this in mind, I thought that it would be really nice if we could incorporate meditation at work, too.

Too often, we come to work rushing to get all our tasks done and we never really get the chance to even check-in with ourselves or process our thoughts when we encounter difficult challenges.

Every day I hear colleagues complaining that they’re tired and burnt out. As health care workers, we are naturally inclined to help other people, but we tend to forget to take care of ourselves.

If we could only take a moment in the mornings to slow down, take those deep breaths and check in with ourselves before we start our working day, what a difference it would make!

This is how our weekly mindfulness meditation sessions started in the cath labs at St Bartholomew’s Hospital.

See what colleagues have to say about it, and watch till the end to find out how you can start one in your department, too!

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