Holistic Nursing and Wellness Services

Work Life Balance

May 6, 2008

Greetings from Marie

 

Welcome to the May 2008 edition of Tips and Notes. I hope you are enjoying this monthly publication. Your feedback including questions you would like answered, are valued. Please send them to marieknapp@dallacor.com.

Please feel free to forward this to friends and colleagues as you wish. I am looking forward to a continually expanding readership as more and more people engage more actively in taking responsibility for their wellness. People reading this as an email from a friend can easily subscribe to receive it monthly by going to the subscribe page on the web site.

If this is your first “Tips and Notes”, you may wish to read the March 1st issue on my web site. Being the first issue, it lays some ground work upon which the rest will be built. It is located on the web site. Just click here www.dallacor.com to see it in a different screen. It will be easy to come back here.

To discover what is being offered through DallaCor, please scroll to the end of this message.

    Messages for May

Happy Spring!

My apologies for my tardiness this month. I made a decision to ignore the goal I had set to have this go out May 1st, and instead wait until I could take the time make it the best I can. The format of the newsletter is becoming clearer to me now. I appreciate your feedback on this one. A personal message from me is followed by several tips that refer to observations I have made, articles I have read, and such. I offer you links to sites that can give you more detailed information on topics. DallaCor offerings are at the bottom. You can scroll down to find them but hopefully will take your time reading the informative material related to wellness that fills the remainder of Tips and Notes.

    Marie’s Musings

Spring is a time of cleaning, sorting, going through things you have had for a long time and getting rid of lots. Sometimes you get rid of old things because they no longer have meaning for you. Perhaps its usefulness is outlived because the kids have all left now, or your interest in that aspect of your life has dwindled. Perhaps it is just clutter, something unnecessary and by keeping it the other real gifts get hidden or overwhelmed. Perhaps it is actually something that holds feeling from the past — either bad or good feelings, and rather attached to you, though you want to let them go. Some is garbage … truly garbage and deserves only to be thrown out in the dump or the recycling depot. Some things you can give away to friends and family, or to a used clothing depot.

I love metaphors and see spring cleaning and de-cluttering as a perfect metaphor for what we need to do inside. By getting rid of the clutter and the garbage we hold within, we leave room for new adventures and/or let the gifts we hold become more visible and less overwhelmed by the unnecessary trash we had chosen to hang onto too long .. and now are tossing.

I wish you happy spring cleaning, both without and within.

 

    Keep well by taking charge of your health.

Work-life Balance

Being Mental Health Week in Canada, means the media is writing articles about recent statistics describing the effects of workplace stress and lack of work-life balance on productivity, illness, and absenteeism. Interesting that this is finally getting more attention. It has been pointed out to large businesses and organizations that a healthy workplace does actually affect the bottom line for well over a decade. Is it so necessary to reach a point of crisis before people pay real attention to this phenomenon? Congratulations to those workplaces that already have workplace wellness programs in place.

I would like to share with you a model I use to help me understand how we get to a point of reaping the benefits of things coming together that far exceed what is possible with each one separately. The model takes the shape of a three dimensional pyramid (in other words not just a triangle).

Most of the time we like to think of two factors coming together to create an effect. For example in the case of work-life balance, it is more beneficial to have an organizational commitment as well as employees who are willing and able to take responsibility for their health to make a workplace wellness program work. Development of the staff as well as the managers is necessary.

My experience tells me that there is always a third factor that contributes significantly (forming the three-pointed base of the pyramid). It is worth the effort to determine what that third point may be in an effort to really effect change and positive results. The peak of the pyramid represents the effect that is far greater than the sum of the parts and transcends the challenges within them. I wonder if, in the case of work-life balance, the thrid point may be a more conscious awareness of the core beliefs we hold. These would be the subconscious thoughts that run our lives. By making them conscious, we can work at cognitively reinterpreting them to allow us to change the habits of the employees and the decision making of the organization.

Remember when we were focused on removing barriers in the workplace and talked about systemic discrimination? Perhaps there is an element of systemic beliefs about workplace productivity that need to be brought to the consciousness of the organization as well as the individuals working there. I am interested in hearing your thoughts and experience on this topic. I will continue this discussion next month.

Hand Washing correctly can help keep you well.

During my recent winter visit to Guatemala where I volunteered for a few mornings in one of the hospitals for the poor, I became very aware of the importance and lack of attention to hand washing. When I was teaching Nursing, hand washing was the first lab experience we offered the new students. When I was a nursing student in the 60s studying at St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, we would chuckle when we noticed our Chief Bacteriologist enter the cafeteria through a closed door by using a piece of paper towel to turn the knob. He was protecting himself from the many germs floating all around the hospital and collecting in great numbers on the cafeteria door knob. He knew well how rapidly micro-organisms spread via our hands. The developed world works diligently to create programs to prevent a pandemic. It could be that whole hospitals, staff as well as patients, in developing and developed countries could be wiped out quickly because of lack of attention to a simple method of prevention: hand washing. Both at home and travelling we visit hospitals, airports, public transportation, schools at all levels, department stores, and grocery stores. Hands are everywhere. The microorganisms of the world are nearby. How do we protect ourselves?

Please follow this link to our local Grey Bruce Health Unit website. Review the techniques for good hand washing. Consider printing off the poster for your bathroom or your fridge to share the information with others especially your family.

Research on the effectiveness of prayer

It may be surprising for some of you to hear that there has been research done on the positive effects of prayer. In a 1993 book by Larry Dossey MD, called Healing Words: The power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine, you can find ample information on the subject. Last issue I referred you to the Wellness Workbook by Travis and Ryan. On pages 288-9 of that book, the authors refer to Dossey’s work and write:

“Over half of them [reference to studies previously conducted by others before Dossey re the efficacy of prayer] strongly indicated that prayer was a significant factor in the patient’s healing. In one of the most remarkable studies prayer was studied with heart patients in a modern hospital. The group that were prayed for, even without knowing they were being prayed for, recovered more completely and with fewer complications that the ‘un-prayed for’ control group.”

Interesting work. Travis and Ryan expand on the understanding of what prayer is in their words:

“The subject of prayer brings us into a vast domain of faith, belief, religion, and spirituality. What we are talking about here, as we consider wellness and transcendence, is the way in which our thoughts – which include our beliefs—connect us within a web of relatedness for greater than our immediate circumstances might indicate. God or Spirit or the Universal Energy are some names we assign to this vast web.”

I believe that Dossey’s research on prayer could also include what some would call “sending light and love” to others and some would call “distant healing” in energy work.

When Therapeutic Touch is most effective

As a student of Therapeutic Touch, Healing Touch and a Reiki Master, I pay attention to how these specific modalities can be used. The following is taken from the book written by Dolores Kreiger RN PhD in her book “Accepting Your Power to Heal”. This book is recommended reading for anyone learning Therapeutic Touch (TT). Kreiger wrote the following on pages 12 and 13 of her book. The book was written in 1993 and is still referred to today. In square brackets, I have included my personal experience with these points.

“There are several consistent and highly reliable results of the Therapeutic Touch interaction:

• Relaxation. The first response of the healee is a very rapid relaxation response, in many instances occurring in as little as two to four minutes. [I have been invited to do TT with some of the residents of a nursing home and find they often fall asleep within the first two minutes of the session]

• Pain Reduction. Clinically, there is a significant amelioration or eradication of pain. In many cases, this occurs when analgesics are no longer effective for ill persons. Many terminally ill patients, once freed from the stress of persistent pain, are able to go on to a peaceful transition into death. [TT is always offered as a complement to contemporary forms of medical and nursing care.]

• Accelerated healing process. Primarily because the relaxation response and the relief of pain have salutary effects on the healee’s immunological system, Therapeutic Touch accelerates the healing process. One of the clearest examples of this is healing bone fractures. With Therapeutic Touch, good callus formation (the precursor to bone development) can be seen in x-rays in approximately two and a half weeks, rather than the six weeks it usually takes. [I remember taking Healing Touch Level 1 and hearing the story from one of the assistants about a broken bone situation. When the person finally got to the Emergency Dept 4 hours later, the Physician could not believe that the injury occurred only 4 hours previous as the x-ray showed what would have been a 2 day old injury.]

• Alleviation of psychosomatic illness. Of the physiological systems that are sensitive to Therapeutic Touch, my choice for the most sensitive is the autonomic nervous system. Therapeutic Touch deals best with many of this system’s dysfunctions, which are at the heart of what are known as the psychosomatic illnesses, but today it is recognized that up to 70 percent of the illnesses in the world are psychosomatic in origin. This is because stress-related illnesses are pandemic, even in Third-World countries. It is the sensitivity of the autonomic nervous system to Therapeutic Touch that creates the consistent and rapid relaxation response.” [15 years after this book was written I suspect that the 70% comment has risen. Many would say that all pathology is stress-related. It is my experience that a big question often remains. Why did some people exposed to the micro-organism or receiving the genetic program not develop the health challenge? Could it be that a stress response is what triggers the actual development of the challenge or the exacerbation of the chronic illness to which a person is predisposed?]

Some references for information on plastics choices

Recently a friend of mine sent me the following web site which may be helpful in guiding your decisions. We can easily get bogged down in fear. You might find the following site useful in your decision-making. I do not know anything about the author. Within the site you will find reference to specific alternatives for example for plastic drinking bottles and baby bottles. Click here for an informative site. I am happy to share other informative sites with you as I receive them.

Recent research on ways to help reduce the risk of heart disease

According to a recent University of Toronto study, adding curcumin, a natural ingredient in the spice turmeric, to the food you prepare may reduce the chance of developing heart failure. For more information about this refer to the web site and/or the February edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

In this research the herb was given to mice with enlarged hearts. They found it could not only prevent further enlargement, it actually reversed the failure. Heart failure is the inadequate contracting of the heart muscle for a variety or reasons. It generally results in insufficient amounts of oxygenated blood feeding the rest of the body. At the same time there is a back-log of blood in the large veins leading to the heart which can cause congestion in the lungs (left sided failure) and/or congestion in the organs of the abdomen (right sided heart failure). Many people have very early stages of this form of heart disease.

The researchers in this study advise patients to wait until more clinical trials are done on humans before taking Curcumin routinely. The healing properties of turmeric or curcumin have been recommended by Naturopaths for some time. In her book The Complete Natural Medicine Guide to Women’s Health, Dr Sat Dharam Kaur ND advises us on Heart Disease in Women. In the section on Prevention and Treatment, pg 448, she recommends the following:

“Eat Anti-inflammatory Foods
Use several cups of organic green tea, 2 tsp or more of tumeric, an onion a day and fresh gingerroot to decrease inflammation and supply antioxidants.”


As a nurse I remind you that you can also reduce your risk of heart disease by lowering your blood pressure, practicing heart healthy eating programs, exercising and managing your weight. Managing your stress by progressive relaxation exercises, guided imagery, hypnosis and energy work has been effective for many in reducing blood pressure and risk of heart disease.

 

What’s Up At DallaCor

 

Mentoring Program: Human Energy Systems

This module of the Mentoring Program will be offered in September and early October 2008 over 4 weeks. It includes three group sessions and one individual session in which you decide the focus. Interested people should let me know what times work best for you and I will work on finding a time that accommodates most. (mornings, afternoons or evenings and what day of the week).

The modules will be a guide through some basic learning and experiences with the energy fields, including the seven major chakras with their distinct energies. The module is meant to give you some experience with your own energy and the energy of the other participants. The focus is on self care and self healing in daily living and life challenges. For more details check my website

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Reiki

I have had several requests for Reiki Classes and will offer Level 1 in September and Level 2 in November. If you are interested in either or both of the above, could you let me know what time of day and what days of the week you can be available.

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Journey Though the Chakras
What an enjoyable day we had with a group of wonderful people dancing through each chakra, journaling with each one and sharing some of their insights. Mostly it was an experiential day. The participants were deeply involved in the music and the inner quiet reflections. Thank you to all of you for making that day a success.

If you are interested in hosting this workshop for at least 15 people in your community, let’s talk. Contact me marieknapp@dallacor.com or Wendy Roman at rhythwood@amtelecom.net Previous experience with Nia is not a prerequisite.

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Retreats

I have offered several retreats over the past 10 years. I have a busy year ahead of me with several travel commitments as well as the practicum work of the second level of the Holistic Nursing Specialization course. I have decided to take a break from my usual planned retreats this year. However, I am offering my availability to lead a retreat for you if you have the people, the venue and the food. If this appeals to you and you wish to talk more about it, send me an email and we can set up a time to talk themes, numbers, dates and my fee. I am planning another Wellness Retreat for May 2009. More information later in the summer. Let me know if this interests you.

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Individual Sessions

I plan to focus my attention on individual sessions as I complete the work on my Holistic Nursing Specialization Level 2. I love the program and the learning and application of a variety of ways of working with energy to help people enhance their wellbeing in illness and in health.

You may wish to look at my web site to learn more about what I do in this area. It continues to change as I learn more so keep checking. I will be attending the Institute part of the program end of May and will have more to offer after that as I move into the practicum period of my learning.

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Filed Under Dallacor Notes, Tips & Notes 

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