To facilitate healing within others, nurses must undertake healing within themselves.  This is a life-long process that ebs and flows with the events impacting us in our journey.  Honor the unique development of your intellectual, psychological, social, and spiritual self and body through practice, self-reflection, and education.  This develops authentic and deep introspection needed to grow from within.

The self-care process helps holistic nurses effectively manage the physical and emotional stressors of the work and home environments to become more effective caregivers and healers.

Holistic nurses value themselves and mobilize the necessary resources to care for themselves.  They endeavor to integrate self-awareness, self-care, self-healing, and self-responsibility into their lives by incorporating a variety of practices including: Mind-body practices, biologically-based therapies, manipulative and body based methods, energy therapies, good nutrition and exercise, lifelong learning and self-assessment.

The Science: PMR reduces cortisol and adrenalin,1 re-establishing musculature circulation, decreasing heart rate, respiration and oxygen consumption, and relaxing skeletal muscle activity thus facilitating reduction of tension in involuntary muscles. Alpha brain waves and endogenous opioids (enkephalins) increase after practice 2 correlating with reports of decreased frequency of migraines, neck, and back pain.6 Immune Benefit: Data suggest PMR has an immunoenhancement effect 7 inducing enkaphalins, concentration and secretion, and antibacterial peptides within the gut microbiome, reducing negative mood states. The resulting sense of improved well-being termed, ‘remembered wellness’ (Benson, 1996) exhibits effects similar to feelings of maternal attachment. Insight and behavior modification or physical interventions such as PMR, re-engages emotional control mechanisms.

Poster Presentation from the 2021 AHNA Annual Conference:
The Efficacy of PMR for Ischemic Heart Disease Prevention
https://www.youtube.com/embed/1IFC5VmKEkg

The Science: Jin Shin Jyutsu theory, similar to acupressure, posits that life force energy circulates throughout the body in meridians or pathways.5 Tensions and blockages in the pathways cause stagnation, deficiency, or excess of this bioenergy, which in turn causes symptoms and disorders.6 Research has shown that Jin Shin Jyutsu Self-Help is a viable practice to decrease stress and improve emotional vitality.7 International reviews of literature have proven that acupressure, including self-administered acupressure, is a viable complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) intervention.5 JSJ offers low cost, effective, and safe self-care practices. The quick and cumulative benefits of JSJ highlight its advantages as a self-care practice among healthcare workers. Building on an initial pilot study by Lamke et al 8 an RCT crossover design study evaluating the effects of Jin Shin Jyutsu on stress and caring efficacy demonstrated significant changes in measures of emotional vitality and buoyancy after JSJ education.7 Jin Shin Jyutsu emphasizes awakening one’s awareness to our natural and inborn ability to help ourselves.4

Additional information on incorporating Jin Shin Jyutsu into your daily practice - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05EuR_ShK9k
Poster Presentation

The Science: Diaphragmatic Breathing originates in the belly, drawing the diaphragm downward into the abdominal cavity. Stress release occurs during slow full breaths from your abdomen instead of short shallow breaths from your chest.

The Science: Regular mindfulness practices shrinks the amygdala; the brains center for fight or flight. This diminishes impetuous responses, and births an environment for efficient learning. Boosting the activity of the insula, proliferates creativity, empathy, and supports us in building relationships. 4 Similar to tuning muscles for activity specific response, Centering remodels the brain, restructuring for relaxed and mindful reactions. Holistic nurses use mindfulness to “ground” themselves, or to return to a state of mental clarity, prepared to make thoughtful and reasonable conclusions under stressful circumstances. Regular mindful practice cultivates resilience. 5 Meditation nurtures consistent mindfulness. By training our attention we create and connect neuropathways to calm. 6 Nurses who began a regular mindful meditation practice demonstrated a statistically significant increase in compassion, and decreases in burn-out and secondary trauma. 7

The Science: A provoked SNS alerts the brain to mortal danger. Chronic stress, anxiety, and frequent panic attacks result in consistently high levels of adrenalin and cortisol. These depress the immune system, increase heart disease and contribute to comorbidities of hypertension, indigestion, headaches and pain syndromes. Resting heart rate, blood pressure, heart rate coherence and variability, cortisol levels, and salivary immunoglobulin A, have been extensively studied to determine Mechanism of Action. 5 Tapping utilizes the meridians of the nervous system to intercept pervasive triggers and disable the acute stress response. Destructive thoughts and emotions are bypassed, preventing and / or resolving distress. Meta-analyses of research using Tapping as an intervention for anxiety, depression, and PTSD indicate treatment benefits exceeded that of psychological medications and conventional psychotherapy. Patients showed persistent improvements. 6, 7

THE Science: Guided Imagery is an independent nursing intervention that uses psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) principles to assist an individual in the management of distressing symptoms.1 Research suggests that Guided Imagery induces relaxation, and encourages the healing process. Risks associated with its use are minimal due to its non-invasive nature; this has led to substantial use in nursing. Providing a sample script and explaining how the technique can be used, provides a sense of autonomy.2 A systematic review of relaxation, meditation, guided imagery, or combinations of these strategies reduced physical discomfort and improved quality of life. Heart failure participants whose care was augmented with this modality, experienced less dyspnea and fewer sleep disturbances compared with patients receiving typical medical care. Decreases in pain and fatigue were cited by post-guided imagery participants.3 In the context of stress reduction, Guided Imagery may be useful due to proven efficacy in relieving pain and anxiety. A study conducted in the emergency department, confirmed it was easily adaptable to various environments.4 A 12-week self-guided positive imagery training showed positive effects on the psycho-emotional state of healthy subjects and was associated with an increase in functional connectivity in the brain.5

The Science: Guided imagery is an independent nursing intervention that uses psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) principles to assist an individual in the management of distressing symptoms.¹ Research suggests that Guided Imagery induces relaxation, and encourages the healing process. Risks associated with its use are minimal due to its non-invasive nature; this has led to substantial use in integrative nursing. Providing a sample script and explaining how the technique can be used, provides a sense of autonomy.² A systematic review of relaxation, meditation, guided imagery, or combinations of these strategies reduced physical discomfort and improved quality of life. Heart failure participants whose care was augmented with this modality, experienced less dyspnea and fewer sleep disturbances compared with patients receiving typical medical care. Decreases in pain and fatigue were cited by post-guided imagery participants.³ In the context of stress reduction, Guided imagery may be useful due to proven efficacy in relieving pain and anxiety.⁴ A 12-week self-guided positive imagery training showed positive effects on the psycho-emotional state of healthy subjects and was associated with an increase in functional connectivity in the brain.⁵

The Science: The lymphatic system does not have a central pump (i.e. the heart); it requires movement like breathing & muscular contractions to circulate lymphatic fluid. Yoga stimulates the thymus gland to produce and move white blood cells: compression poses for periods of 10 seconds are excellent for improving microcirculation through the organs and extremities. Regular stretching, or gentle yoga, increases lymphatic circulation, and downregulates pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1beta, IL-6 and TNF-alpha)7 bolstering immune response. Decreased inflammation is directly correlated with lower rates of cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome and diabetes, whereas inability to regulate emotional states and labile mood are associated with immune system suppression and virus shedding.2,8