For most people, it’s all too easy to unconsciously bring work home with you. In rural and remote healthcare, where the boundaries between community roles and personal lives are often blurred, it can be even more evident. For example, you might stay late finishing notes from the day, anticipate tomorrow’s challenges, or generally find it hard to switch focus from work to home. Perhaps you wake up thinking about tomorrow’s work, you might carry the emotional weight from a client interaction into conversations with friends or family, or you notice this feeling that you are not quite ‘present’ at home because your mind is still worrying about work.
These are all familiar experiences to many working in healthcare. This is framed in psychological research as “work-to-home spillover”, whereby your thoughts, emotions and stressors from work carry across into your non-work life, affecting your mood and functioning outside the work domain.¹ When we don’t detach mentally from work, we experience poor sleep quality, emotional exhaustion, elevated stress levels, increased work-family conflict, and a decline in our overall wellbeing and job satisfaction. Within the rural and remote health workforce, where blurred boundaries and limited support make detachment even harder, the likelihood of compassion fatigue and/or burnout is greater.
The good news is that integrating mindfulness practices into your day can help shift attention away from work and towards present-moment awareness, helping to redirect attention away from work ruminations, reducing cognitive and emotional arousal, and enhancing our ability to notice when the mind is drifting back to work. These practices also support acceptance of our thoughts without getting ‘hooked’ or entangled in their story.
Some practical techniques to help you mindfully detach include:
Transition rituals. At the end of your workday, spend a few minutes performing something that signals an intentional shift away from work. This could be noticing the breath, body sensations, and what you are letting go of before you leave. If you drive to and from work, wind down the windows and let the day blow away into the wind. Perhaps have a mindful shower and wash the day away down the drain.
Body scan before sleep. Lie comfortably in bed, bring your attention to your feet, and slowly scan your body up to your head (or vice versa). Notice any sensations, without judgement or trying to change them. Simply acknowledge, with curiosity, that they are there, and move on when you are ready. Key benefits of this meditation include lowering cortisol levels, improving sleep quality and emotional regulation, and even managing chronic pain.
Mindful breaths during the day. Several times throughout the day, take one to three mindful breaths. Take these with intention, noticing inhalation, exhalation, and any body sensations. Even these short pauses can interrupt automatic work-related thinking, giving your mind a little ‘mini-break’ from the stressors.
Notice thought patterns. When you notice yourself thinking about work out of hours, label it. Say to yourself, “I notice I’m thinking about work right now,” thank your mind, and return your attention to the present moment, grounding yourself by pressing down on your feet, noticing sensations in your calves or any heaviness you feel in your legs or body. This activity helps build psychological distance and disrupts those automatic thought patterns.
Micro-breaks during the workday. During your workday, take two to three brief mindfulness breaks of around 30-90 seconds each. You can focus on your breathing, observe an object mindfully, or do a quick body scan and release the tension in your shoulders or neck. You could also practise self-compassion by placing a hand over your heart to help provide comfort during a stressful moment. These micro-breaks help improve attention, memory, and creative problem-solving, while also helping to detach from work-related stress.
It’s also powerful to combine these mindfulness strategies with structural habits that support boundary management, such as creating physical boundaries e.g. a designated workspace; having firm start and finish times when able; performing closure rituals, such as spending the last five minutes of each day reviewing what’s outstanding, and writing a list for tomorrow; and intentionally planning non-work activities after hours, giving you something to look forward to and helping to switch your mind off work.
Psychological detachment can help guard against burnout, and intentional mindfulness practices can strengthen that detachment and promote recovery. Given the different roles, responsibilities, and unique challenges we experience working in rural and remote contexts, we need to do everything we can to protect our psychological wellbeing. Spend the next week or two incorporating these different practices into your day and notice what a difference intentionally ‘switching off’ can make.
Be kind,
Dr Nicole Jeffery-Dawes (she/her)
Senior Psychologist, Mental Health & Wellbeing Service
- Sonnentag, S. & Binnewies, C. (2013). Daily affect spillover from work to home: Detachment from work and sleep as moderators. Journal of Vocational Behavior. 83(2). Accessed 02 Feb 2025 at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001879113000985
