Power Move™ #10: BREATHE — Your Job Is Part of Your Life. It Is Not Your Life. Workplace Stress
- Glennae Davis, RN, Workforce Care Specialist™
- Jul 23
- 4 min read
Power Move™ #10: BREATHE — Your Job Is Part of Your Life. It Is Not Your Life.
When you're dealing with workplace stress, injury, fear, burnout, or discrimination, everything can begin to feel urgent. Workplace stress
The job.
The paycheck.
The FMLA.
The diagnosis.
The medication.
The complaint.
The return to work.
The future.
You can become so consumed with trying to figure out what to do next that you forget something very simple:
Breathe.
Not because the problem is over.
Not because the workplace changed.
Not because you suddenly have all the answers.
Breathe because you are still here.
Power Move™ #10: BREATHE
Throughout Operation Mental Health™: Practical Lessons on Career Burnout and Recovery, I have been teaching you that workplace distress requires more than reaction.
It requires tools.
Power Moves™ are acts of faith that help us reclaim agency, establish authority, protect our interests, and make informed employment and health decisions in the face of adversity.
And now we've reached the final one.
BREATHE.
Breathing creates space between what happened to you and what you decide to do next.
That space matters.
Because some of the most consequential decisions of our lives are made when we're frightened, exhausted, angry, hurt, or desperate for immediate relief.
Those are exactly the moments when we need to remember that we have options.
You Don't Have to Solve Everything Today
Workplace distress can convince you that everything must be figured out immediately.
Do I stay?
Do I quit?
Should I take FMLA?
Do I need medication?
Should I file a complaint?
Can I afford to leave?
What happens if I can't go back?
Those may all be legitimate questions.
But you don't have to answer every one of them in one frightened moment.
Breathe.
Give yourself enough room to assess what is happening.
Ask another question.
Gather more information.
Understand your employment options.
Understand your healthcare options.
Seek another opinion when appropriate.
Pray.
Wait.
And then make the next right decision from a sound mind.
Don't Let Fear Make the Decision
Fear has a way of making one job look like your entire future.
Especially when you've worked hard for your career.
You may have a mortgage.
Children.
Student loans.
Benefits.
A six-figure salary.
A professional reputation.
A lifestyle you've worked years to build.
Suddenly, protecting the job can begin to feel synonymous with protecting your life.
It isn't.
Your job is important.
Your career is important.
Your employability is important.
But none of them are more important than you being alive and well enough to live the life you've been given.
That's why breathing is a Power Move.
You don't want fear making employment decisions for you.
You don't want exhaustion making health decisions for you.
You don't want anger making legal decisions for you.
And you don't want desperation making spiritual decisions for you.
Breathe.
Then use your tools.
Remember Who Gave You Breath
Genesis 2:7 tells us that God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
Your employer didn't give you that breath.
Your title didn't give you that breath.
Your paycheck didn't give you that breath.
Yahweh did.
And when work becomes difficult, that truth can help reorder what matters.
Instead of asking only:
“How do I keep this job?”
Ask:
“What decision protects the life God has given me?”
That doesn't automatically mean quitting.
Sometimes the informed decision is to stay.
Sometimes it's to take leave.
Sometimes it's to return to work with a plan.
Sometimes it's to ask for an accommodation.
Sometimes it's to confront an issue.
Sometimes it's to pursue another opportunity.
And sometimes it's to walk away.
Employee Mental Health Education isn't about telling you which decision to make.
It's about helping equip you to make your own informed decision.
You Now Have 10 Power Moves™
We started this chapter talking about countering career burnout with Power Moves.
Now you have all ten.
You have learned to assess Risk.
Examine your Thoughts.
Remember the Vision.
Focus.
Protect yourself.
Ask.
Confront.
Pray and Fast.
Wait.
And finally:
Breathe.
These aren't ten ways to control your employer.
They are tools to help you govern your own decisions when work becomes difficult.
Because your employer has responsibilities.
Your healthcare providers have responsibilities.
The systems surrounding you have responsibilities.
And you have responsibilities too.
Understanding that is part of shared responsibility.
What Will You Do With What You Know?
After everything we've discussed throughout these 10 Power Moves™, the question is no longer simply:
What is happening to me?
The question becomes:
What am I going to do with what I now understand?
You don't need to know every step.
You need enough clarity to identify your next right step.
So breathe.
Assess.
Ask.
Pray.
Wait when you need to wait.
Move when it's time to move.
And remember:
Your job is part of your life.
It is not your life.
Your Next Right Step
If workplace stress has been affecting you physically, mentally, emotionally, ethically, or spiritually, start by identifying where work is affecting you.
Understanding creates options.
Options create hope.
And informed employees are better equipped to make decisions that protect their health, their employability, their families, their faith, and their future.
Employee Mental Health Education Is the New Standard of Care.™
Glennae Davis, BSN, RN Workforce Care™
