Welcome to Nurse All Parts of Yourself,
A practice of radical being and befriending.
This has been an especially hard season.
The world seems to be on fire literally and metaphorically,
Sending our nervous systems into overdrive.
It's our human nature and the survival strategy of our body and brain to get pulled toward reaction,
Fear,
Anxiety,
And rumination during times of distress.
This loop of dysregulation can cause us to get stuck in fight,
Flight,
Freeze,
And even collapse,
Stuck in seeing all of life and one another as a threat.
This is for our survival and by design,
But with awareness and attunement,
We can bring in enough felt safety to our bodies in order to cultivate aligned choice and greater flexibility and capacity in our nervous systems for these times.
With that in mind,
I developed a tool called the Nurse Resiliency Protocol to bring compassionate awareness and skillful attunement to challenging times and emotions.
The acronym NURSE stands for Notice and Name,
Understanding,
Resource,
Somatic Inquiry and Attunement,
And Embody,
Empower,
Expand.
I have been using it most days to help myself find deeper understanding of my nervous system responses,
To further my own compassion,
And to foster attuned nourishment for my body.
I share this applied meditation to all of you in hopes that it gives you and your nervous system some much needed resourcing and regulation.
But more than simply sharing a tool,
I hope to share an invitation to begin a very intimate and personal journey between you and your body.
So for today's practice,
We're going to do a more formal,
Longer version of the Nurse Resiliency Protocol,
But if you practice this frequently,
You'll notice that it becomes second nature and a practice you can customize and shorten for on-the-go support.
I also have a shorter,
Recorded version of this guided practice.
But for now,
Let's explore nursing our nervous system,
Body,
Mind,
And all parts of ourselves together.
I invite you to begin by sitting quietly,
Comfortably,
And take some moments to let your attention go inward.
You might close your eyes,
Or lower your gaze,
And find a posture that is both upright and attentive,
Yet relaxed and comfortable.
Just allow yourself to fully settle into your seat.
Take a few slow,
Deep breaths.
Feel this sense of already being held,
Being supported by the earth.
Now bring to mind a current situation in which you feel in some way stuck or challenged.
A situation that elicits a difficult reaction.
I encourage you not to choose something you know is traumatic,
Because this wouldn't be a setting that could best support you in that.
But it might be a conflict with a family member,
A challenging situation at work,
Perhaps a chronic illness you're struggling with,
A conversation that was triggering,
Or something you heard in the news recently.
And so the first step,
The N of nurse,
Stands for noticing.
To notice what happens inside of you when you bring this situation to mind.
Notice yourself right now.
What is happening inside?
Do you feel some anxiety,
Frustration,
Maybe constriction in your chest or throat?
Some anger?
But beneath the words anxiety,
Anger,
What sensations do you feel that helps you recognize this emotion,
This feeling?
Notice how your breath is affected.
That is the overall felt sense of your inner experience around this situation.
You're developing fine attunement to how things affect your nervous system and body.
And there's a lot of intelligence and brilliance with that.
And as you notice and name this difficult or challenging experience,
We move on to U,
The U of nurse,
Which is understanding.
We recognize this experience as a visitor from our nervous system,
An automatic response.
Inherent in the design of being human,
These automatic responses are neither good nor bad,
But a sign of our body readying itself to meet the demands of perceived or real threat.
With this in mind,
Can you welcome your humanness with compassion?
The goal is not to get rid of these responses,
For that would not be possible or desirable,
But to meet this visitor of the body in a more intelligent and kinder way.
My teacher Jack Kornfield says,
It's as if you could meet this visitor and bow to it,
No matter how challenging,
With great respect and reverence.
Thich Nhat Hanh talks about meeting whatever experience arises with a half smile.
This work does not have to be a grim duty.
Can you begin to meet whatever is here with the spaciousness of compassionate understanding?
Perhaps even with a half smile and bow of reverence.
So to notice and understand,
Often just this is a gift of love for yourself,
For others,
For the world.
To just notice,
Welcome whatever arises with warmth and curiosity.
For example,
I'm noticing in this moment that just a real feeling of sadness is here,
A heaviness in my chest,
Feeling a felt sense of wanting to hide and disappear.
Welcome sadness.
I see you.
I say yes to you.
And I want to learn to understand your inherent wisdom and goodness a bit better.
And if we notice our present moment experience is too overwhelming,
And we find ourselves outside our window of capacity,
We can bring in somatic resourcing,
Step three of the nurse resiliency protocol,
To help our body find,
Feel,
And absorb enough felt safety in order to shift back to a more settled,
Connected,
And balanced bodily state.
A somatic resource is anything that helps the body feel more connected,
Feel more present,
And feel safe.
You can think of ways a caregiver inherently knows how to soothe the nervous system of a baby by way of touch,
Sound of their voice,
Rocking,
Their loving presence.
Can you offer this kind of nourishment to your body?
A few other somatic resources include feeling your feet on the earth,
Really feeling the support of the earth beneath your feet.
Begin to deepen your breath,
Extending the exhale.
I invite you to explore all of these resources in the coming days,
Weeks,
Months,
And notice what works for your unique body and nervous system by way of how your body responds in becoming more settled,
Present,
And connected.
Choose something that speaks to your body's unique need for safety.
Whatever you choose in this moment,
It's as if this resource is speaking the language of your body with a resonance that says,
You're okay.
I got you.
You're not alone.
After we notice our experience,
Bring in some understanding and resourcing,
And we find ourselves back within our window of capacity,
We can move on to step four of the nurse resiliency protocol,
And that is S,
Somatic inquiry and attunement.
This step is a turning towards the distress,
The grief,
The sadness,
With enough safety and regulation on board to begin to further understand this visitor of our body and to begin to attune to its unique needs.
First,
We want to try and get more in touch with what we are feeling,
With what wants to be known,
Felt,
And integrated now.
Scan your body and sense where you feel the emotions most distinctly.
You might let your posture even express what you're feeling or allow your face to tell the story of what you're experiencing in this moment.
And by exploring your posture,
Face,
And everything in your body around this experience,
Notice if this helps you get more in touch with what you are feeling,
With what wants to be known.
And perhaps you go to the epicenter,
To the place where you feel most vulnerable,
Again,
With curiosity,
With a willingness to be intimate with what's here.
If it helps,
Breathe with the experience.
And now ask this vulnerable part of you,
What do you most need?
Or how do you want me to be with you?
Just ask and then listen.
Does this part of you want understanding?
To be seen,
Accepted?
Does it want company?
Forgiveness?
Love?
Letting yourself stay in touch with that vulnerability and sense into the one who is witnessing,
Who is listening.
For this is your true nature.
Sense what you want to offer to this vulnerable part of you.
Sense what you want to offer to this vulnerable part of you.
And you might put your hand on your heart,
A very gentle touch,
And just communicate that you are here,
You are listening.
What does your true self want to say to this vulnerable one?
And you might even imagine a competent protector or mother earth or an ancestor to help hold you and this vulnerable part of you.
Maybe it's a grandparent,
A pet,
A mentor,
A tree or the mountains.
I often imagine the wild woman archetype.
Just imagine this loving,
Protective presence holding you and attuning to you exactly as you are.
Which leads us to the final piece,
The end of nurse,
Which is E,
To embody,
Empower,
Expand.
Let this feeling of being held,
Protected,
And attuned to permeate your entire body and being.
This last part of the nurse resiliency protocol is really where the transformation happens.
To sense the quality of presence that has emerged.
To sense the quality of presence that has emerged.
Just notice perhaps more space,
More kindness,
More openness,
More freedom.
And take some moments to simply rest in this more spacious,
Loving awareness.
Allow whatever arises in your body and mind to freely come and go.
And now allow all of my instructions to drop away.
Sink into your seat,
This place of rest.
Allow everything to be exactly as it is.
Know that this natural awareness is more true than any story or emotion that moves through you.
That this is home.
As my somatic therapist once told me,
Your body is the temple for your soul.
And it's your body that helps all the parts that are inside and scared to feel safe.
For them to feel safe,
To feel safe,
To feel safe,
To feel safe,
To feel safe,
To feel safe.
To feel that somebody is home and keeps coming home.
You can slowly begin to open your eyes and come back into the room.
To follow the nurse protocol,
To nurse all parts of yourself,
Is an invitation into being and befriending.
It's being and befriending that are the two requirements to heal,
To awaken,
To transform,
To fully live this life,
To remember your true nature.
For this world needs you,
You need you,
Your family's neighborhoods need you.
Thank you for bringing your vulnerability and open heartedness here today with me.
May you smile as you learn and have so much compassion for your humanness and your process.
Thank you and be well.
