And I think one thing I’m really bad at is admitting when I’m feeling overwhelmed, which then makes the stress worse, and I become snappy and not nice to be around. Not good. So I’m writing it here to be more open about how I’m feeling in the moment: I’ve been feeling low lately.
With new work pressures/expectations, as well as general life stuff, things have been feeling a bit much for me over the last couple of weeks, and I’ve been struggling. But I’m starting to feel better now, so here are some things that have helped:
- Talking about it with people I can be open and 100% myself with.
- Taking breaks from my phone – turns out being available all the time and constantly reading the news isn’t great for peace of mind.
- Reading for fun again.
- Watching TV to switch off for a bit – I recently started Downton Abbey, as well as binged Clickbait and the new season of Sex Education in the last week, just to give you an idea of how much ‘switching off’ I’ve needed.
- Praying about it and reading my Bible more. I’ve been getting a lot of encouragement from John 14:27-29, and remembering the gift of peace that comes from Christ.
In other news, my first official project with the Improvement Team was launched last week, and it’s an exhibition celebrating diversity in the NHS. It includes portraits, paintings and sound clips of various staff members from various groups within the Trust, sharing their experiences of working in the area, information about their backgrounds, as well as how the pandemic has affected them.
The exhibition was put together in collaboration with the local art college, and will be on display for free to the public for the next month. I’ve been so honoured to be part of this project (organising it all has been super stressful but we got there in the end!), and I also got the chance to be photographed as well, which was so much fun:
Here’s to future projects with the team, and yay for celebrating diversity!
Life As A Junior Doctor 