You show up. Stand your ground. Defy fear and make it look easy. You do what is needed. Give everything you have. And do it again each day. We are grateful for your hard and brave work. Believe in you. And support you with all our hearts. You make us proud, help us feel safe, and help us get through each day. We thank you, your families, and loved ones. You are appreciated. Long shifts, extreme stress, fear, sorrow, exhaustion and uncertainty. We recognize those words only scratch the surface of what you face and feel every day. We want you to know that Airon is working alongside you each day, producing high quality, reliable ventilators so you have what you need to continue saving lives. Besides equipping you with life-saving tools, we also want to offer you a few ways to help you take care of you.

7 Ways to Recharge and Take Care of Yourself

1. Acknowledge your feelings. Use this simple acronym H.A.L.T.S. (Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired, Scared / Sad) to check in with yourself when you feel emotionally out of sorts. This simple checklist can help you discover what is driving your discomfort, and help you regain control and change your mood.
2. Move your body. When you can, move to improve circulation, breathing and relax your muscles. Take a quick, brisk walk. Do a few squats, arm swings & circles, stretching. Any movement different from your routine work movements can rejuvenate you.
3. Get outside. Remove yourself from the workplace and find a patch of grass or sunlight, water, greenery, trees–anywhere you can connect with nature. Studies show even a few minutes outdoors is restorative and can help down regulate our sympathetic nervous system.
4. Ask your family for what you need. So often, especially in healthcare, we think we are the ones who provide care and rescue, and do not want to be or appear vulnerable or in need of anything. Opening yourself up to those you trust, and asking for what you need allows them to give back to you, and show their appreciation and love. It can be a gift to them to be able to care for you for a change.
5. Replace social media with your real life. Try to reduce time on social media, and replace it with phone calls or texts with people who bring meaning to your life. Touching base and even sharing a laugh with a good friend for a few minutes on the phone or through text can go a long way to relax and lift you up.
6. Hold onto hope. Even if you only have a few seconds, find a photo on your phone of a happy event, a beautiful place you visited, or a loved one’s face. Tune out the world around you and focus on that photo and believe good times will happen again, beautiful places are still out there, and you have someone in your life who loves you, and is waiting for you at the end of your day.
7. Dance. Sometimes the best way to blow off steam is to search your phone for your favorite song, grab your earbuds or headphones and take a few minutes and let the music take you away. Dance, sway, jump around or sit quietly and absorb every note. Let music offer you a total mind, body, and soul mini vacation.