This blog posting will be a bit different from others I have written, but I believe the NurseManifest page is a place where we can open our hearts and souls to the essence of nursing, which is healing, caring, love, and compassion. In a world seemingly torn asunder from fear, violence, and anger, nurses are called forth to support healing on a local and global level. The call comes from something beyond ourselves, and if you stop and listen closely, I believe you will hear that calling. You are a nurse and there is a reason you were drawn to nursing: to support healing through loving kindness and caring.
A few nights before the recent violence spread around the world, from Beruit to Paris, I lay in bed cuddling my 7 year old daughter close. Every night I am blessed to be able to spend some time reading to my daughters and cuddling as they drift off to dreamland. For a few moments that evening, I found myself floating in a space where I felt like the mother of the universe was whispering to me, not in words, but through a deep felt intuitive process. I knew the goodness, the light, and the powerful strength of peace as they came through clearly to me, carrying with them the message that the mother of all, the earth as a complex system, will heal itself. After the moment of certainty passed, I was left with the usual feelings of uncertainty: how will the good and the light prevail in these times of darkness? Who will help make this happen? What is my role in this process?
Then tragedy struck, and violence and war continue to grow. The feelings of uncertainty have not dissipated, so I sit with those, but I also do remain strongly rooted in the belief that as nurses, we can support global peace and healing through our own efforts of creating local peace and healing. And that local peace starts at the place closest to us all, right from our hearts.
As we practice our own healing, creating our own peace and loving-healing processes, we can begin to spread that healing, peace, and love to others. A practice I try and do daily is called loving kindness meditation. I feel on many levels this practice is about my own healing and self-care so that I can be a better nurse, wife, and mother… and it is also about bringing that healing into the world.
I start with focusing on myself, in my heart space, and intending for myself healing through the following words:
May I know peace, joy, love, and ease. May my heart be full. May I be safe, healthy, and happy.
I than send this intention to the loved ones in my life, wishing them all love, peace, ease, happiness, health, and safety: family, friends, pets, students, and colleagues. As the circle of intention spreads outward, I send the intention and feelings of love and peace out to my “enemies” and challengers, and I end with the whole planet, with every being being sent the intention of peace, love, and healing. The process takes 5-10 minutes.
As nurses supporting healing, we can think and act both locally and globally. Imagine if every nurse sent out an intention, a prayer, a positive thought for healing and peace for the entire mother earth and all of the beings living here. Consciousness studies show that our thoughts and intentions impact our environment and reality. I think of Jean Watson’s call for us to practice loving kindness and Martha Rogers’ concept of Unitary Beings. We can reflect the patterns before us, we can create shifts in consciousness to support healing.
Despite the medical system’s over-emphasis on technology-cure-illness management, I still believe that nurses are truly called toward the healing that all beings are capable of experiencing. If you have been called to be a nurse, can you return to that calling, can you spare a few moments to consider the global situation, and what you can do as a nurse to support healing from the truly local level (yourself) and on to the global level?
I would love to hear from nurses and how they are supporting peace and healing around the globe. The call has been made, how will you answer?
h call has been made… how will you respond?
NurseManifest 
Dear Carey:
Thanks for saying this. One of the challenges of our profession is to practice healing on all, to try to withhold judgement, and practice compassion. Knee jerk reaction concludes that violence must be met with more violence, but that only brings about the end of the world. It takes courage to be a pacifist. In addition to targeted compassion, we need to listen to those who are the lived experts, those who suffer in the war torn corners of the world. What is their story? We need to be willing to hear some harsh truths about the role of the superpowers in the creation of the monsters who disrupt our sleep.
I participated in a Therapeutic Touch conference earlier this year. We ended the life affirming weekend with a mindful meditation, sending compassion out, receiving energy in. At the end we all spoke the names of those in need of healing compassion. I said ‘Isis’. I guess I’ll have to try harder!
I try to make sure that my circle of contacts are aware of all aspects of this story, to try to open minds and hearts. I also work on my own compassion, trying to be more accepting of anyone who challenges my belief system or expectations of them. Practicing compassion also means being compassionate with ourselves.
I will join you in sending compassionate intention out to the world. Perhaps we could designate a certain time of day for nurses around the world to stop, breathe and join forces for global healing!
Thanks again! And in the words of Bob Marley, One Love!
Namaste,
Bethany Powell
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Bethany, thank you for your thoughtful reply. Wouldn’t it be great if we did something like everybody or every nurse stop wherever they are at 0900, 1200, 1500 and spend a minute sending peace? Imagine….
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