Doing Your Inner Work as a Nurse

Nurse clinicians spend a great deal of time providing care for others. Nurses give physical care (including that which is immediately life-saving), psychoemotional support, and spiritual succor, often in the form of motivational conversation and nurse-to-patient teaching.What is a powerful way for us nurses to empower and elevate our understanding of human behavior, the human condition, and the nature of suffering? By assiduously doing our own inner work throughout a long lifetime of giving, loving, and feeling.Understanding the Self and Understanding OthersWe nurses can more truly understand the suffering and challenges of our patients when we ' re more fully in touch with ourselves. Self-reflection and inner work can open us to deeper empathy and compassion through connection with our own humanity, and the humanity of others.Being in touch with our own inner journey can empower us to reach more deeply within ourselves for that which can build bridges to the inner journey of the suffering patient. We all walk through this life with psychological shadows, buried pain, and subterranean memories -- bringing some of this to the surface for healing can lighten our load and allow us to be more present for both ourselves and others.How a nurse gets to a place of inner knowing, personal healing, and deeper relatedness to others is individual, and myriad powerful tools abound for the courageous exploration of the self.Psychotherapy and Counseling: Rejecting the StigmaI ' m admittedly...
Source: Digital Doorway - Category: Nursing Tags: careers healthcare healthcare careers nurse nurse careers nurse self care nurse wellness nurses nursing nursing careers self development self-care Source Type: blogs