The Perspective of Presence

A nurse manager reported feeling frustrated and beat-up with short staffing, attempting to serve both roles as a manager and a bedside nurse on her unit. She did what a lot of us do when we feel overwhelmed. She lost her perspective, her ability to see and evaluate things clearly.

Instead of pushing through or running away, she made time to sit and get present with her feelings and the situation and remembered the power of reframing. She stopped asking, “Why is this happening to me?” and reframed with, “What can I learn from this?” She soon realized it was impossible to function as a manager and a staff nurse at the same time. When she let go of her manager role in the moment, she felt empowered and experienced the pure joy of taking care of patients again.

Well-Being Coaching is not designed to tell you what to do, but to help you acknowledge your current feelings and determine your next best action step. This requires presence and is critical to your well-being because you lose your perspective when you are in a tailspin focused on the wrong thing—what has already happened or what might happen. Getting present, focusing on the here and now, supports you to regain your perspective to do something different so you can feel something different.

Perspective is so powerful because it gives you the opportunity to look at yourself and your priorities differently. When you take the time to slow down your breathing, thoughts, and actions, you give yourself the opportunity to be right here, right now, necessary to reframe.

The next time you feel overwhelmed, take a moment to get present and gain your perspective by asking, What can I learn from this?