Part of the reason nurses feel as if they don’t have time is because they are at work… all of the time! If you work in an acute care setting- most likely your organization is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Factor in holidays, weekends, and on-call hours- you just might be working any given day of the week.

It’s no wonder when other people are signing up for Yoga classes, piano lessons, or a healthy cooking course you are stuck saying- “Well, I can’t sign up for that… I don’t have my schedule yet.” Or on the other hand- you do have your schedule, but it was made so far in advance you didn’t realize that you could have used Tuesday evenings off to attend Coach Scala’s group program!

So what can we do about this? Because being a nurse is time-consuming, but it does not have to be life-consuming. We definitely can be nurses, be healthy, and keep our lives intact.

One way to do this is to use “time” to your advantage. Now what do I mean by that? Well, instead of worrying, stressing, and talking about the fact that you don’t have time- realize that:

• You do have time
• You can use your time wisely
• You’ve got to be creative with your time

The more that you say or think “I don’t have time for this or that…” guess what happens? Like the Genie who came out of the magic lamp has said over and over before: “Your wish is my command”. Think or say you don’t have time and poof! Like that you have just created “not having time” for yourself.

Lesson #1 in this article:

• Stop saying “I don’t have time”
• When you say “I don’t have time” you put that out into the universe
• Your statement is made a reality
• Then you really don’t have time

Now, let’s talk about using our time wisely and getting creative during our day. Since this is a health and wellness blog, we are talking about “time” as it relates to our well-being. So for the purposes of this article we want to make use of our time and get creative during our day with respect to our health.

As I wrote above, nurses are at work for most of their lives… well, not really- but sure does feel like it, right? So since we are at work for such long periods of time of course we will find it challenging to get in any type of exercise, spiritual practice, or healthy behaviors. What can we do about this?

Lesson #2 in this article:

• Use your time wisely
• Get creative with healthy behaviors
• Do, be or make healthy choices all day long

Instead of taking the elevator, climb the five flights of stairs. Go ahead- you can do it. Just take your time and do it consistently and over a couple of weeks you will notice a difference and be able to climb eight flights, no problem!

Park farther away from work. Get off one shuttle stop early and walk. While at the nurses’ station can you stretch, squat, twist, or turn? Would you be able to take the longer route when walking to meetings? Can you walk or meditate on your lunch break?

You have choices all day long. That is the beauty of being a free, individual, and human being. We can choose health. We can choose to move, cope, breathe, sit, or fly. We can choose well-being and we have time for it! We just have to work it into our day.

What other ideas do you have for fitting in healthy choices? How can you make healthy behaviors a part of your day? Post some ideas in the comments below so that we can gather ideas and suggestions from others.