Wisdom from Winter Dormancy: Embracing Stillness to Heal from the Stress of Healthcare
Embrace
Winter’s Wisdom
We've just marked the official start of winter. How are you doing? Perhaps more than any other time of the year, winter is when we can find our cultural expectations and natural tendencies at odds with each other.
Whether you're approaching the end of an emotionally or physically demanding day or moving through a challenging season of life, there's something to learn from the winter season.
Now is the time of year when nature calls us to slow down and focus within.
It's a time to take special care and be gentle with ourselves.
We see this, too, in nature. Deciduous trees require dormancy to thrive and stay healthy.
If you've ever tried to grow such a tree indoors, you probably noticed it didn't do so well. Very likely, it met its demise much sooner than you anticipated.
For the tree, dormancy isn't a nice-to-have. It's no less crucial for the tree than producing seeds or fruit. The same is true for us.
Far from being unproductive or lazy, allowing ourselves our own form of winter dormancy is essential to our well-being.
If you've been caught up in the busyness of the season and need a reminder to care for yourself, this is it.
Winter Dormancy in the Moment: Purposefully Pausing
The simplest way to weave winter's wisdom into everything is through the pause.
By definition, pausing suggests an absence, but its power is anything but. Instead, it's one of the most effective tools you have at your disposal.
And it's free.
Whether you're getting slammed in the middle of a long shift or surrounded by the chaos of screaming kids and barking dogs, the pause is your friend.
Allowing yourself to pause can be as simple as taking one breath.
You can even notice the pause between your inhale and exhale.
If you haven't given much thought to the pause, its simplicity belies its effectiveness.
In the space of a pause, you can…
Interrupt your brain's habitual reaction to a situation and choose a new response
Create self-awareness by asking, "How am I feeling, and what do I need right now?"
Ground yourself long enough to find gratitude in the moment
Start shifting your nervous system into a state of calm
You can amplify the effects by stacking multiple pauses throughout your day but know that even a single slow, deep breath can be the start of incorporating winter's stillness into your routine.
Winter Dormancy at the Workday's End: Releasing Negative Energy
Even when we know the importance of boundaries, there will be days when others' needs and emotions have flooded us. We need to come up for air.
Like winter trees, we must allow ourselves time to go into self-protection mode.
By altering the viscosity of the water inside their trunks, trees ensure their cells don't freeze and burst.
We can support ourselves in a similar way. By learning to transform emotions and energy that aren't ours, we can gently set down the challenges and burdens of the day.
This practice is crucial for healthcare professionals. It doesn't mean you quit caring. Instead, it allows you to find renewal in your personal time, leaving you to approach the next workday feeling fresh, curious, and open.
As an initial strategy, visualization can be helpful for letting go of the day's burdens.
Imagine the weight of all the stress, unmade decisions, frustrations, and difficult emotions filling the pockets of a heavy (white!) coat. When it's time to head home for the day, imagine taking that coat off and hanging it on the back of your workstation chair or the hook of your office door. It's OK to leave it at work and head home a little lighter.
If visualization doesn't free you from the day's stresses, try a more tangible approach.
Create physical delineations between work and personal time.
That might mean changing out of your work clothes or taking a shower to literally and figuratively wash away the day's residue.
Or, you can designate a specific area as your wind-down space and infuse your senses with relaxation and calm. For example, you might:
Sit in a warm, sunny spot, wrap yourself in a cozy blanket, or snuggle with your pet
Find a candle, incense, or essential oil whose scent reminds you of happy memories
Listen to music that soothes your soul or boosts your mood
Drink your favorite hot beverage
Sit in nature or observe it through your window
Finally, you can let go of the emotional weight stealing your valuable mental energy by exploring ways to shift from thinking to doing.
Try journaling or engaging in creative endeavors to move nagging thoughts onto paper or another medium. Physical activity is also great for moving and releasing pent-up energy picked up from others.
The goal is not to suppress or hide the emotions. Instead, you're giving your mind a period of quiet and stillness from which you can gain fresh perspectives, recharge your energetic batteries, and create space for new experiences inside and outside work.
Winter Dormancy at the Close of the Day: Setting the Stage for Restful Sleep
Most healthcare professionals are well aware of the importance of sleep and the negative impacts of not getting enough of it.
We also know there can be a vast chasm between knowing and doing.
Winter is the perfect time to consider how to foster good sleep habits for renewed energy and improved physical and mental well-being.
The shorter days and cooler temperatures are a constant reminder to slow down, close your eyes, and give yourself the nightly dormancy your body requires.
Though these suggestions may not be new to you, take an added cue from winter to start creating new habits to support your sleep.
In addition to the tips for letting go of daily stressors and negative emotions listed above, choose one or two of the following strategies to start creating healthy habits for bedtime:
When possible, be predictable. Help your body foster its natural sleep-wake cycle by getting up and heading to bed around the same time each day. For some healthcare professionals, this might feel like a pie-in-the-sky dream. If your work requires an erratic and irregular schedule, give yourself grace and focus on other strategies that feel more realistic.
Optimize your sleep environment. You might be surprised at the impact your environment has on your well-being, especially when it comes to sleep. Make sure your room is dark. This may require blocking out ambient light from street lamps or preventing the sun from streaming in if you happen to work at night.
Equally important, pay attention to sounds that may interfere with sleep and adjust as necessary. Ear plugs, a sound machine, or a fan can help eliminate distracting intermittent noise.
Finally, pay attention to the temperature in your room. Adjusting the thermostat by a few degrees can make the difference between tossing and turning or sleeping soundly. Experts suggest the ideal temperature is between 60°F and 65°F (15.6°C and 18.3°C), but your age, bedding, and other factors, like humidity, can influence what works best for you.
Create a sleep ritual. Developing a wind-down routine starting 1-2 hours before bed can help send you off to la-la land. Here's where you get to let curiosity and play lead the way to find the combination that suits you. Take this as a permission slip to start tuning into your needs.
Some common suggestions for sleep rituals include taking a warm bath or shower, reading (I suggest avoiding any work-related, news-related, or technical topics that might turn your brain on instead of off!), listening to relaxing music, meditating, or performing gentle movement or breathing exercises.
Remember that screens can interfere with most people's sleep. The same is true for consuming caffeine, eating heavy meals, or performing strenuous exercise later in the evening.
Find what works for you, then honor it.
Consider your sleep non-negotiable even when the rest of the world suggests it’s expendable.
Winter Dormancy for the Season: Moving Through Difficult Times
Last but not least, let's not forget the importance of slowing down and finding stillness when moving through a challenging season of your life.
Too many healthcare professionals have been taught to push through discomfort and pain while putting others' needs ahead of their own. Self-compassion has been notoriously missing from the syllabuses of training programs.
You will come across others in your field who suggest it's unreasonable to desire a degree of life balance. I'm here to tell you it's not.
If you're experiencing your own personal winter, whether emotional, social, spiritual, or social, be gentle with yourself.
We each respond to illness, relationship struggles, loss, career uncertainty (or other equally difficult circumstances) in our own way. Don't compare yourself to others. Regardless of how someone else may have dealt with a similar situation, your experience is real.
The first step is circling back to finding stillness in the moment.
Pause.
Ask yourself, "What do I need right now?"
If you need rest, rest.
If you need to slow down, do so - guilt-free.
If you need support, allow it.
Embracing Your Winter
It's in our nature to move through periods of exploration, growth, and productivity. But that's not the whole picture. Despite work and cultural pressures, let's remember that it's also natural and necessary to seek moments of respite.
Let winter be your reminder to slow down and be still. Spring will arrive at just the right time, whether we try to rush it or not.
Charity is a physician and burnout coach helping introverts in healthcare escape feelings of apathy, irritability, and resentment brought on by the increasing demands and decreasing rewards of medicine.
She uses her 20 years of experience in clinical medicine combined with coaching to help introverts discover ways to be diligent, thoughtful clinicians while prioritizing their needs and protecting their energy. She wants you to know you don’t have to feel guilty for wanting a thriving life inside and outside of medicine.