Holistic Assessment of Self and Plan for Self Growth
centerbottomAnabela Santos, RN?|?The Nurse as Facilitator of Healing I: Role?|?March 11, 2014950000Anabela Santos, RN?|?The Nurse as Facilitator of Healing I: Role?|?March 11, 2014center750007132320Holistic Assessment of Self and Plan for Self Growth 950000Holistic Assessment of Self and Plan for Self Growth 914400128841500 As a holistic nurse one of my primary roles will be empowering others to heal themselves. I believe that my own experience of health and well-being will truly inspire and personify the art of healing to others. For my transformation into a holistic, healthy nurse, I would need to begin the practice of self-care. Self-care supports and encourages the path to healing (Hill, 2011). It may be straightforward for a nurse to care for others, but caring for the self requires more effort. Thankfully, the universe is guiding me through the synchronicity of a class project. In my “Nurse as a facilitator of healing” class, I was asked to take a holistic assessment of my “self” and develop a plan for growth. The purpose is to become aware of an aspect of myself that I wish to focus my attention on. After completing the assessment, I select a holistic modality that will assist me towards growth and healing. This paper will document how I commenced this project and its consequential journey into self-healing. I began my journey by taking the Integrative Health and Wellness Assessment (Dossey, B. M., Luck, S., Schaub, B. G., & Keegan, L., 2013). This assessment has helped me become aware of unhealthy habits resulting in better choices for my health. “The IHWA assists people in becoming aware of their human potential while identifying strengths and weaknesses for the creation of new health goals” (Dossey, et al., 2013). The first category in the assessment is “Life Balance and Satisfaction”. I have not felt very satisfied with my nursing career for quite some time. This dissatisfaction is quite evident in my answers. However, it was a nice surprise to see that I have learned to maintain healthy sleep habits in spite of working evening and night shifts for over 14 years. Most importantly, I learned that I am comfortable with setting realistic goals. This inspired me to choose the self-help modality that I did, giving me the confidence and boost to begin this journey. The second category in the assessment is “Relationships”. Through this section I discover that I am dissatisfied with the relationships in my life. Most of my relationships revolve around my family. Through a previous research of how the culture of my family has affected my health, I can conclude where this dissatisfaction comes from. The thoughts and habits that were shaped by my culture have stayed with me all my life and have caused a significant amount of distress. Culture is learned from birth and is the process by which an individual adapts to the group’s organized way of life (Engebretson, 2013). Improving my familial relationships is paramount to me. However, to adequately love and care for others, I must learn how to love and care for myself. I am convinced that my relationships will improve as I evolve into healing.The third category is the “Spiritual” assessment. A long time ago I acknowledged that my religious upbringing did not bring me a sense of peace. Instead, I harbored feelings of disconnectedness from my body, mind, and soul. As the years went on, the void filled with sadness and anger. Consequently, I began seeking alternative pathways to nurture my spiritual self. “The lack of connection with the spirit often produces a dispiriting sense of aloneness and isolation that may lead to a spiritual crisis” (Burkhardt & Nagai-Jacobsen, 2013). Through the IHWA, I can see that I continue to honor my spirituality and search for a deeper sense of meaning and purpose in life. Presently, I continue to cultivate my spiritual practice through rituals, stillness, and creation of sacred space. These daily rituals remind me to meditate and connect with my sacred source wherever I may be. I am well aware that my spiritual habits have not resulted in the complete enlightenment of my being. However, I understand that spirituality is an ongoing process that can only be experienced and strengthened with daily practice. I have grouped together the fourth, fifth, and sixth categories. These are the “Mental, Emotional, and Physical” assessments. I have grouped these categories together because I have observed that I emotionally and physically feel the way that I mentally think. Most of my unhealthy habits stem from the distorted conversations that I have with myself. For example, I typically think to myself: “I shouldn’t have pizza and soft drinks for dinner”. This “should” statement makes me feel like I am being judged. I automatically rebel to this judgment by talking myself into consuming more pizza and soda. Afterwards, I feel guilty, ashamed, and depressed, spiraling me further into physical and mental inactivity. Thankfully, the spiritual journey that I have previously described has saved me from more self-destructive behaviors. Although my ego still works hard to produce distorted thoughts, my spirit has begun its work on balancing and healing my life. For example, I substitute thoughts with mantras and daily affirmations for my mental and emotional health. For holistic health, I connect with nature on a daily basis through frequent walks and hikes. I have met like-minded spirits who have taught me how to enhance my body, mind, and soul through small changes. Simple changes such as meditation with intention, mindfully preparing and consuming meals, alternating soft drinks with water and tea, and learning simple yoga techniques, have had a tremendous impact on my health and well-being. In conclusion, this assessment has made me aware of my strengths and weaknesses in these three categories. In the next category I assessed my “Environment”. Being an earth child and a nature lover, I have been mindful of the impact that our society has to our environment and our planet. I have been faithfully recycling my garbage, reducing energy consumption, and utilizing re-usable containers whenever possible. However, this assessment reminded me that I am also using toxic chemicals and pesticides in toiletries and products throughout my home. Since this assessment, I have started reading labels in everything I buy, as well as purchasing natural and organic products. I will make an effort to carefully wash my clothing instead of dry cleaning them. I am confident that the small changes I have made as well as the new ones I am initiating will decrease my carbon footprint. Hopefully these actions will inspire others to do the same. In the final assessment category I examined my “Health Responsibility”. As a nurse, I have often informed others how to be responsible for their health. However, I do not always practice what I preach. I have often implemented patient teaching encouraging monthly self-breast exams and smoking cessation. In spite of what I know, I often forget to perform my own monthly exams and continue to surround myself with others who smoke. With my new awareness, I have begun reflecting on how I can use my holistic modality to be more responsible for my health. After completing the IHWA, I paused and reflected for the outcomes. It appears that I am unsatisfied with the direction that my life, my relationships, and my overall health has taken. I have concluded that I may be knowledgeable on how to teach others about self-care but lack the energy to initiate and perform my own. Where does this lack of energy come from? A quick glance at my assessment can point to the physical category and start there. Obesity and smoking is universally accepted as being unhealthy and I’m sure it plays a big part in reducing my energy. However, I ended up taking a second look at the assessment in search of motives that may be causing unhealthy habits. I discovered that in each category existed a definitive pattern that was draining my energy. This pattern is how I perceive my life. My negative thoughts are automatic and they are unbalancing my body, mind, and soul. It appears that I may be exhausting energy in the manner that I process my thoughts. Ruminating on my negative thoughts have left me physically, mentally, and emotionally drained. I am left with no energy to perform any type of self-care activity that would enhance my life satisfaction and well-being. This is the last hold of my ego, and it does not want to let go. I discussed the decision to begin Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as a modality for this assignment with my professor. Immediately after this decision, my ego tried talking me out of it. “More reading and writing?” I thought, “I am already exhausted from the usual school and work duties. I should do something relaxing for myself like a massage or reiki treatment”. My thoughts tricked me into believing that I would have a better chance at transpersonal growth by choosing massage therapy over CBT. Of course, massage and Reiki would alleviate symptoms I may have, but it will not get to the root of my problem. Since I had already purchased the books on CBT, I decided to read through the introductions. I quickly realized that CBT was the exact modality needed to assist me towards self-healing. Scientific evidence has proven that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is as effective, if not better, than psychotropic medications to change moods (Burns, 1999). “The effectiveness of CBT has been confirmed in large numbers of controlled outcome studies comparing CBT with modalities like anti-depressives and psychotherapy” (Burns, 1999). This therapy is being used to treat a variety of illnesses such as depression, anxiety, phobias, and low self-esteem to name a few. Instead of visiting a cognitive behavioral therapist, I decided to aid myself with a self-help workbook called: “Ten days to self-esteem” by Dr. David D. Burns. To follow the exercises in this workbook, I also read from Dr. Burns’: “The Feeling Good Handbook”. Both books offer extensive information about CBT as well as exercises that assist me in succeeding against my cognitive distortions.In both my professional and personal life, I identify external events or other people for being the cause of my feelings and emotions. For example, when I get angry and frustrated for feeling burnt out, I blame upper management and low staffing. Per Dr. Burns, if I want to stop feeling angry and frustrated, I must first realize that my thoughts and attitudes are creating my feelings (Burns, 1999). I am becoming aware that many of my distorted, automatic thoughts are creating emotions such as sadness, guilt, anger, anxiety, inferiority, loneliness, and discouragement. Cognitive therapists have discovered that negative thinking patterns actually cause one to feel depressed, irritable, and ill. Furthermore, there are specific kinds of negative thoughts that cause specific kinds of negative emotions (Burns, 1999). Learning to reframe these thoughts in a more realistic if not positive way will help me experience greater self-esteem, intimacy, and productivity (Burns, 1999). With CBT, I can learn to change the way I think, the way I feel, and most importantly the way I behave and choose to be in my present moment. My time and energy will be better spent on self-care than on the thoughts that produce anger, sadness, or guilt. To finalize this assignment, I will attempt to complete all the steps to “Ten days to self-esteem”. It is suggested to devote at least fifteen minutes a day to the readings and exercises in the workbook. However, I am committed to dedicating at least one hour or more on a daily basis. I want to ensure that I complete the 45 hours of independent research that is required for the assignment as well as get a start on my self-healing journey. A great deal of the book exercises consist of identifying the distortions in our thoughts. At first I felt this was tedious and overwhelming. However, the multiple exercises have facilitated the memorization of the negative distortions. Now, I can quickly identify the exaggeration in my thinking and instantly move on to restructuring the thought for a more positive outcome. Another important lesson I have learned is the importance of distinguishing when a negative feeling is appropriate and healthy. “Learning to accept these feelings and how to cope with a realistically negative situation is just as important as learning how to rid yourself of distorted thoughts and feelings” (Burns 1999). An example is experiencing anxiety and fear in certain situations. This fear is healthy if it’s alerting you to danger. However, if the danger is exaggerated or if there is no actual danger, then the fear turns into an unhealthy neurotic anxiety (Burns, 1993). At this time, I have completed over 20 hours of reading and exercises. I am beginning to notice a change in my perceptions. When I complete the daily mood log, I am able to identify the negative thoughts, the distortions in them, and finally perform the restructuring needed to change the thought. Positive thoughts have led me to make better choices such as choosing more effective wording when communicating my feelings to others and substituting yoga when I am unable to take a walk outside. I look forward to the day when distorted thoughts don’t run my emotions and my life. So far, I am having a tremendously positive experience from this therapy. I plan to become confident enough to model and teach this therapy to others. I know that there will be moments when I will feel unhappy or not in control of my feelings and emotions. However, I am now better equipped to distinguish when this is healthy or when I have to restructure the distortion. I am experiencing a deeper understanding in how to balance my mind, body, and spirit. I believe this to be a great first step in gaining control over my ego and evolving into a healthy, transpersonal self. ReferencesHill, R. Y. (2011) The Importance of self-care for nurses. In R. Hill, (pp.1-24), Nursing from the inside-out. Living and nursing from the highest point of your consciousness Sandbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett PublishersDossey, B. M., Luck, S., Schaub, B. G., & Keegan, L. (2013) Self assessments. In B.Dossey & L. Keegan Holistic Nursing: A handbook for practice (6th Ed.) (pp.161-188), Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning Engebretson, J.C (2013) Cultural diversity and care. In B.Dossey & L. Keegan Holistic Nursing: A handbook for practice (6th Ed.) (pp.677-701), Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning Burkhardt, M. & Nagai-Jacobsen, M., (2013). Spirituality and health. In B.Dossey & L. Keegan Holistic Nursing: A handbook for practice (6th Ed.) (pp.721-749), Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett LearningBurns, D.D. (1999) The feeling good handbook (Rev. Ed.). New York, NY: Penguin Group. Burns, D.D. (1993) Ten days to self-esteem. New York, NY: HarperCollins. ................
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