Why Tiny Moments Matter

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When was the last time that you took a moment during your shift just for yourself? Now, I'm not talking about when you grab a coffee while you're answering emails or you're eating lunch while you're completing paperwork or sitting down while you're thinking about the next job. I mean actually stopping for a moment and noticing how you're feeling. Because whether you're a nurse, police officer, paramedic, emergency dispatcher, managing stress at work can be difficult when everybody seems to be pulling you in all different directions, needing something from you. And sometimes we're too busy looking after everybody else that we don't notice just how much pressure that we're carrying ourselves. And today I want to talk about why those small moments matter because it doesn't have to be this way. For far too long, we've accepted fatigue, poor sleep, burnout, and declining health as simply part of working in a 24-7 environment. I don't believe they are. Whether you're a shift worker, trying to feel better, or a leader responsible for the people who keep your organisation running around the clock, you're in the right place. Welcome to a healthy shift. I'm Roger Sutherland, and after more than four decades of working 24-7 shifts with Victoria Please, followed by years of studying nutrition, circadian biology, human performance, and working with literally thousands of shift workers, I've made it my mission to change the conversation around shift work. Because healthier people create stronger teams, and stronger teams build better organisations. And it all starts by understanding how to work with your biology and not against it. Let's get into today's episode.

Spotting Stress While You Work

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And it all starts with working with your biology and not against it. I want you to remember that. Welcome back to A Healthy Shift, the Shift Workers Podcast. You know who I am. I'm Roger Sutherland. Today we're talking about shift work stress and something that I think that we overlook when we discuss shift worker health and well-being. The importance of taking a moment for ourselves during a demanding shift. Now, I did 40 years in policing. I know you've heard it over and over again. And this included 17 years as a police dog handler, 12 years working in emergency communications. So I understand what it is like to work in an environment where the demands can be relentless. You start your shift with every intention of taking your breaks, of having something to eat and keeping on top of things. But the jobs keep coming. One situation leads into another, somebody needs your help, something unexpected happens. And before you know it, hours have passed and it's all compounding. And I know that this is not unique to policing. And I make that quite clear. I see you, nurses, paramedics, firefighters, dispatchers, and countless other shift workers are experiencing these similar pressures, and you are not alone. But here is something that I really do want you to consider. While you're concentrating on everything happening around you, when do you ever turn and have a look inward? How much attention are you paying to what is happening within you? Now we don't recognize the signs of stress. And one of the challenges with managing workplace stress is we don't always recognize it building. You might notice your shoulders becoming tense or your jaw tightening. In fact, you probably won't notice it. Or your breathing becomes faster and shallower. And it isn't until you check in with yourself that you actually notice this. Perhaps you're becoming impatient. You start finding it a lot harder to concentrate. And this is a good sign as well. Not a good sign, a bad sign. Or feeling increasingly overwhelmed. But when you're busy, you just keep pushing on and you simply keep going. Now our autonomic nervous system is what helps our bodies to respond to different demands, including stress. Feeling more alert during a demanding situation is normal and it's often useful. But when one stressful situation follows another, we may have very little opportunity to just calm ourselves and settle in between them. And that needs to be deliberate. And I think that this is where awareness becomes very, very important. Because if we don't recognize how we're feeling, we may miss opportunities to do something actually about this. Now I know from my own experience, even working here, even recording one podcast after another, I find I can go from one to the next, from one task to the next, one email to the next. Running a business or working in these environments where you do just go from one thing to the next, we actually get to the stage where we forget to stop and breathe. And we just keep going. And all of that starts to really build up. And that is what we need to be aware of. We need to stop and look in. Do we really

Micro Breaks And Simple Breathing

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need more time? Because when people talk about stress management, we often hear recommendations. Right, you gotta meditate, mindfulness, exercise, relaxation, meditation, 20, 25 minutes, half an hour. Who's got that? Now those things are all useful. I need to be perfectly honest with you. They're evidence-based meditation, mindfulness, getting out and getting exercise, or relaxing, not looking at your phone, relaxing, relaxing, not watching TV, relaxing, relaxing. It's okay to be doing nothing for a very short period of time just to give your whole system a chance to relax. And all of these things can be very, very useful, but let's be realistic. If you are someone who works in a busy emergency department or you're responding to calls or managing an operational control room, finding 20 minutes to meditate during your shift is completely impractical. And I accept that. Instead, I want us to consider just the small opportunities that might already exist. Perhaps you've just come off a really difficult phone call. Maybe you're waiting for the next task or you've stepped away for a moment when it's safe to do so. What if you use some of that time to just check in and ask, How am I feeling? To just vigilantly relax your shoulders and unclench your jaw and then allow your breathing to become more comfortable. Nothing complicated and certainly nothing that interferes with your responsibilities or your own safety. Just taking a brief opportunity to settle before moving on. Can breathing help with shift work stress? What a question. Through my work as a breathwork facilitator, I've become increasingly interested in how simple breathing exercises can really, really help shift workers to manage stressful moments. Microdosing in breathwork. Research can suggest that slow, comfortable breathing can actually influence different aspects of our physiological state. And it will help people to feel karma. But I want to be clear breathing exercises don't eliminate workplace stress or replace proper brakes or compensate for an unsafe workload. Employers still have a responsibility to manage fatigue, staffing, and workplace demands. But you also have a responsibility to yourself. And what breathing may offer is a practical tool that we can use when we have an appropriate moment to ourselves. And for people working unpredictable shifts, having something simple and accessible and free can be incredibly valuable. We don't necessarily need the perfect environment or even a complicated routine. And in fact, you can do it quietly in the passenger seat of the car while your colleague is driving along. You can actually be driving and do it while your colleague is waffling on. Sometimes we just need to recognize that we're just we're feeling a bit anxious and overwhelmed, and just give ourselves a permission to settle. Check in, I need this, and do it.

Break Guilt And Workplace Support

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Now there's actually a guilt of taking a break. And this is something else that I really want to touch on. Why do so many of us feel guilty about stopping? How did life get here? Now I understand the responsibilities that come with home life, jobs, but nobody wants to let their colleagues down. But taking a reasonable opportunity to look after ourselves shouldn't be something that we personally feel guilty about. And if your workplace regularly prevents people from taking a break, it's an organization organizational issue that really needs bringing to attention. Because looking after shift worker well-being requires not only your strategies, but it also needs workplace support. We need both. So can you do this during your next shift at some stage? I want you to ask yourself one question. When did I last take just one small moment for myself? When it's safe and appropriate, I want you to just check in and ask yourself, how am I feeling? Am I tense? Am I rushing? Is my breathing relaxed and comfortable? You don't need to change everything at once, just start and notice. Now, over the next few episodes, I'll be exploring some simple ways that we can manage these stressful moments during shift work, including breathing techniques that don't require a large amount of time. I'm also preparing and will be releasing very shortly a free breathing resource called Two In and Three Out. And this is designed to give shift workers a simple strategy that you can use during a demanding moment. And I'll share more with you about that shortly. Now, if you work with somebody who never seems to stop, it then share this episode with them. Because looking after everybody else should not mean to not look after yourself. And this is really, really important. Share the episode. I hope you got something out of it. And I'll talk to you on the next one. If today's episode resonated with you, don't let the conversation stop here. Share it with a colleague, a manager, a friend, a leader, or someone who has the opportunity to improve the lives of people working in a 24-7 environment. Because real change starts with awareness. And awareness changes conversations. And conversations change organisations. And organizations change lives. So thank you for spending this time with me. And until next time, I want you to remember this. It doesn't have to be this way. Take care of yourself and take care of each other.