*1.0 CE* - Spirituality has been described by World Health Organization (WHO) constituents as the fourth aspect of health, yet it is rarely addressed among nurses and healthcare professionals.
Learning objectives:
Increase awareness of spirituality as a holistic approach to nursing.
Define spirituality as it relates to the patient and the nurse.
Explore nurse spiritual self-care as it relates to reducing workplace stress and burnout.
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Chelsea Gianna 0:11
So good morning, everyone. And thank you for being here with us today. My name is Chelsea Gianna and I'm with the American Nurses Association for California. Today's webinar is spirituality and nursing who cares and it's hosted by one of our valued and ANAC member, and media trade nurse Lisa DeLong. Today's topic will explore spiritual self care for nurses and its effect on patient care. Lisa DeLong is a powerful TED Talk speaker, author of the book Blood Brothers, which have this book right here, chief spiritual officer of thriving leader collaborative. She's a shaman, mother, nurse, and of course a powerful advocate. Lisa, thank you so much for hosting today's webinar and sharing your expertise and your story.
Lisa DeLong 0:57
Oh, thank you so much for having me. It's my great joy and honor to be here. And I love seeing all of your faces. Thank you for showing up for this really, really wonderful topic. It's my favorite topic in all the world. So truly, I was born a healer and became a nurse. I was about eight years old when I went fishing in at the Kern River. Anybody been to the Kern River here in California? Yeah, right. So a long time ago, it was it had water in it like much like it does now. And five kids in my family were at the Kern River, five kids in my cousin's family as my uncle's family as well. So it was this fun camping trip. And my brother started to fish and he caught some trout. And he put it in a bucket. And the and I was so excited little and I was looking at these fish. I've never seen wild caught fish before. And I noticed that one of them started to float, it started to die. And I showed it to my mother. And she's and I said, What can I do I have to help it, what can I do. And so she said, Well, if you take the little fish by the tail fin and push it back and forth in the water, that may be it will force enough oxygen over its gills and it will live. And so I did that I got the little fish. And I stepped into the water and that water was cold and the current was strong. And my feet were slipping on the rocks. But I was determined to try to save this little fish. So I got in the water. And I pushed it back and forth, and back and forth, holding it by that little tail thing back and forth. And all of a sudden I felt it take off out of my hands and back into the water and into the current and I and that that there was so much force that came back into that fish. And it just felt wonderful. And I remember standing there seriously in a state of wonder thinking, I just saved a life. I just saved a life. This is incredible. And that feeling is what ultimately led me to nursing school. So I have a question for you right now. As we explore our spiritual nature in relationship to nursing. Here's my question.
Are nurses born? Or made? What do you think?
Lisa DeLong 3:14
When I say I was born a healer? Do you? How do you respond to that? Go ahead and start entering your response in the chat. And let's take a look. If you think that you relate more to the I was born and nurse idea, put that in there, and maybe a few notes on how that happened? And what about if you feel like you know, I was made it took me a while took me a while to figure out I wanted to be a nurse. I didn't know I wanted to be a nurse. Something happened later in my life that really directed me there. And the reason I'm asking this question is so that we can explore this, you know, like, who cares about all this? And the World Health Organization, constituents recognize spirituality as the fourth aspect of well being. And yet, as nurses, we hardly ever have these conversations. In my training as a nurse, it was about the patient. What are the patient? What needs them spiritual needs? And we were like, really, we guild pretty hands off there. But what are our needs? What's happening to us at the bedside? And so let's take a look. What do we got? We've got some borns. I was both made and born, something happened. A gift early in life. I thought I was born to be a nurse. I definitely feels like I naturally am a healing person. And like you I think I decided to become a nurse.
Thank you both.
I think it's a calling in a sense. Yes. And because of our desire for to be compassionate. I was born after I was a firefighter and saw that power that they had. Wow. So firefighter first and then a nurse. Oh we that To amazing to experiences so powerful made, always interested in health. I believe it for me, it was a calling very, very interesting. Very good. Oh my gosh, I love this. I love this interaction. So thank you so much for that. And I agree clearly the answer is both. We are both made and, and born. So this may it to me, it's the How soon does it show up in our lives, right. And you can see by the responses and feel free to react to each other's responses as well. And take a look at those at the sheriff's because they're very telling about about who we are as a as a profession. The word voc hair is Latin for vocation. And it literally means to be called. Isn't that something. So we chose this vocation. And it's in alignment with our calling, and the word bouquet Beaucaire. Latin. So as we take a look at our, our what inspired us into this role. This next part takes me into what led me to nursing school, that feeling and I graduated from LA County USC Medical Center School of Nursing in 1983. Any county grads out there, anybody it was a long time ago, 1983 was a long time ago. And in those days, I used to live in the dorms, we had dorms on campus. And I used to love to go up onto the rooftop of the dorms and look out over the city, especially at sunset and when I went from a gray metropolis to this beautiful Bejeweled Lady of the city. And I would often wonder who's gonna get shot out there tonight. You know, it was like this, this enthusiasm for, for the experiences that I would have. And I was working on 9800 the floor. And mainly we took care of people who were had experienced gunshot wounds and stab wounds. And so this innocence, this enthusiasm, and up there with all of that sense of calling and responding to my calling, I never imagined that I would need my nursing skills more for my own children than for strangers. Justin was five when he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and he was in remission for almost 10 years. And then he relapsed and died at the age of 15 in those days is when the spiritual experiences of my life really started to open up. really started to that experience literally cracked me open. I was at his bedside, in the ICU at City of Hope. And the this was the night before he passed. And it was about three in the morning, I dozed off, my sitting in a plastic chair, feet propped on the bed, and I had a dream. And I dreamt that he was being resuscitated, that I stood at his doorway with my hand on the steel frame. And that I yelled three times to let him go.
And the next day,
about 12 hours later, the intensivist came in and said that Justin needed to be intubated. And so my husband and I went into the room next door, and we began to pray for our son. While we were in that room, we heard them call the code blue. The team went rushing past Justin's door into the room. And with the crash cart, and I got up, I walked over to the doorway. I steadied myself on that steel, cold doorframe, and I yelled three times to let him go. It wasn't until after his passing that day that I started to recognize that there's so much more going on, than what we experienced what we see with our eyes.
That dream was unlike anything I'd ever experienced before. And in the early days of grief and the deep throes of my sorrows. That dream is what kept me alive. It's what kept me curious. It's what kept me connected to some something bigger than myself. I did come from a religious background. So I had anchoring and beliefs and religious training. But this dream didn't make sense to me. I've never had something like this happen. And I always believed that, that God had a plan that was part of my upbringing. But at this junction in the throes of such deep, deep sorrow grief, I didn't like to plan ahead. It was I didn't like what was going on. Right? When we're in suffering like this. It's a terrible feeling. And but it was the spiritual experience that kept me going. It was that knowing that how, how could I see something in advance of it happening if there wasn't a plan. So in one way it was about it was validating my beliefs, and then the other it was also exercising my spiritual muscles in a way that had not been exercised before.
And so Justin clearly has been my greatest teacher. And because that experience cracked
me open, so let me ask you this, and also respond in the chat that would be great if you feel comfortable doing so. Who is your greatest teacher?
Was it a patient?
Was it a family member? Was it an experience? Was it a pet? Who has informed your understanding of your spiritual nature, the most profound thought, and at this junction in my life, I'm really great. I'm so grateful that I learned what I've learned.
From my son, and experience my children, family members,
nurses know things and as we grow we no more. That's to my patients, my son with the explanation point, my brother, my grandmother, and animals, domestic and wild, yes, they can be our greatest Oh, thank you so much for your responses. Personal experience as a hospice nurse CVS, my daughter, my middle daughter is a hospice social worker, and I'm so honored to be among hospice workers, my aunt who had MS and you took care of her a friend from Chico and a professor, family and experience my grandma Lola,
I just want to say that Grandma Lola, thank you, she had ra thank you this. You know, when we see people suffering as we do in nursing, it's sometimes we get a little bit tellest about it, you know. And so the whole point of this experience, this time being together is that we really connect with our heart and appreciation for these for our teachers, and appreciation for our patients appreciation for our life, and this lifeforce energy that's breathing us into being. When these things were happening in my life, as I was started seeing my life, the first a year without living with, you know, living without Justin, and then the next year, and the next year, I can't continue to have profound experiences. What I started to notice is that I could I started to reframe the experience. And it this took a lot of time. It's been 23 years since Justin passed. So I want you to know, if you're dealing with fresh grief right now, please, please be patient with yourself. Be gentle with yourself. These are tender, tender times when you're dealing with fresh grief. And I'm able to talk about these things because I wrote about it. And I shared it. And I did the TED talk. And I traveled the country speaking to nurses and health care professionals about these tender subjects. So please be gentle with yourself as if this conversation brings up anything in you anything too sensitive, take a deep breath and listen and feel into your heart. So in my experience, I love the word chaotic. Have you ever heard of the word chaotic? It's a it's an interesting word. And it means the combination of chaos and order at the same time, that when chaos exists, order is always seeking to emerge. And I've seen this in my own life over and over again. And especially after this very first chaotic experience in my life with just in passing. I started to look for it more and more so that it's part of this. Practicing your spiritual muscles as well is recognizing when you're in a state of pain or chaos, starting right away to ask yourself what is what is seeking to emerge from this experience? What can I learn from that and the sooner we start looking at our lives that way, the more we grow, especially our spiritual intelligence, because when we're in a chaotic way, or on a chaotic path, you might say that's when creativity expand Hands and more can come into your life. And that gives us a chance to, to ponder the things of our life. You'll notice that there's a handout that came with this presentation that I created for you with some more questions and places to write and ponder. Because these are sensitive, esoteric thoughts. And it'll move this conversation is moving ideas and, and emotion in you and emotion is energy in motion. So at the end when you've after you've clicked off, and you have some thoughts that things that you want to talk or talk to yourself about, or gain more clarity or reach out to me about, that's what that handout is for. So right now, you can relax and the quotes and quotes or references that I refer to all of that are in the handout. Okay, so I want you this to be a feeling time for you a chance for you to attend to your spirit as we have this time together. So, what sparked all of this interest for me most recently, was COVID. My speaking engagements went by when COVID hit. And that's when I started studying the shamanic way, which is the indigenous paths of many different peoples of the world. And I had time to kind of evaluate where it was where I am, where am I in my own path. And I started realizing that the end looking at if finding out that nurses were suiciding at such a high rate that I became very concerned. And certainly, health care organizations are facing the fallout from inadequate nursing staffing, in addition to the emotional and spiritual tools, that the pandemic lead to. So, in, in talking to nurses and leading groups and things that I do, I've been a bereavement facilitator, a grief camp leader, and worked with families and nurses in this field. And I've had the great privilege of hearing the stories of perhaps the nurse who had the head of patient visit her in a dream before passing, especially in the world of pediatric oncology, and living in that world as much as I have, have heard some amazing stories, speaking to healthcare, full whole healthcare systems and having people come up to me afterward, whether it's the CFO or the CFO or the CEO, and they'll say thank you for sharing your spiritual experiences with us. I have them too. I actually had a cardiologist approached me after one of my presentations. And that's exactly what he said. And he said, very often when I'm in an open heart surgery, holding a patient's heart, literally holding a patient's heart, he said, I can see them out of body in the in the low bar. And I was astounded that and honored that he shared that with me. And I said, Did you Have you ever told anyone this? And he said, No. Are you kidding? They would think I'm crazy, right? We have to be careful with our experiences. But I told him, Oh, my goodness, if I ever needed open heart surgery, I would want you to be my, my position, you know, to have that extra expertise. That extra sensitivity to me is a is a it's a plus it's a it's an add stronger connection to our patients. So what about you? What are you experiencing at the bedside? I talked to a critical care nurse leader recently and about COVID specifically and what it was like for her and, and she said it was intense. It was one patient death after another and they had some practices and rituals in place to honor their patients like standing at the bedside and honoring and having a moment as a team together for each patient. But there were so many that they were you know, like it was overwhelming. And she said, so I asked her what does it feel like? Do you notice a difference when you walk in the room? Can you tell when a patient passes? And she said yes. When a patient dies, you can feel the energy shift in the room. Right? Can you relate to that? Have you ever experienced that? If you feel comfortable responding to that in the chat, I'd be honored to read your responses if you too have had an experience. Yes, definitely. I see a definitely. Yep.
Lisa DeLong 19:39
if you've ever experienced it, you know the feeling and as a mother baby nurse, which is what I did most of my acute care career. I definitely felt it at first breath as well, when that baby came out, and took that first breath and the lungs filled up and responding to the atmospheric pressure. No Doing some of the science behind that, you know, that oxygen molecule, landing on hungry lungs, looking for hemoglobin pumping straight to the heart and getting everything going. And you know that that moment of anticipation. I've been at the bedside of both first breath, and last breath. And I have to say, for me, I could feel the energy shift. I felt it, it makes me cry, even thinking about it now. It's intense. It's an everybody, everybody. Everybody on the planet comes in this way, and goes out this way with first breath, and last breath. And so as nurses were, we're so privileged to be a part of that. Definitely, I love these responses. I knew when my grandfather passed, and I was 1000s of miles away. Yes, that's what I'm talking about. Definitely. I worked. Ed for 35 years, and you feel it? That's right. Definitely life and death, the energy changes when the patient passes, and the body changes from a person to an expanded shell. Yes, I agree. And if we have ever experienced that, we know, we know that that's true. It's a feeling. And it's, it's no surprise that as nurses, we are able to feel that not everyone is able to. So it's a continuation of the Beaucaire the calling. And I think that's just the most beautiful thing about being a nurse that we can feel these things. So this is how we can support ourselves and grow and sustain our energy and our able ability to lead ourselves so that we can lead our patients and other and other loved ones around us as well. So when I, once again, when I read about nurses suiciding, and the came out of the CDC report in 2017, and 2018, it was done, where there was the highest rate of suicide suicide ever recorded. And that was the pre
Lisa DeLong 22:12
two years to three years before this intense pandemic, we were already as a as a as nurses, we were already feeling the stress and the depletion of our spirit because for me, having led many grief groups. When I talk to people about suicide, many in many of the grief groups I've led, people will share that at some point in their life. They thought about it, they've thought about wanting to exit and leave their own, you know, they want out they're done. I certainly felt that way. At times in my grief, there were nights where I would lay in bed and just say, God, please, please let me die in my sleep. Please, I It's so painful to wake up without Justin and on I have three other children. So I had Jessica who was 10 Joelle who was seven, and Jacob who was only nine months old when Justin passed. So this was, I can relate to the longing to be out of these bodies. And at the same time, I can relate to the joy of being in body as we attend to our spirit. But what and these are spiritual matters you we've we've gotten pretty good in health care and understanding mind and body, incredible progress in mindfulness, and better body care and things like that. But we're still really frightened, in very limited in conversations about spiritual matters. But when it comes to life and death, I'm jumping in this is there's there are ways to attend to our spirit to restore our joy, and restore our desire to live and I have lived this personally. And what I've learned is that our bodies are responding to energy, we are energetic beings. And the best way I can describe this to you is from another story. And I am a storyteller as you can tell. And I love that practice, especially in shamanic teaching is that traditions for 1000s of years have shared by sharing story shared their beliefs and their knowings and their insights through stories to end generation and prayers and things that were handed through storytelling. And so this experience came six years after Justin passed. Jacob, my youngest son was also diagnosed with leukemia. And I want to share with you upfront that he is alive and well. I do not want you to suffer. In hearing this story. He is alive and well. He's 23 years old. He lives in Oregon. I live in California and he's he's doing very well so Oh, thank you, I can feel that lift of Oh, no, please tell me we don't have to hear this again, you know.
Lisa DeLong 25:07
But I had an experience at his bedside and a moment in his treatment when he where he very nearly did die, that I want to share with you. He had VOD, you know, obstructive disease in response to liver toxicity because of chemotherapy. And he was in full blown DIC. He was bleeding out. And his oncologist told us, my husband and I into the room that that conference room the nope, no parent ever wants to be in. But there we were, again. And he said, If Jacob doesn't start urinating in the next 24 hours, that he is not likely to survive. And when I heard those words, again, I mean, it's just that I can't do this again. And I left that room and I walked down the hallway at Children's Hospital, Los Angeles, and I was angry. And I there was this big floor to ceiling window and I looked out the window and I could see the Hollywood sign. And I could see Sunset Boulevard and people walking by and in cars, zipping and going in a woman pushing a shopping cart, another and a man with a briefcase, all this life going on out there. And I just I raised I just thought I can't do this again. I raised my fist to God, and I said, Stop picking on my boys. I was angry to stop it. And I think I said it out loud. And all of a sudden, in that moment, I felt a sense of peace pour over me from the crown of my head, all the way to the bottom of my feet. And I knew that Jacob would live. I knew it. I knew it in my bones. I knew it in my marrow, I had absolutely zero doubt at that moment that he will live and I was in complete bliss. I was. I was I was overjoyed in a blissful state. And I thought to myself, how could I feel this good when my son is dying? What is happening here? It was a profound spiritual experience. Now, if you were the nurse walking by me at that time, or seeing me in the hallway going, you know these different things going on. We you would never know. That's what I was experiencing.
Lisa DeLong 27:19
I didn't know what I was experiencing. So I sort of floated back to his room got myself nuzzled in for the night. And about three in the morning, Jake kind of whispered Papa, pop, I have to pee pee and we jumped out of our chairs and we they've held the urinal and urine started flowing again and all of the the fluid that had threatened his life, all of the imbalances completely shifted, and the chest X ray the next morning showed all of the fluid gone. That was really threatening his his breathing. And the medical team thought that the X rays had been mislabeled because they had never seen anyone could recover from VOD so quickly. And Jacob went home completely intact and healthy within 48 hours, within 48 hours,
from full blown DMC to home, surprising his sister's nothing on the front door and saying I'm home. It was amazing. It was amazing. And we got our miracle. We got our miracle. And the thing is, the ICU was full at that time. And so the the floor nurses, the HEMA nurses had to become critical care, nurses, have you ever had to do that step in, pull from resources that you didn't even know you had? This is how it is, as nurses, we show up. And those people who showed up or the help manifested that miracle miracles manifest through people, people like you. And people like me, who answer our vote care are calling. And so what I felt that day, I can only describe it as energy. And the definition I like to use for spirituality is question number three, what is your definition of spirituality? What I prefer is that it is energy that it comes from the Greek word NUMA or breath. Right? When someone has pneumonia, it's they can't they have suppressed breath. In an indigenous path, you'll often hear breath of life. And I love that because I met and once again breath of life at first breath carrying us throughout our lifetimes and then breath of life at last breath. So this field of energy is that if Chelsea Can you pull up the image of the, the Torah command,
Speaker 1 29:49
as far I'll go ahead and share my screen. Let me know if you see it on your end.
29:56
There, there Yes, thank you
Lisa DeLong 29:58
you. Perfect. Thank you so much. This is how I felt standing in that long in that corridor. This is what it felt like to me. And I didn't understand this the electromagnetic field of the heart there is science, quantum field, quantum physics is showing that we then discovered making more and more discoveries about how energy works in our body and on the planet. So this self circulating self fulfilling, self sustaining cycle of energy. And that, you know, like I said, I didn't know this at the time, and I was learning from a teacher, and she showed this, who was teaching about energy in the body, and she showed this image and I just, it was like, Whoa, that's what it felt like. No, I have an image that I can relate to. This is exactly what it felt like. Have any of you ever had a feeling like this? Thank you, you can take that down now. Thank you. Let's take a look in the chat. Can you relate to this feeling? Maybe? It was more or less intense? I don't know. I'd love to see alert node. Absolutely. Thank you love this image. And more is coming. Oh, that's from Ann. Hi, Ann. Para, new technologies. That's right. Oh, several times. For me a covering a piece? Yes. Thank you. Yes, several times. We are so fortunate to live in a body that can feel these senses. You know, we talk about having five senses. And that's based on very old discoveries by Aristotle, we're starting to learn more and more that we have more senses that we understand or have names for. There, we actually have point 07 volts of electrons of electric energy in the neurons in our body. These neurotransmitters, we have billions of neurotransmitters. So according to Popular Science, and one article that I read years ago, and that I kind of kept was this like having over 4 million batteries in your brain? Can you imagine? We are so much we are such energetic beings, that it's no wonder we have these experiences. I prayed once when I was I'm reading the chat. I prayed once when I was concerned about my husband and felt that overwhelming sense of peace that surpasses all understanding. Exactly. We hear about these things in religious traditions, spiritual traditions, and many, of course, yoga and Hindu traditions, or Vedic medicine, on and on. I don't leave anyone out. Christian tradition. There's so much talk, Scripture and ancient wisdom about energy. And so the way it's so to me, it's interesting that we, as nurses also don't receive any training about energy. And it especially because we're seeing it come in, and we're seeing it go out, and we're experiencing it. So that's why I love this conversation. So one way that we can restore our lifeforce energy. I need to back up here a little bit. I feel like I missed an opportunity. And that is, what is your definition of spirituality? I have a couple that are on the notes on your notes. But I want to know what your definition of spirituality is.
Give me a minute. It's it's a, it's a deep question that the longer definition that I like to go with is that the knowing that we are perfectly purposeful unfolding of life, in our connection between ourselves and the rest of creation. The thing about spirituality it is, it's an umbrella. It's like the overarching element piece to everything else we do. So it can include religion, but it isn't necessarily religion. So spirituality is not religious mind body holistic purpose. Spirituality is having an open heart, mind and spirit to the forces of the universe seen and unseen. Hearing from and being led by Holy Spirit, great creative balance. one facet is knowing there is more than the physical experience. Yes, my relationship with God and connection to my spirit that is connected to the heavens and greater purpose. I love this. This is making me cry. It's just it's feeling me as well. Energy passes through us as beings throughout the universe. I'm so honored to receive these responses. It's rare. It's so rare to have these conversations with you. Ah, are you feeling like your cup is overflowing a little bit? Like there's some good meaningful conversation here. Thank you. For Tality brings reason and rationale to me. I believe in spirituality. It's one connection to the world and the center of source energy being connected to a source of all creativity ever evolving heart, mind, body spirit belonging to something more transient, transcendent. Oh, thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you spirit chaotic. Yes. Are you seeing the chat? Totally invigorating my soul? Thank you. Thank you. Oh, such important conversation. So as we talk about energy, I'd like to know how do you restore your lifeforce energy? What do you do? What are your practices? You've been serving others your whole life? How have you maintained this? How have you done it? So one of the things that I've learned is to pay attention to my body. I like to invite nurses to, you know, we're taught to do a head to toe assessment, right? We walk in we head to toe assessment on our patients, and we live with that our whole lives, right? Anytime I am in a group of people, I'm constantly looking at their color, their tone, like you just you just do it automatically. And we can start doing that for ourselves. Look at these great responses. Yes, it is rare that we can do this. Yes. And being quiet in nature. That's my number one in nature. This is how I attend to my spirit is being in nature, it gets sunshine, nature and meditation, prayer, reflection, intentional rest, hiking alone with friends, as long as I'm in nature with a water source. That's me, I'm a water person. And fortunately for me, I live by the beach, just a walk a short walk to the beach, and I get in the water I got in the water this morning. And it's so restorative, we need these practices, if we're going to continue to serve others, we have to find ways to restore our life, force energy. And if you can't get out to nature, yoga, yes. All kinds of meditation, movement writing, I like to dance, I'm a dancer, I partner dance. And so the combination of getting outdoors, and if I'm really feeling X sometimes so really, you know, like something stuck. If I go dancing, do some swing dancing, or, you know, a little Lindy Hop, ballroom and being in community with others, because that's another way we restore our energy is to be in healthy communities with other people. All of these things are how we can maintain and restore our energy. Thank you so much. And if you can't, if you're on the floor, and you're taking care of patients, the quickest thing you can do is just put your hand on your belly. Try doing that right now. Just put your hand on your belly, and X exhale, first, you always want to exhale first, if you inhale first, you can actually cause a fight or flight response. So you want to inhale, exhale first and just feel fill your belly fill up with air. When you inhale, your exhaling, fill your belly like it's a balloon, and get that breath to go down into your belly. And you can do this anytime I have my hand on my heart, hand on my belly. And if I'm feeling like somebody pushed my buttons about something, I can let it go, I send it down into the earth using my breath. And that is a beautiful practice that all of us can do in an instant grounding, where you can stand barefoot on the ground. We live in a modern world, most of us wear shoes in the house, we wear shoes when we go outside, and we never touch the Earth and Earth has its own energy. So a great thing to do is just simply take your shoes off and go outside. I realize that can't always happen because it's cold out and things like that. But if you can get out there and get those get that connection with her. So my love Native American teachings and there is a professor of physics in Canada. His name is Dr. Leroy Little Bear. And he has been quoted as saying, well, physicists were contemplating the particle wave duality of electrons and matter in general. Little Bear asserted that in native science, it's all waves, energy waves, and those waves are spirit. That's what the language that I'm so interested in, in, in native teachings. So as we're facing these, what I call global grief, this bigger or awareness that we have of disasters and loss of life throughout the world right now. It's really important that we attend to our spirit that we are the wise ones. I feel as if you're stepping into the bedside of people that you're a wise one, a wise man or wise woman, you carry deep seated wisdom in your yes to this calling. And so it's, there's, there's lots of ways to talk about spirituality. How many of you are familiar with emotional IQ? Or EQ? Have you heard of that?
Yeah, raise your hand if you've heard of EQ. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
So all of the things that we do to attend to our spirit, like you're talking about in the chat, practicing your religion, the practicing religion and praying to God, prayer and meditation, reading the Bible, reading ancient texts, and letting being led by the Holy Spirit. All of these things nature, dogs, walks, travel, prayer, all of these things are how we exercise our spiritual muscles. And much like the practice or understanding of emotional intelligence, that there's there's a whole list of things that are have been identified. spiritual intelligence, spiritual quotient, is similar, except spiritual intelligence really underpins IQ, our intelligence and our emotional intelligence. So, when we become aware of these practices, when we become aware of these sensations, and experiences, and we learn how to attend to our spirit, of the word attend in Latin is 10. Deer, and it means to stretch, it means to extend and stretch forward, toward, and that these are the things that I teach at thriving leader, collaborative are the six pillars of spiritual well being, so that you can grow your spiritual intelligence, your spiritual muscles, and it is real and it is, and it you can do it, the very first aspect of spiritual intelligence, similar to emotional intelligence, the very first thing and everything starts with self awareness. And self awareness is is that is the key. This is us recognizing that we're seeing the world from our own eyes, our we have our own perspective of everything that's going on. And the way that I learned this is through another experience that I'll share with you quickly. This was after Justin died. I was living in a new house, we moved and Jacob was 18 months old. And I was sitting on the floor of my living room, looking at the portrait of Justin, because I didn't want to forget what he looked like. I was deep in the throes of fresh grief. And little Jacob was toddling around. And I had this thought, I thought, I'm not going to love this baby. I'm not going to love him,
I'll make it look good on the outside. I'll feed them and clothe them, but I am never loving this big again. I just won't do it. And in that moment, Jacob came over to me, and I was thinking these things silently, he came over to me, he crawled up on my lap, and he slapped me across the face as hard as he could slap really hard, because have you ever had a little kid slap you? Or head by you? You know, and he was too little to talk. He couldn't form sentences, but I knew what he was saying. He was saying, I'm here, mommy love me, I'm here love me. He literally grabbed my face, forced me to look in his eyes. And I realized that I had, I wasn't even making eye contact with my own baby. This is what grief can do. This is how devastating it is. And what I noticed in that moment, is that I had a choice. I became self aware. I noticed my thought and I asked where did this come from? Where did this thought come from? And here on out, I have to make a choice. I can either stay in fear and contract and hide and keep it off and live the rest of my life in fear, or I can love all out and just let go and love all out. And I said I'm loving all out. Look at this child in front of me. Look at this. I have two daughters to help the daughters my husband. And this connection with Justin still all of this was happening so fast. And I grabbed Jacob and I hugged them and I kissed them and I snapped and I cried and cried a big ugly messy sob. If you ever had a big ugly messy sob it's so important. Our tears are healing saltwater there for us. We're designed to cry. So as nurses, I know for me I'm not an easy crier, and I can stay strong for my patients and stay strong for my family. But I have to go and I have to force myself to cry go to Justin the graveside sometimes and I listened to have done this a long time. But I used to have to like, let it out. I go there and listen to the songs in my car, the songs that we played in his memorial. And I'd force myself to cry because I was so closed. You know, this an open heart easy criers, I love you. I know I'm trying to be an easier crier. But this is important. This is how we attend to our spirit as well is to live and to lead ourselves from a place of love. When you start to contract and constrict. This is a moment of self awareness that you can say, Hold on, I can see what's going on here. Have you ever had that happen? Do you have a story you want to tell us in the chat? Our heels? Our tears help to heal us? Yes. God sends amazing messages through children. Yes, he does. She He,God, Goddess, lifeforce energy, there's so many names for this. The definition of spirituality shared here is the knowledge of the Trinity and my relationship with Jesus Christ, you know, our I love where I'm at personally in my relationship to the religions I've experienced in my lifetime, because I'm very curious. And so I've kind of gone through one and expanded in order to moon and the end, the beautiful thing about being human is that we continue to expand and explore, and our lives are teaching us this, and spirit stays with us. This energy force is with us all the time. So another thing you can do to to grow your spiritual intelligence is to be in community. And often that is in churches, you can also be in rituals, and circles, the those are my favorites. At this time, I like love being in circle with people where there's a fire in the middle, and you're having conversation and some wonderful time together. We do that through movement, and practicing presence, present moment awareness. Being here now in this is a practice in itself, trusting our intuition. Intuition is a sort of is a defense mechanism built into all of us, we all have intuition, and the more we trust it and know it and learn it is which I teach how to feel it in our body, the more peace we have in our life. And then of course, practicing energetic hygiene, which is a real thing. I teach that as well and practice that and help people with that in one on one sessions, and in retreats that I that I host. And these things are, it's, it's we have this sometimes we get congested energy, and there's things that we can do in simple ways to move that energy out. First thing is to notice it, and be aware of it. One of the things I do in an instant, is when I have a fear thought, like I was sharing about Jacob, or that story about Jacob is when I feel myself, I catch myself with a fear thought the first thing I do is snap my fingers. I just go snap. Oh, um, you know, if I have a thought that I'm not good enough for this, to present this to do this presentation today? Yes, you are. I don't have the skill set to to, I feel afraid to turn the computer on things. Nope. Took that right there. And so I encourage you to catch your thoughts. Notice what you're what you're thinking, because that affects your energy. And right now what I would like to share with you is a something I share with live audiences every time I speak and they'd be my honor, if you would join me in this. Just take a deep breath for a moment and relax and put down anything that's in your hands. If you have a pencil or pen or bone. Just put down anything it's in your hands, and take your hands and put them in front of you and just look at them. Look at the nuances of your hands. And think about all the patients that your hands have touched. Think about them. Think about how these hands have served. And in particular, think about one patient, one person in your life that these hands have touched. There's not another pair of hands quite like yours. The only ones think about have you maybe it was changing a dressing or starting an IV or maybe you're typing in information,handing someone something. Think of the mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers that these hands have touched. It is my great honor and privilege in this moment with those people in your mind To say thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, as I go page by page on site, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, all of you, all of you, thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing your skills and your gifts and sharing them with families like mine. You are the healers. You are the nurses who said yes to your calling. And as we celebrate Nurses Week, we celebrate each other. And it is my great honor to once again remind you that you are spiritual beings, energy beings. And I appreciate you in ways, perhaps more than you can imagine.
Speaker 4 51:01
Thank you for stepping into the river for feeling the current. Thank you.
Lisa DeLong 51:09
Now, take those hands and rub them together. Feel the heat running faster, rather than harder. Feel the energy in your hands. And then take those hands and give yourself a hug like this. This actually does relax your nervous system, you can take yourself anytime. If you were in person, I would be hugging all of you right now. One, one at a time. So this is my hug to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I'll close with this Lakota prayer. This is a Native American prayer. Great Mystery. Teach me how to trust my heart, my mind my intuition, my inner knowings the senses of my body and the blessings of my spirit. Teach me to trust these things. So that I may walk in balance with the passing of each glorious sun. Amen. I hope that this our minds are one. Thank you so much for having me. And feel free to reach out. I would love to hear from you. My contacts are on this. All the contact info is on the sheet.
Wow.
Speaker 1 52:23
Wow, that was amazing. Thank you so much for joining us today to share your incredible story as a mom of two boys. Um, I've heard this story a couple different times. And it hits me differently every single time I hear it. So it's, it's fantastic. We do have a few minutes left. So if anybody has any questions, please feel free to unmute yourself. Ask me some questions. I think we have about eight minutes left. So then you will also be receiving a CE certification form sent to your email as well after this webinar. So again, raise your hand unmute yourself and just ask any questions.
Lisa DeLong 53:02
I would love to take your questions and love some more shared stories too. If it's not a question, and you just feel like wow, I just want to share this to affirm and anchor the experience. I would love to hear that too. Oh, thank you for the thank yous.
Oh, there's a good question from I don't know zoom user, I am actually an MRI technologist that joined this. I'm curious how webinars like these can be expanded to other allied health professional fields. I'll go what do you suggest? Mainly?
Well, the way I can answer that is mainly by sharing the information if you found this webinar helpful, and you're hungry for this kind of content in your, in your in your healthcare in your field, reach out to your education departments, to your team leaders and say hey, there's this person who talks about this and I want to hear more I want I want this message in my in our in my facility. I've spoken to whole healthcare systems 2000 People audiences, where this is you know, this is not strictly energy is not restricted to nurses. It's everyone and everywhere. And anyone who shows up and you know, I think of a hospital as a sacred space. We walk in the door these four walls, these things that I the stories that I shared with you all happened in a hospital Justin's bedside, the nurses didn't know these things were happening. The text didn't know these things were happening. And these are sacred spaces where things are happening that we. When we embrace and understand more, it can make us better help us be better at what we do. So thank you, Cheryl.
Speaker 1 55:24
Does anybody else have any other questions for Lisa. And this is not going to be the end of seeing Lisa. So we're working with her on a couple other projects here at ANA\C. So the amplified are a new show, she's going to be on one of our segments. So that's really exciting. And if you wanted to get in contact with her, we can also share her email address and contact information. And of course, you can reach out to myself or Jared. And we can also get you into contact with her as well. Thank you, I'm
Lisa DeLong 56:37
seeing some nice comments here to totally agree. I've had energy exchanges with patients try for the webinar. Thank you for the webinar and wonderful electromagnetic diagram. Yeah. And from a para that she's putting together a multidisciplinary team for our next presentation. It is enriching. Thank you. And you were such an inspiration when I saw you.
Diane Breckenridge 57:01
Thank you for being here. And thank you. And Lisa, what's the name of your TED Talk?
Lisa DeLong 57:07
It's called changing the face of death. If you if you Google changing the face of death DeLonge you'll find it did a number of years ago when my book came out that led to the TED Talk and a TED Talk led to speaking I was on a speaker's bureau that was based in Pensacola, Florida after that, and I was invited to speak and share all over the country and Canada. And, yeah, it's been a very enriching experience. And my book has been helpful to nursing students. It's been required reading and recommended reading for nursing programs for a patient experience. I did not write it as a nurse. It is not a medical book. It is a memoir. And so it is a firsthand experience and nurses are find it quite helpful to read as well.
Thank you. And Ted Talk is also shared in the chat as well. Thank you,
Lisa DeLong 57:59
Jared. I didn't have gray hair back then.
Different you'll see. Yeah. Anything else? Oh, all right.
Lisa DeLong 58:13
You've done my heart. Good people. Thank you so much for allowing my share.
Lisa, thank you so much for being here on behalf of ANA\C. And also like as mentioned before, this was a CE provided course so please check your emails and provide the CE evaluation form so you can receive your certificate. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me. And I would love to see you at our next seminar. Thank you so much. Lisa will talk to you soon.
Thanks, please. Lots of love. Bye bye.