A Simple Guide to Self-Care

Check out this article in The Atlantic on self-care https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/10/internet-self-care/408580/

"Tiny Buddha" Self-care Practices for mind, body and soul

This website has lots of great ideas to care for self. https://tinybuddha.com/blog/45-simple-self-care-practices-for-a-healthy-mind-body-and-soul/

Aligning with Love from SDI: a spiritual practice

ALIGNING WITH LOVE This month Passover, Good Friday and Easter all took place as the world slipped further into a profound health and economic crisis. Around the world, we understandably struggle to recognize the relationship of loss and renewal in this pandemic. This simple practice is about grounding ourselves - and refreshing ourselves - in that which transcends all limitations, the creative force of the universe, love. PRACTICE 1) Find a safe and warm place. Welcome stillness. Greet all thoughts as old friends. But tell them - Maybe another day. Tell them today you need to make space for another old friend right now..... When you feel ready, welcome God, or however you name the ground of all being. 2) Read this prayer. Then close your eyes, and say it in your own words. Change anything you like. Just honour what arises deep within you as you read it: PRAYER "I will always keep trying. I will never give up. I will be present with you, God, and with all beings. In every moment. This is my intention. I will be grateful for all you give, God. I will be grateful for all I experience. I will be grateful in every moment. I will make of my heart an open window to shine your love and light. I will make of my life an open window to share your love and light. I will make of my soul an open window to be your love and light. This is enough. This is abundance. To shine, share and be your love and light. To shine, share and be the love and light inherent in all beings. I will acknowledge - and let go - all negativity I create and carry. I will align with love. I will align with love. I will align with love. And like the prodigal son, I will feel the wonder and joy of coming home to you, God, and being accepted as I am. No matter how far I stray, no matter how often I stray, I will return home. Your infinite welcome calls me. And I will infinitely respond. I will choose love. I do choose love. I am love. And love never ends." Peace to you all, brothers and sisters. Blessings to you in all you do.

Caring for Those Who Care - a link to an on-line resource

https://chaplaincyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Staff-care-eBook-042220-SD-for-Final-with-MS-links-updated.pdf

Grief, Dying and Death during a Pandemic

http://www.wellbeingwaterloo.ca/blog/grief-dying-and-death-during-a-pandemic/

Caring for Self and Others in Times of Trboule: Some Spiritual Tools and tips

Caring for Self and Others in Times of Trouble: Some Spiritual Tools and Tips 1. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe some more. Take time in your day, at any moment, to take ten deep even breaths. Carve out 5-10 minutes to meditate or practice mindfulness or contemplative prayer. Start here, now, wherever you are. 2. Ground yourself in the present moment. Focus your awareness on something real, enduring, or beautiful in your surroundings. Look up often. Discover the wonder and awe that is already here. 3. Acknowledge your fears, anxieties, concerns. Offer them up in prayer, if you pray. Write them in your journal. Share them with others. Feel what you feel, honor it, and know that it is not the final word. 4. Remember you are not alone. Ever. You are surrounded by care and support. Reach out. 5. Create and sustain community. Show up for one another. Listen compassionately. Practice empathy. Even while avoiding “close physical contact,” message the people you care about. Stand with those most vulnerable and those who suffer the brunt of prejudice and fear. Check in on folks. Call your mother, father, guardian, mentor, little sibling, long-lost friend. 6. Unplug, judiciously. While staying aware of developments, do not let the Corona-chaos govern you, but forgive yourself when and if it does. 7. Practice kindness. There is a temptation in health scares to view others as potential threats. Remember we are in this together. While practicing health guidelines and appropriate caution, remember to engage one another. Smile when you can. Bring good deeds and good energy into our world. 8. Stay healthy through sleep, diet, exercise. See healing and wellness holistically—mind, body, and spirit. 9. Make art. Discover, imagine, engage your hopes and fears, the beauty and ugliness of our world. Write, paint, sing, dance, soar. 10. Practice gratitude. In the face of crises, make note of the things for which you are grateful: your breath, the particular shade of the sky at dusk—or dawn. The color blue, the color green, the gifts and strengths you have, other people in your life, the ability to laugh. A pet. 11. Connect with your spiritual, religious, humanist, cultural, or other communities. Find strength and solace and power in traditions, texts, rituals, practices, holy times and seasons. 12. Pray as you are able, silently, through song, in readings, through ancestors. Remember the long view of history, the rhythms and cycles of nature, the invisible threads that connect us all. 13. Practice hope. Trust in the future and our power to endure and persist, to live fully into the goodness that awaits. —Alexander Levering Kern Director of the Center for Spirituality, Dialogue, and Service Northeastern University March 11, 2020

Three Wishes for post- COVID-19 health care - article

John A. Hovanesian, MD, FACS, focuses his blog on new technologies and innovations and how ophthalmic practices can best incorporate them to benefit patients. BLOG: Three wishes for post-COVID-19 health care April 14, 2020 So many frustrating unknowns surround us in this health care crisis. Whether we are a doctor or a staff member, an industry employee or a researcher, at this writing we have no real idea how much our loved ones might suffer, when we will return to work and how government subsidies will help us support our families and our employees. But like those who lived through the Great Depression, we are quickly learning lessons in resilience that will color the rest of our lives. Without knowing the rest of this story, I do know what I wish for in the post-COVID-19 world: COVID-19 is impacting health care professionals’ information needs COVID-19: Limited health care access further divides ‘haves’ from ‘have-nots’ AHA updates CPR guidelines to address patients with COVID-19 Leaner, more efficient practices and drug/device makers and a quick economic recovery. Buoyed by patients with pent-up demand for our services combined with workforce streamlining from natural attrition, we will all perform with the bare necessities. We will work harder and longer. This summer, if we are back to work by then, will bring few vacations, but in the wake of the worst financial impact of our professional lives, practices and suppliers of drugs and devices will spring back quickly to health. And to think just a few months ago we were worried about reductions in reimbursement. Those will still be a challenge, but we have overcome so much more. Virtual care will be here to stay. By the time this issue of Ocular Surgery News reaches mailboxes, most of our colleagues will have tried telemedicine to perform some level of service for patients. Most of us who have already tried have become quite pleased with how much good doctoring can be done, even without our diagnostic instruments. The world will know that patients deserve to see our faces and hear our reassuring voices without leaving home. Elimination of COVID-19 will not eliminate the viability of virtual care but enhance its possibilities. Smart industry players will bring us better tools that integrate better with our EHR systems, automate billing and allow solid documentation of services performed. We will all learn the meaning of quality time. Having our schedules cleared is now giving us more time with loved ones, more time with pets, more time for exercise and more time for personal reflection. We will become closer to family and friends who are farther away. We will understand that a full schedule does not mean a full life and that we don’t need to be “the richest guy in the graveyard.” Travel will still be exciting, but so will be looking out the window, enjoying a warm drink. We will be able to laugh at adversity we can’t control and help neighbors through the difficulties that we can. We will return to work with the right priorities, a clearer sense of purpose and a kinder approach to our patients and staff, whom we will appreciate more than ever. The outcome of many of these wishes we can’t control, but the measure of our wisdom may lie in how we use this time to shape the quality of our future. We can be simply reactive, reading and getting absorbed in the news, or we can be proactive, using our downtime to recalibrate our life compass. Whatever your wishes for the post-COVID-19 world, I hope you too are doing what you can to make them come true.

Why am I so Tired? an article

https://parasolwellness.com/why-am-i-so-tired/?

Caring Community on CASC website

For CASC members: Login to view:
https://spiritualcare.ca/members/caring-community/

Grief is the Response to loss of something meaningful - from the Centre for Complicated Grief

From the following article:
https://complicatedgrief.columbia.edu/professionals/complicated-grief-professionals/overview/

"Grief is the response to loss of something meaningful Grief is the natural response to losing a loved one. Most people don’t need grief therapists, even when the loss is sudden and unexpected and very, very sad. People have natural ways of adapting to attachment loss, usually with the support of friends and relatives, and everyone does it in their own way. You can think of healing after loss as analogous to healing after a physical wound. The loss, like the injury, triggers a pain response which can be very strong. Injuries also activate a healing process. Loss does too. However, a wound complication, like an infection, can interfere with healing. So, too, maladaptive thoughts, dysfunctional behaviors or inadequate emotion regulation can interfere with adaptation to loss.

CG is not less likely after loss of a rewarding relationship Mental health training does not usually include learning about the syndrome of complicated grief. However, trainees often are taught that grief is complicated if there was an ambivalent relationship to the person who died. This is a misconception. Adapting to a loss is more difficult if a person can imagine how things could have been different. People might do this because the relationship was conflictual. However, this is uncommon. Most people with complicated grief have had an especially strong and rewarding relationship to the person who died.

Key definitions
 Grief is the response to loss that contains thoughts, behaviors, emotions and physiological changed; if the loss is permanent, so too is the grief, but its form evolves and changes as a person adapts to the loss

Acute grief occurs in the early period after a loss and often dominates the life of a bereaved person; strong feelings of yearning, longing and sorrow are typical as are insistent thoughts and memories of the person who died. Other painful emotions, including anxiety, anger, remorse, guilt or shame are also common. Activities are often focused on doing or not doing things to try to deal with the loss.

Integrated grief is the lasting form of grief in which loss-related thoughts, feelings and behaviors are integrated into a bereaved person’s ongoing functioning; grief has a place in the person’s life without dominating.

Complicated grief is a persistent form of intense grief in which maladaptive thoughts and dysfunctional behaviors are present along with continued yearning, longing and sadness and/or preoccupation with thoughts and memories of the person who died. Grief continues to dominate life and the future seems bleak and empty. Irrational thoughts that the deceased person might reappear are common and the bereaved person feels lost and alone.

Adapting to loss entails accepting the reality of the death, including its finality, consequences and changed relationship to the person who died; adapting means seeing the future as holding possibilities for a life with purpose and meaning, joy and satisfaction.

 Examples of Grief “Complications”

Maladaptive thoughts are typically counterfactual, grief-focused or catastrophizing; its natural to second guess a loved one’s death, especially if it was sudden, unexpected or untimely; most people worry about whether they are grieving in “the right way” and many dread the future in a world without their deceased loved one. People with complicated grief ruminate over these kinds of thoughts.

Dysfunctional behaviors are typically related to avoiding reminders of the loss and/or escaping from the painful reality. A bereaved person may try to feel close to the person who died through sensory stimulation and day dreaming about being with them – looking at pictures, listening to their voice, smelling their clothes, trying to recall what it was like to be together. Bereaved people are often inclined to avoid places, people or activities that hold reminders of the person who died. These behaviors are problematic when they become the only way of managing painful emotions.

Inadequate emotion regulation is another common problem for people with complicated grief. Acute grief is typically highly emotional. Most people have a range of ways to regulate these emotions. They balance the pain with periods of respite, giving themselves permission to set the grief aside for a time. People with complicated grief have trouble doing this; instead, they often focus on things that increase emotional activation. Regular routines including adequate sleep, nourishing meals, adequate exercise and social contacts may be disrupted, making emotions more difficult to manage."

https://complicatedgrief.columbia.edu/professionals/complicated-grief-professionals/overview/

Ethical Framework in a time of pandemic

https://www.professionalchaplains.org/Files/resources/An%20ethical%20framework%20for%20pandemic%20-%20for%20Chaplains.pdf

Praise Song for the Pandemic

Sample Script- Supporting Healthcare Workers during COVID19

I cut all of this information out of the patient script and have copied it into its own script ideas for use when supporting healthcare workers either by phone or in-person:


Specific Responses to Specific Concerns During COVID19:

(Adapted from the resource found at file:///C:/Users/Dell%20User/Documents/Spiritual%20Care%20Education/Telehealth%20Chaplaincy/VitalTalk-COVID19.html /  It is a free resource that can be downloaded and you may wish to review the whole document.)

When coping needs a boost, or emotions are running high

What they say	What you say
I’m scared.	This is such a tough situation. I think anyone would be scared. Could you share more with me?
I need some hope.	Tell me about the things you are hoping for? I want to understand more.
Nobody cares about us. You people are incompetent!	I can see why you are not happy with things. I am willing to do what is in my power to improve things for you. What could I do that would help?
I want to talk to your boss.	I can see you are frustrated. I will ask my boss to come by as soon as they can. Please realize that they are juggling many things right now.
Do I need to say my goodbyes?	I’m hoping that’s not the case. And I worry time could indeed be short. What is most pressing on your mind?

Anticipating

When you’re worrying about what might happen (or when you’re supporting a healthcare provider who is worried about something that might happen)

What you fear	What you can do
That patient’s son is going to be very angry.	Before you go in the room, take a moment for one deep breath. What’s the anger about? Love, responsibility, fear?
I don’t know how to help this family understand why their loved one isn’t being transferred to the ICU like they want/expect.	Remember what you can do: you can hear what she’s concerned about, you can explain what’s happening, you can help her prepare, you can be present. These are gifts.
I am afraid of burnout, and of losing my heart.	Can you look for moments every day where you connect with someone, share something, enjoy something? It is possible to find little pockets of peace even in the middle of a maelstrom.
I’m worried that I will be overwhelmed and that I won’t be able to do what is really the best for my patients.	Check your own state of being, even if you only have a moment. If one extreme is “wiped out,” and the other is “feeling strong,” where am I now? Remember that whatever your own state, that these feelings are inextricable to our human condition. Can you accept them, not try to push them away, and then decide what you need

Grieving

Supporting Healthcare Workers Who are Grieving Over the Limitations Imposed on Them by COVID19

What they are saying or thinking	What you can do
I should have been able to do more to support that person.	Notice: am I talking to myself the way I would talk to a good friend? Could I step back and just feel? Maybe it’s sadness, or frustration, or just fatigue. Those feelings are normal. And these times are distinctly abnormal.
OMG I cannot believe we don’t have the right equipment / how mean that person was to me / how everything I do seems like its blowing up	Notice:  am I letting everything get to me? Is all this analyzing really about something else? Like how sad this is, how powerless I feel, how puny our efforts look? Under these conditions, such thoughts are to be expected. But we don’t have to let them suck us under. Can we notice them, and feel them, maybe share them? And then ask ourselves: can I step into a less reactive, more balanced place even as I move into the next thing?