Self-Care Reflection
Gabriella Crugnale
University of New England
BSN NSG 351: Professor Goran
My Self-Care Reflection and Wellness Goals
At the beginning of the semester, we had an assignment to write down a few goals in regard to self-care and how we planned to carry them out. My goals included beginning breathing, stretching, and reflection daily to relieve and manage stress levels and reframing my negative thoughts and focusing on the positives in life. For each goal, I created strategies that were going to help me obtain them. I made three strategies to begin breathing, stretching, and relaxation to manage stress. The first was gradually increasing deep breaths per hour to improve focus and manage stress. Second, I would stretch each hour of studying or doing homework to avoid physical stress on my neck and back. Lastly, I would take one hour a day to myself to do something I enjoy or perform my self-care routine. I was able to meet these goals through these strategies or variations of them. The main barrier I faced was forgetfulness as I was later reminded with excess stress or increased neck and back pain. I have successfully been able to give myself an hour break through exercise or performing self-care routines to decompress from the day. I learned to lower stress physically and mentally to better and take care of myself.
For my second goal of reframing my negative thoughts and focusing on the positives in life, again I formed three strategies that would help me attain this goal. The example of reframing my negative thoughts that I used said, “Instead of feeling sorry for myself for a bad grade, I will study harder and get help from my professors and peers.” This example stands true as I have reached out to my advisor, professors, joined study groups, and attended SASC sessions and I believe that my grades have shown that. Another strategy that I have implemented is to jot down positive aspects of my life and things that I am grateful for so I can focus my attention towards that. Finally, I would begin journaling to avoid bottling up how I was feeling, because that is something that I used to find myself doing often. These goals were important to me because I was struggling mentally at the beginning of the semester because of the uncertainty of this school year. I was also experiencing difficulty with school in general and was unsure if I was pursuing the right major and career. After utilizing these strategies in one way or another, I found myself to be quite successful in reaching my goals and felt much better about school. There were some barriers to meeting my goals because of my hectic schedule and trying to maintain self-care, some days I was simply burnt out. Overall, this goal has allowed me to live more positively because I no longer wallow on the negatives as much as I am appreciate the positives.
Prochaska’s Transtheoretical Model
Prochaska’s transtheoretical model is used to depict the different phases of how people are willing to move through behavior changes. There are 5 phases that consist of precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance (Prochaska, J.O. et al., 1997). According to Prochaska’s transtheoretical model I was definitely ready to change and begin putting my mental health first. Over the semester my willingness to change has stayed in the maintenance phase throughout the semester. I hope to remain in this phase throughout next semester as well, reaching these goals have helped my mental health immensely. Therefore, I am thankful that I was ready to change and that I have thus far remained in the maintenance phase. I will apply this to patient care because I will know how to assess different needs whether they be physical or mental. I believe that if you cannot help yourself, you cannot help others. I feel ready to continue providing care to patients through whatever means to ensure they feel well mentally and physically. Some changes that I will make that will help me continue to reach my goals include reaching out to others instead of a journal to hopefully receive feedback from those I talk to. This feedback will allow me to reflect on my feelings on whether I am being reasonable or whether I need to reevaluate.
Conclusion
Throughout my self-reflection, I realize that I have come a lot farther than I originally thought. Being a nurse takes a lot of grit and strength, so it is important to recognize the need for self-care. As I wrote in my Art in Nursing ePortfolio post, nursing can allow one to lose themself. To come back to one’s own, one needs to know how to perform self-care and understand the need to take time to reflect. Overall, I am really happy with how these simple goals turned into possible lifetime changes and constant maintenance of my mental health.
Work Cited
Prochaska, J. O., & Velicer, W. F. (1997). The transtheoretical model of health behavior change. American journal of health promotion: AJHP, 12(1), 38–48. https://doi.org/10.4278/0890-1171-12.1.38
