February is the month to celebrate love and heart health. February should make us think about how we treat each other and ultimately how we treat ourselves.

So beloved how are you? How are you feeling after this long year of battle against an unseen enemy? How is your heart? Do you know yourself after this year? Do you recognize your body, your mind, your feelings, your moods? How is your health? Physical? Mental? Do you have new places that ache? Is your heart one of the places that has gotten bruised as you have worked and suffered through Covid 19 and the strife surrounding it? How many of us have had the chance to stop and straighten our crooked bodies after we have been pushing into the Covid wind for a year?

The number of people around the world advising healthcare workers to take a break; do something for your physical and mental health; drink this; eat that; abstain from this; don’t do that; I would imagine, is in the millions if you stopped to read all the advice on Instagram, Facebook, in books, magazines, and every inch of the internet. The Health and Wellness companies are large and thriving. There are apps galore, potions, powders and bath bombs aplenty. How many of us nurses have taken that heart-healthy break; that moment to restore our internal resources? Because nurses get satisfaction from caring for others and our hearts get fed from being part of good outcomes we rarely feel like we need or deserve to take a break.

Let me join the chorus that is praising nurses for their work this past year and let me join my voice with those that are nudging nurses to take care of themselves; to take that break. Because this past year was about unrest, pain, uncertainty, death, illness, misery, total exhaustion all from a pandemic and a staffing crisis like none of us have ever seen or experienced, nurses (all healthcare workers) need to pull back a bit. Take a breather. Do something that actually fills you up physically (move your body, cook, eat, drink the water), spiritually (find some peace, do church, meditate, pray, do yoga), and mentally (talk to someone, read, listen, fill your senses, rest).

Whatever it is you need to do to fill your tired soul back up, do it. So many of us have become a conduit where things just run through us. We need to be a vessel instead. Be a vessel that gets filled first and then is allowed to spill over to our families, friends, co-workers, and patients. Whatever it is that will fill you up so that you can do nursing well and be fulfilled by it; do that. Do whatever it is. Do you need to leave nursing? Do you need to change nursing jobs? Do you need to work less? Do you need to use your PTO? Do you need a mental health day or seven? Take them, do it. Do whatever you need to do to keep your ticker ticking.

There are seven billion voices and hearts separating each of us from the other and yet we have so much in common. We are in the community of nursing. A community that cares for its members. It starts with you. You are a care-giver. Give yourself some care this month. Know you are beloved.

I love you.