Blog
When Pain Spikes
If you are a chronic sufferer, you know how miserable pain can be. Your initial reaction might be to take a pill or fight the experience with all you've got; however, the next time pain spikes, might want to try something different. When the pain increases, stop what...
Childhood Cancer
I just read an update in Oncology Nurse Advisor on the incidence of cancer in children. Cancer in children is rare, yet it is the leading cause of death by disease past infancy in the United States. The most common types of cancers in children ages 0 - 14 years are...
Pain is an experience.
According to Dr. Mauro Zappaterra, pain management specialist, every living creature experiences pain. It is described in the leading textbook Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation as "a subjective and entirely individual personal experience influenced by learning,...
Meditation and Mindfulness
Meditation is a journey from activity to silence ... a quieting of the mind. We are all out there in the world moving quickly. Meditation helps you to reconnect with yourself and your internal world, what I call the divine within. It is as simple as following your...
Sharing is …
I often hear from patients and women in crisis that sharing what they've created is the best part of our Create to Heal class. Sharing and listening are both acts of compassion, and compassion is healing. Healing, on any level, begins with hope and one's imagination....
A Conversation with My Heart
What is a conversation with your heart? A knowing deep inside you. A feeling of trust, wisdom and insight. The result can be a poem of love, a word of encouragement, a gem of joy from one person to another. It's a kindness, a smile of knowing - knowing what it is like...
Art and Palliative Care
I just read an article on Art and Palliative Care that was recently published in Oncology Nurse Advisor. Many palliative care programs utilize all forms of art to help cancer patients with their pain, fear and anxiety. This particular study conducted at The Mayo...
Healing is …
What is healing? Healing occurs on many levels. Part of it is being seen, being listened to, attended to, respected and honored. It is also taking time for self to be quiet and still, to connect with the Divine, to really listen to your body. Whatever we are not aware...
Spring has Sprung!
and, with it comes renewal, limitless possibilities, and the unknown, where everything is created. "If you want to control the future, the unknown, (our egos want to control!) be present in each moment and string these moments together ... as you would a necklace of...
Kindness as a Therapeutic Intervention
I just read a parting thought from the July/August 2016 issue of Holistic Nursing Practice. We've all heard of random acts of kindness, how about kindness as a therapeutic intervention? Fascinating to me that kindness and compassion are something we must teach health...