Nursing as a Practice of Meditation

While this week’s post is directed towards nurses and healthcare professionals, I encourage all of my readers to have a look. Since healthcare and its practitioners can impact all of us at some point in our lives, it’s important to know what nursing is doing about showing up at the bedside, mindful and compassionate. Enjoy!

Nursing has often been described as an “art.” Having been an RN for over 30 years, I’d have to agree with this description. There’s the job of being a nurse, and then there’s the art of nursing. The art of nursing involves taking one’s job and applying one’s heart and mind to it, connecting with those who we serve and applying our heart and mind to that services.

Meditation is About Being Who You Already Are

I’ve written that meditation is about remaining aware while not being distracted. It’s a pretty amazing way to learn to meditate, mostly because our meditation tends to fail when either or both of these two, awareness or non-distraction, aren’t present.

In a post, Meditation for Nurses: A Natural Evolution for Nursing, I wrote that meditation is about being who you already are. As a nurse, wouldn’t you say that being aware and undistracted is how you’d like to be with your patients all the time. And, wouldn’t you also say that the times when you’ve been most present for those who you serve was when you were present and aware? Then, couldn’t you really say that nursing is a practice of meditation? Or…am I stretching it a bit here?

Your Profession is Extraordinary!

I’m not trying to fly the flag of nursing too high here, but I’ve got to say that nursing, as a profession, is extraordinary! Why?

I know of only a few professions where the charge of that profession is to directly help to alleviate the suffering of others. There are similar professions; medicine, social work, adoption agency work, are examples of such profession. But in most areas of nursing, we spend our entire work days working directly with others who are in need of our professional skills, as well as our awareness and compassion, to help them out of their suffering.

The nursing profession is also extraordinary because it offers you a real opportunity to practice meditation as a profession. Think about this, and take a moment to reflect on what I’ve said and what I’m repeating here:

As a nurse, wouldn’t you say that being aware and undistracted is how you’d like to be with your patients all the time. And, wouldn’t you also say that the times when you’ve been most present for those who you serve was when you were present and aware? Then, couldn’t you really say that nursing is a practice of meditation?

Nursing as a Practice of Awareness and Non-distraction

I really want to challenge you to think of your profession as a practice of meditation. Of course, if that’s the case, then you may need a little practice in how to remain aware and non-distracted, right? But here’s what you have to gain; by becoming more aware and less distracted, wouldn’t you also be more engaged in all that you do, not just your profession?

How I Can Help You to Commit to Your Meditation Practice

(At the end of this post, read about the upcoming meditation retreat, just for nurses, in Hawai’i. It’s going to great! It’s going to be fun! But most of all, it will teach you how to turbo-boost your meditation practice, so that every day can be a meditative one! Read on…)

Maybe you’ve already got a meditation practice. If that’s the case, great! Keep it up. And feel free to use all of the content from this site to support you in your efforts. If you haven’t started to meditate, begin now.

Many people don’t meditate because they believe that they need to do “something special” in order to meditate, maybe you’re one of them. “Doing something” special isn’t the case. All you need is your breath, and a few minutes of time set aside to begin your practice. Here are some tools to get you started:

• Meditation audio for using your breath as the anchor of your attention during meditation.
• Ebook and two chapters from the book, Minding the Bedside: Nursing from the Heart of the Awakened Mind, on how to meditate.
• Here’s a pitch for my book, Minding the Bedside: Nursing from the Heart of the Awakened Mind. You can even buy it in a Kindle version! Why buy it? Because I really did write it for you. Because it’s a meditation book written just for nurses (although others who are not nurses have bought the book and raved about it!). And, because it has EVERYTHING that you need to learn how to meditate and to use your practice at the bedside.

This site has tons of tools for learning how to meditate.

I encourage you to look through the HUNDREDS of articles that I’ve written and especially check out my weekly meditation tips and other useful meditation materials provided for your health and well being. And please let me know if you’d like to discuss anything with me, have any questions or need clarification regarding anything that I’ve written about.

Thanks for visiting and have a mindful day.