Introduction

When you are supporting someone at the end of their life, it is not just a job; it is an emotional commitment. The kind that stays with you long after your shift ends or your loved ones fall asleep. While you are holding space for others, it is easy to forget to hold space for yourself.

In palliative care, you are often the strong and steady one, but who holds you?

Learn the 5 grounding self-care practices to help you stay present, replenished, and human in the face of the deeply emotional work you do every day.

5 Self-Care Strategies for Palliative Care Professionals

1. Reconnecting with Nature

Being stuck inside all day, especially in a hospice or someone’s house, kind of messes with your head. It is all humming machines, muted voices, weird shadows, and that fake overhead lighting that never feels quite right. Humans are not built for that. We are wired to chase sunlight, like houseplants, but with bills to pay. When you do not get enough daylight, it creeps up on you. Suddenly, you are moody, tired for no real reason, or just feeling off, and you cannot put your finger on why.

So, just get out for a bit. Even ten minutes outside can shake off the gloom. Go for a walk, even if it is just around the block. Sip your tea on the stoop. Heck, stand by a window and pretend you are in a dramatic indie film, staring into the distance. Anything to get a hit of real, unfiltered light.

Research shows that sunlight exposure boosts serotonin and supports healthy sleep-wake cycles (Sansone and Sansone, 2013). Serotonin helps you stay calm and focused.

2. Writing as Emotional First Aid

Sometimes, the things we carry in this work feel too complex to explain. Even talking can feel like too much. This is where journaling, even in the simplest form, becomes a lifeline.

A notebook by your bed. A notes app on your phone. A daily scribble on a scrap of paper. This is less about eloquence and more about honesty. Naming emotions, even privately, can lessen their grip.

Start writing a line a day and witness what you feel and what you need.

Ask questions:

“What felt heavy today? What felt kind? What do I want to remember about this day?”

Studies support the emotional benefits of expressive writing, linking it to lower stress levels and a stronger immune response. Although journaling is indicated to manage anxiety, it also helps improve physical health along with mental health and achieve great academic and professional success (Baikie and Wilhelm, 2005).

3. Movement as Medicine

After hours of caring for others, your body often becomes a tool rather than something you live inside. You lift, carry, bend, and kneel. You push through pain and fatigue. Over time, this disconnection can leave you running on empty.

Gentle movement can reconnect you to your aliveness.

Not the “fix-your-body” kind. We are talking about slow stretches, a quiet walk, dancing in your kitchen, or five minutes of yoga in your pyjamas.

Daily exercise can boost endorphins, regulate cortisol, and reduce anxiety symptoms. Regular physical activities have also been shown to manage chronic health conditions (Sharma, 2006) (Mahindru et al., 2023).

Start with neck rolls, shoulder circles, and three long exhales. It is not about performance, just presence.

4. Speak Up—Even If Your Voice Shakes

As carers, we are trained to listen. To observe. To support. But we often forget how healing it is to be heard.

Sometimes it is a colleague over coffee. Other times, it is a peer support group, a supervisor, or even a friend who has nothing to do with care work at all. Speaking things aloud without needing them fixed can shift emotional weight off your shoulders.

Phone a friend on a walk and just say, ‘Today was hard.’ Do not hold it all in, and that can make the biggest difference.

If speaking is not an option, even leaving yourself voice notes can help externalise emotion. Voice journaling can manage stress, and listening to them repeatedly can bring in self-awareness.

5. Small Acts of Self-Kindness

Hang around delicate stuff all day and, honestly, your own needs start to feel like some kind of luxury—like, “Who am I to take a break?” But self-care? Does not have to be this big, dramatic thing. Sometimes it is just the tiny, quiet stuff—little rituals that feel almost holy because they are yours.

Making your morning tea slowly. Lighting a candle when you finish a shift. Rubbing balm on your hands with intention. These acts are reminders: I exist. I am not just what I give others.

These rituals of small acts of kindness help signal safety to the nervous system, helping to reset after emotionally intense work. Volunteering specifically is significant from the angle of positive psychology, where it helps a person explore the meaning and purpose of life (Chamberlain and Zika, 1988) and feel good about their contribution to society as a whole (Nichol et al., 2023).

You Are Allowed to Be Tired

The biggest act of self-care is letting yourself just… be. Crash on the couch if you need to. Who came up with this idea that you have got to be some unbreakable robot 24/7, anyway? Total myth.

References

1. Baikie, K.A., Wilhelm, K., 2005. Emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing. Adv. Psychiatr. Treat. 11, 338–346. https://doi.org/10.1192/apt.11.5.338
2. Chamberlain, K., Zika, S., 1988. Measuring meaning in life: An examination of three scales. Personal. Individ. Differ. 9, 589–596. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(88)90157-2
3. Mahindru, A., Patil, P., Agrawal, V., 2023. Role of Physical Activity on Mental Health and Well-Being: A Review. Cureus 15, e33475. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.33475
4. Nichol, B., Wilson, R., Rodrigues, A., Haighton, C., 2023. Exploring the Effects of Volunteering on the Social, Mental, and Physical Health and Well-being of Volunteers: An Umbrella Review. Volunt. Int. J. Volunt. Nonprofit Organ. 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-023-00573-z
5. Sansone, R.A., Sansone, L.A., 2013. Sunshine, serotonin, and skin: a partial explanation for seasonal patterns in psychopathology? Innov. Clin. Neurosci. 10, 20–24.
6. Sharma, A., 2006. Exercise for Mental Health. Prim. Care Companion CNS Disord. 8. https://doi.org/10.4088/PCC.v08n0208a