September Newsletter: Mental Health First-Aid Kit

Welcome to the Beating Burnout Newsletter. A digital magazine dedicated to living mindfully, deeper reflection and personal growth.

🌱 Starting Anew

Whether you are a brand new nursing student at UOttawa, or going into your 2nd, 3rd or 4th year, the Fall semester can be very stressful.

For some it means moving into an unfamiliar city…

For others it means having to commute countless hours on OC Transpo…

For everyone, it is an inevitable change of pace…

Be kind to yourself as you start again.

🪴 Bottom Up, Body Based Self-Regulation

Oftentimes in nursing, we stumble into difficult situations that trigger painful emotions from our past learned experiences.

In periods of intense emotion, our heart pounds, our chest feels tight, our field of perception narrows.

…

Sometimes we have to learn how to tolerate and survive through a stressful situation.

To bring our bodies down from a state of hyper-arousal.

That is distress tolerance.

🪷 Quick Patch 1: Paced Breathing

Take a deep breath in for 5.

Slowly, in through the nose. Notice the sensation of cool air brushing past your throat, filling your lungs and expanding your chest.

Then let go of that breath for 7.

Even more slowly this time, out through the mouth. Releasing that tension, feeling your shoulders and chest fall, notice the sensation of warm air flowing through your lips and into the atmosphere.

Continue to breathe slowly until your body calms down.

🔬 Is it Evidence Based?

Slow breathing techniques seem to strongly involve the parasympathetic nervous system as suggested by increased heart rate variability and respiratory sinus arrhythmia following slow breathing exercises.

When studied through an EEG, these techniques were also paralleled by increases of alpha waves and a decrease in theta waves.

They were also linked with psychological outcomes of decreased anxiety, relaxation, positive energy and pleasantness.

🧊 Quick Patch 2: Ice-It

This one is a less practical in the clinical or school setting, but works well at home.

Hold your breath, and dip your face in a bowl of ice-cold water.

Or hold a cold pack over your eyes, cheek and temple for 30 seconds.

Or run your face under a cold tap.

It will feel unpleasant at first, but it will activate the mammalian dive reflex.

🔬 Is it Evidence Based?

Cold sensation on the cheeks, forehead and nose triggers the trigeminal nerve (CN V), which relays information to our brain stem. The brain stem then sends parasympathetic signals through the vagal nerve, resulting in bradycardia and bradypnea.

This is the mammalian dive reflex, a protective physiological response to cold water submersion.

It allows the body to conserve oxygen stores effectively, by calming down the central nervous system and reducing the fight or flight response.

☘️ Quick Patch 3: Clinical ToolKit

Choose 5 soothing objects that speak to all 5 senses.

• Smell: a mint teabag, a small jasmine perfume bottle, a strip of cologne that smells like the sea.

• Taste: a nostalgia hubba-bubba gum roll, a tropical flavoured gummy bear, a toothbrush and toothpaste

• Touch/Hear: petting a small ball of fur, rolling a fidget spinner, running your finger through a haircomb, applying hand lotion, popping bubble wrap

• See: a photo of a loved one, an motivational quote, the date of your next trip, a birthday letter from a friend

Put 5 objects into a small pouch in your clinical bag. If you need to ground yourself between patients, you have a safe sensory toolkit to come back to with familiar objects that remind you of home.

Try each strategy, and see which one works for you! As school starts, remember to keep these distress tolerance skills in mind. You will inevitably run into situations that are both physically and emotionally demanding - be sure to take a pause, check in with yourself, and soothe your body.

There are times where the circumstances are just too much, and that happens. You deserve to ask for space, you deserve to be heard, and you deserve to feel safe and understood.

Don’t keep distressing situations to yourself. Lean on your supports, friends, instructors, families, pets, therapists, etc. even after you get through the storm.

🌳 Resource Corner

📱 App: How We Feel

💻️ Article: What are Distress Tolerance Skills - Your Ultimate DBT Toolkit

📚️ Book: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone