March 17, 2025 • 52 mins
Hi!! I would love to hear from you!
The hidden cost of caring for others often manifests in our bodies, and no one understands this better than nurses. In my raw and illuminating conversation, Amanda Farq—registered nurse, wellness warrior, and nervous system educator—she reveals how years of nursing led her down a path of chronic illness that conventional medicine couldn't fully address.
Amanda shares her personal journey through endometriosis, the devastating loss of her child at 24 weeks, and eventually ulcerative colitis following intense workplace stress and grief. While talk therapy provided some relief, it wasn't until she rediscovered somatic practices that true healing began. "We hold trauma in our body," Amanda explains. "Our body remembers what we go through, and sometimes we need to let our body release that trauma in ways that are more intuitive."
Our conversation dives deep into how nurses—conditioned to believe that extraordinary stress is simply "part of the job"—often ignore their body's warning signals until serious health issues emerge. Amanda describes how simple 15-minute daily somatic exercises can help regulate the nervous system, release tension from specific areas like the psoas muscle, and ultimately prevent burnout. She's now created specialized programs for nurses that even offer continuing education units (CEUs), making healing more accessible to a profession notorious for putting others first.
What makes this episode particularly powerful is the practical wisdom shared about establishing boundaries in high-pressure medical environments. We discuss how detachment (not from compassion, but from outcomes beyond your control) becomes essential for longevity in healthcare. We explore the flexibility nursing offers—from per diem work to travel contracts—as pathways to prevent burnout while staying connected to the profession they love.
Whether you're in healthcare or any helping profession, this conversation offers a roadmap to recognizing when your body is speaking to you—and the somatic tools to finally listen. Follow Amanda @zen.nurse on Instagram to learn more about her workshops and upcoming 30-day course specifically designed for healthcare providers.
Want to support the show? Buy me a cup of coffee and I will give you a shout out on the show….. great opportunity for small businesses!
https://buymeacoffee.com/empoweredease
Join the Newsletter
https://themoonflowercoachingcollective.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello and welcome to Empowered Ease.
Our guest today is Amanda Fark.
She is a registered nurse, awellness warrior and a nervous
system educator.
Welcome, amanda.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hello, thanks for having me on today.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I'm so happy you're here.
So tell me a little bit aboutwhat a registered nurse,
wellness warrior and nervoussystem educator is um, so it's
just kind of a broad title I use.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I'm a registered nurse, um by profession.
So I've been a registered nursefor about nine years working in
various fields from medical,surgical, rural, emerge, my deep
travel nursing around Canadaand um and I've, before I became
a registered nurse, I wasreally into like holistic
healing.
I was really into.
You know, I wanted to become ayoga instructor when I was
(00:51):
younger and then I became anurse and a lot of that kind of
fell by the wayside, as as itdoes when you do four years of
university and you start thiscareer and that becomes kind of
what your your main focus is.
And then through being a nurseand through my own health issues
and my own traumas and seeingthat of my friends and coworkers
(01:12):
, I kind of went back to myroots of like.
Remember when my younger selfwanted to be a yoga instructor
and so two years ago I became ayoga instructor, which was super
exciting and fulfilled thatdream.
Years ago I became a yogainstructor, which was super
exciting and fulfilled thatdream.
And then through some of my ownyeah, just things that I was
going through in my life, I wastrying a lot of different things
(01:38):
to help myself heal and nothingwas really hitting the mark
until I started diving intosomatic work, somatic exercises
and nervous system regulationand I'm like, wow, this is, this
is really, this is really doingit for me and it was getting
healing pieces and bringing uppieces that were so deep down I
barely knew they still existedbut they were adding to a lot of
(02:00):
my chronic health challengesthat I was having.
There's kind of a long answerabout that.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
that big title there, yeah, I can't wait to dig in
and learn more.
I have some parallels in mystory, but first of all I did
not know you were in Canada,which I'm so excited about.
Where are you in Canada?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I'm in British Columbia.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Okay, so I just did.
I don't know if you know her.
You probably.
I mean, canada is a huge place,right?
But her name's Lillian DeFreeand she is like a big advocate
for nurses in Canada and fornurse burnout, and she's been on
the podcast.
So we're going to have to thethree of us are going to have to
talk one day.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
So I'm so excited about that Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
So first of all, I love that like I parallel you in
that, like when I startednursing school, I was really
into holistic health and Iwanted to like the trauma aspect
.
The acute care medicine is whyI went into it, cause I was like
I can do both.
I was in a yoga teacher programwhile I went to, but I dropped
(03:00):
it.
I couldn't.
I couldn't do both.
So I went away, got totallyburnt out, had a bunch of
physical problems and then founda coaching program.
Well, I was always doing yogaand mindfulness on my own, but
really getting really burnt outis what made me jumpstart back
into like, hey, that was thehealthiest I was in my life,
that was the best I feltmentally.
(03:20):
And I also love that you weretouching on like nervous system,
because I think for nursesespecially nurses working
bedside right now, like nervoussystem dysregulation, just alone
with the environment, takingall the other factors that
definitely contribute out theenvironment alone, is so
difficult on your nervous system.
(03:41):
So I cannot wait to hear moreabout this.
Tell me a little bit about well, I guess your your story.
Like what kind of healthstruggles were you going through
?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
There's been a lot down the line which is weird.
Weird to admit, because I feellike I'm a very healthy person.
I can relate, yeah, yeah, and Ifeel, you know, like, even
though I wasn't doing I wasn't ayoga instructor I was still.
I was always doing yoga, Ialways had a yoga practice.
I was always like trying to bephysically active.
I live an active lifestyle, youknow.
(04:21):
But then, you know, in nursingschool I got diagnosed with
endometriosis, sciatica, likeall this stuff that I now know
is like stagnation of sittingand learning and stress.
You know it's like all thesehealth issues I feel for myself
and for a lot of people can bestemmed back to stress.
You know, it's like a stressresponse in the body that we've
(04:44):
ignored that all of a sudden isa big catalyst.
Um, so there was that, thathappened.
Um, and then I, between mychildren, I had a baby at at 24
weeks and he didn't.
He didn't survive,unfortunately, which was pretty
devastating, and just goingthrough the healing process of
(05:05):
that really, really got me intothe nervous system work because,
you know, I was, I was running,I was doing all the things I
was supposed to do and I wasdoing talk therapy and like I
feel like I was better, but Iwas still like holding this
extra weight, my, I had thishuge.
Like you know, my posture wasbad and then I got into this
kind of stuff and it's like, oh,this stuff is, this is deep,
(05:25):
this is really deep to heal fromthis.
Um, yeah, when I start talkingabout the health challenges I
have, I am just shaking my headbecause I'm like as if, as a
healthy person, I feel this.
And then three years ago, I wentthrough a lot of stress and got
(05:45):
displaced from my job and Ilost my best friend to cancer
and two months later I wasdiagnosed with ulcerative
colitis.
I had like all these symptomsof just like bleeding and
couldn't eat and bloated, andall this is just horrible and
I'm like, ok, something needs tochange here.
Like this is this is stress.
You know, like all the otherthings, I'm like, okay,
(06:06):
something needs to change here.
Like this is this is stress.
You know, like all the otherthings I talked about, like you
know, I healed myself from thesciatica and endometriosis.
You know, like, by relievingstress in my life.
Like you know, like with doingall the yoga and doing this and
like, or you know nursing schoolis done, so it's like, okay,
that's that stress is over andI'm not being stagnant, so it
moves on.
And then with the ulcerativecolitis it's been a lot more
(06:27):
healing and getting to the rootof it and the somatic exercises
is really what has helped mewith that is just.
I tried the talk therapy andthat was good.
But it's just like I mentionedbefore, it just sits so deep.
And the thing with trauma andtension that sometimes we forget
or it's not on our radar is wehold that in our body, like our
(06:48):
body remembers what we gothrough.
So some like we can think thatwe've talked it through and we
need all these modalities rightto help us heal.
But it's like sometimes that'sjust not enough.
We need to listen to our bodyand we need to let our body
release that trauma and tensionin ways that are more intuitive.
So our culture has reallystopped us from releasing
(07:10):
tension and trauma through likeshaking and crying and all these
ways.
And that's where somaticexercises come in.
They're gentle movements thathelp you guide these tension
releases through your body.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I love that.
My I recently working with likea trauma therapist and she met,
said something to me thatresonated that I've thought of
while you were talking, and itwas like you know, sometimes
there are things that happenthat you don't have words for
like, or even they happen to youat an age where you don't have
words yet, but, or when you getolder, you just it's just, it's
(07:45):
just not words.
That's what happened, and soyou can't like talk that out,
that's not like.
You know, cause talk there.
It worked for me on some levels.
I got great tips, but I didn'theal and, um, I thought that for
me that was just such apowerful thought Cause I thought
, oh yeah, it didn't occur to mebefore, but that's so true.
Things happen before we havewords to put to them, and then
also things happen socomplicated and complex and like
(08:09):
duality is present and we don'thave words to give them.
So the only thing we can do isreprogram our nervous systems
response to it.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Absolutely and let ourself move through that trauma
response in like a safe andtrusting way.
You know, like so the traumaresponse to be finished.
You need to have that traumaresponse.
You need, like trembling oryawning, crying, deep breathing,
like the animalistic way, likewe see this in animals, right,
like animals will shake afterthey're scared.
(08:39):
You know you might see your dogdo it with thunder or fireworks
they shake and this is themreleasing that trauma response.
And us, as humans, we've beenconditioned in our culture that
something traumatic happensYou're not just going to, you
know, shake like you might ifsomething's big and then maybe
that person is probably going towork through it a lot quicker.
But a lot of times we kind of,okay, suck it up, grin, bear it,
(09:03):
nope, I'm all good kind of okay, suck it up grin, bear it, nope
, I'm all good moving.
Put it in that little closet,put it away I'll deal with this
later or?
Or we've also been conditionedto think like this isn't a big
deal, what I'm going through isnot a big deal, where it is like
your body is going to hold thatunless you give it space and
time to move through it andprocess it physically.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
So, yeah, yeah, it's powerful, it's very powerful.
So tell me, like when you, Isaw you specifically work with
nurses, which I know wementioned a little bit before
this.
But nurses is a hard populationto work with because sometimes
we're not the first to jump tohelp ourselves.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
We're usually not the first to jump to help ourselves
, but I feel like there's ashift happening.
I feel like there's a shift innurses realizing what we do go
through.
And again, that's a, it's acultural perception within the
nursing culture that what we gothrough is normal, that
everything we deal with on adaily basis is normal.
You know, like hearing callbells for 12 hours is normal, de
(10:04):
dealing with a patient code andthen packing that up and moving
to the next room is normal,like we, we just have a totally
messed up way of thinking ofwhat normal is.
Um, so, because it's not, youknow, and and sometimes I think
nurses will realize that ifthey're, you know, talking,
(10:24):
maybe to their partner aboutsomething, and then you know,
kind of look at you, it's likewhat like?
That's not like, that's notnormal, that's not a normal
experience.
And we go through that everyday.
You know, we go to work and wego through that and we're seeing
a lot of nurses acknowledgethat they're burnt out.
You know, having that pre-shiftanxiety, post-shift anxiety,
but maybe not quite knowing whatto do with it.
(10:46):
So I just that's why I reallywanted to focus in on nurses.
Like, as a nurse, I see it and Isee it, you know, on the job,
and then I see it also in thechronic health challenges that
the nursing population has.
You know, like the nurses, thatit's like, oh, they always have
a sore back, oh, theirshoulders are always so, or I've
got this really weird leg thinggoing on.
(11:08):
I don't know what it's from andit's like or digestive issues,
or like menstrual issues, likeall these issues that nurses are
having that probably can berelated back to chronic stress
and the tensions and traumasthat we hold from our job and
then from, like, the peripheryof our life, because nursing is
also a very triggering, it's avery triggering profession.
(11:31):
You know, like when I wentthrough the loss of my son, it's
like, and then I had some timeoff work, but then I go back to
the hospital and it's like thisis where this happened and this
is just so.
It's a lot right, it's a lot.
So when people are dealing withwhether they're dealing with a
loss of a friend, a parent, agrandparent, it's like or their
own, their own traumas, or theirchildren, it's like then you're
(11:53):
going to go back and usuallywork in that exact same hospital
like it is.
It's, it's a total.
Yeah, mind fuck, I'd call it.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
I don't know sorry if I'm allowed.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
No, it is, it is it's hard because now you're
carrying your own weight andyour own trauma while trying to
look after everybody else andhold it together.
And so much in nursing is likewe're trying to hold it together
.
We deal and a lot of times wedeal with that by like dark
humor and like the weird senseof humor we have as nurses,
which is fine Like I'm here forthat If you also have coping,
(12:26):
healthy coping strategies.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Oh, yeah, yeah, that's so intense and it's
something like if you don't likeI.
Personally, one of my bigstruggles was finding a
community of people thatunderstood cause I don't have
healthcare in my family and soto come home and talk to people
they're just like they didn'tget it at all.
So it's so important to likework with someone like you who,
like you, know exactly what thestruggles are and how difficult
(12:50):
it can be.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah, and I think that's why it's important too
for a nurse to be doing thiswork.
You know, like nurses, helpingnurses, I think, is really
important because as much asother health modalities and
other healthcare practitioners,they'll know that nursing is
hard for sure.
But just to know that struggleof being deep in it for 12 hours
and it's, it's a lot, it is alot, it is a lot.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
And I don't know about Canada, because I feel
like, overall, you're probablyI'm probably going to get people
to hate on me, but you guys areoverall you have a healthier
population than we do.
But from working in all over theUnited States and all kinds of
ICUs and on being floated as atravel nurse to every floor as
well, illnesses and mentalhealth are tied together and I
(13:40):
would say that maybe mentalhealth wasn't the root of it for
a lot of people, for somepeople, I would say it
definitely is, and I would saythat the mental health aspect is
definitely what makes a lot ofit worse.
And for me, that was the likewhatever you call it, like your
rock bottom or whatever.
The moment that I thought likemy health issues that I was
(14:02):
having were, like you know, alot of cardiac issues.
What made me think like if Idon't do something about it, I'm
going to end up one of thesepatients.
To me, that was like worst casescenario ever.
That was enough to like shakeme out of it, like I'm not gonna
end in my life in this likework that I do every day.
(14:22):
So such powerful, powerful stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And it is.
It's like you can see, and withthe, the alternative colitis,
for me it was I I'm not going tosay it's the biggest thing, but
that would be the biggestchronic health issue because
it's like it's really big and ithas the ability to progress.
So, same as you're talking withyour cardiac stuff, it's like
I'm like if I don't changesomething and if I don't get
ahead of this, I'm alreadybehind it.
(14:46):
If I don't get ahead of this, Iam gonna end up in the hospital
.
I'm gonna end up and that's notwhere I'm gonna be, like you
know.
And then that's another thingthat the disconnect with um
health care and the medicalworld is that I remember after I
got my um colon, because thisis the other thing with nurses
I'm going to circle back to thisbecause how you're talking
(15:09):
about how nurses ignore theirhealth.
So I was having.
I was having all these issueswith my bowels and I was too
much information here, but likeI was bleeding, every time I
went to the bathroom I wasbloated, like it was just.
It was awful.
But you know, when I went tothe doctor because I hurt my
knees two months earlier, so Iwent to, I was making work hard,
yeah, like.
(15:30):
I was.
I was my knees were really sorebecause I had a skiing accident
with my daughter and I was likeI think I need like just
wondering what I'm doing.
There's this other thing that Ijust want to mention, just to
see if you think it's a big dealor not.
And he's like Amanda, like,like what, like what are you
talking about?
Like yeah, and he was, he waspretty pissed at me and I hadn't
(15:53):
told anybody, anybody aboutthese symptoms.
My husband was mad at mebecause it was like immediate
blood work, in for a CT and infront of a colonoscopy within
like the week.
You know it was and I was like,wow, okay, yeah, I was ignoring
my own health and uh, yeah, andthat's what we do as nurses.
I think we do that as as a lotof people, but anyway, but um,
(16:14):
moms, yeah and then circlingback to after my colonoscopy, I
said something to the doctor inmy in my uh haze there I was
like, okay, like just dietstress, I can go through a lot.
And he's like nope, nothing todo with that, nothing to do with
stress.
Here's your prescription, it'slike.
So when I came out of it, youknow I was kind of like is, like
(16:35):
directly related to stress yeah, and I'm like okay, so I'm
gonna have to take matters intomy own hands here, and it was
hard and it's been hard, youknow.
It's like how can I release thestress that I was going through
?
But you know, that was um threeyears ago now and I'm I mean
they'd say I'm in remission, butit's like I feel like I've
(16:56):
healed, healed myself from itand but it's just crazy that
disconnect of like no, this hasnothing to do with stress, this
has nothing to do with yourlifestyle.
It's like everything has to dowith this.
Like how can we be tellingpatients this, you know?
Like how can we be likespreading this myth that it's
not all connected, like thatnothing is connected.
(17:18):
It's like it is all connectedand we need to work together,
like because I'm so happy that Igot those diagnostics to know
like, okay, this is what we'redealing with.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
This can help lead me on, like my healing journey a
bit more, but like and there'sresources available that for you
to dive into your own house,since no one and the system
wanted to educate you about itTotally so.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
it's like, you know, but it'd be just be so nice if,
like the interconnectedness oflike allopathic medicine and
complementary medicine would belike, okay, yeah, here's like,
here's a prescription to helpyou get started on your healing
and then here's also a bunch ofother resources or like um
practitioners you should beseeing as well to discuss your
(17:59):
stress and you're, you know,like in a perfect world.
Here's my perfect, like the twoare going to collide and it's
right.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Treat the human like the nursing model is which is
why nurses are amazing yeah, Itotally agree.
It's crazy.
Yeah, I I got a lot ofmedications thrown at me as well
and I was like not what I waslooking for.
Wanted to look on how to makeit better, not how to live with
it, but thank you.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Exactly Right.
And then it's like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
So how do you start with nurses when you like?
How do you work with them?
How do you help them start toheal?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
So I'm just kind of I'm just kind of bringing up my
practice here.
So I've gotten all these stepsin place and I'm just kind of
building it up right now.
So I've worked with nurses,like in person, with workshops,
and so I brought that workshoponline.
It's called the Nurses ForceField Workshop.
And the great thing about myworkshop, too, is you earn two
(19:01):
nursing CEUs for it.
Um, it's been accredited, uh,through debriefing the front
lines, so, um, you can get twonursing CEUs.
And then the course I'm creatingis um, um, the 30 day chronic
stress and trauma release course, like specifically for,
specifically for nurses.
Um, but it would work.
(19:22):
I mean, this is going to workfor any anybody who's feeling
like they need this.
But my content is specific toto nurses, even though other
people could probably apply itinto their other women could
probably apply it into theirlives.
But with this course it's goingto be a 30-day course 15
minutes a day of somaticexercises to help work through
that trauma intention for nurses.
(19:44):
So my whole big thing withnurses is I want to make
something easy, accessible andsimple for them to do.
And when I say easy and simple,that term is just so broad at
first, because before we'vehealed from our trauma intention
, nothing in healing seems easy,nothing seems simple.
It all just seems so like,where do I start?
(20:06):
How do I do this?
So I want to just packagesomething up nicely for nurses
to be like, hey, you get homefrom your shift or when you get
up in the morning, just clickthis and I will show you 15
minutes maximum 15 minutes whatyou can do today to regulate
your nervous system.
So that's going to be myoffering that I'm hoping I can
(20:27):
bring to fruition by April, andthat's actually going to be 10
CEUs for that course as well.
So that's something I'm veryexcited about.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
That's awesome.
I love that you put the CEU inthere.
It's so smart of you, too, toget nurses there too yes, like,
and that's kind of what you know.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
It's like how do you get nurses who don't want to um,
not necessarily don't want to,but maybe feel like they need to
do something, but don't reallywant that push or like, don't
want to, like you know, spendtheir money on that.
They'd rather spend their moneyon this.
It's like if you've beenthinking about needing a little
bit of extra help in regulatingyour nervous system, a little
extra help because you've beenoverly stressed out, it's like
(21:06):
here it is and you get nursingceus for it, like, so I'm very,
very excited about that do youknow, are those just canadian
ceus?
Speaker 1 (21:14):
are those no?
Speaker 2 (21:16):
no, they're american, so it's really yeah that that
is amazing in Canada.
We don't necessarily.
We need continued education,but not in the same model as the
states.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
I was like it's different state to state.
Not all states require it, butmost do yeah and so um.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
So yeah, I did it through debriefing the front
lines.
They um she Tara, the CEU, umnurse, she um is getting that
accredited.
So she's gone through that alland so it's yeah for the US.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Yeah, so I met Amanda because I did one of your
videos and wrote you atestimonial.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
And it was I felt very calm afterwards.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
I was, I had put it off and put it off and I was
gonna do it and then I finallydid it and I was like Whoa, like
I feel good and I'm a big like.
If you've listened to any of mystuff, I advocate a lot for
breath work, cause I do it everysingle day before I go in the
ICU in my car and if I don't doit it's a bad day because I I
have mood.
Like you know, it's a stressfuljob that I've done, so I have
(22:27):
to regulate how I walk in thereevery day.
Breath works, but a big toolfor me because it is a direct
acting on your nervous system,your vagus nerve.
But this is similar and I'm asI'm, so I'm neurodivergent and
you know, as I get older and allthe perimenopause, like
hormones hit me, I get to coverall these great things about
myself.
But one of the things that I'mlearning, which is involved in
somatics so much, which is justone of the reasons I'm so
interested in, is the balancingof the sides of the brain which
(22:49):
somatics does that.
It's the tactile and it isbalancing.
So tell me, tell me a littlebit more about that if you can,
yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Like the bilateral simulation.
Yeah, so everything you justsaid, totally the bilateral
simulation.
It helps like reprogram thebrain, it helps you get more in
tune with your body to helpprocess those emotions and let
them go, and just it's aboutreprogramming those like neural
pathways in the brain and reallygetting in tune with your body
(23:17):
without having to put words onwhat is actually going on.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I love it.
I love it.
It's so helpful because asnurses, we're big stuffers,
right Like we have to be.
You could not do your job ifyou had to feel your feels in
the moment every time.
It just wouldn't work, so wehave to be able to push things
away.
But then taking that back outand unloading that suitcase is
not something all of us know howto do.
I mean, I remember when I wasfirst a nurse, like I'm a crier
now I'll cry at anything, butwhen I was younger, in my
(23:45):
twenties, that was not something.
I was not a crier and I wouldfind myself like making myself
watch like sad stuff or likebecause I could feel it, I could
feel it building, like I needto cry, I need to like mournn,
like kind of grieve, all thiscrazy, crazy stuff I'm seeing,
and so I'd have to trick myselfinto doing it sometimes.
(24:07):
Um, so I love that this is justlike a gentle way to process as
you're going so do you recommend?
This is like a daily practicefor people.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
I do and and so with the 30 course that I'm creating,
it's like it's a lead up andthen there's actually a trauma
release on the eight, on the18th, 20th day of the course.
So it's like a lot of gentlemovement to open up, release
tension, open up these pathwaysso that when the actual trauma
release day comes which youwould never just throw the
(24:37):
videos I share don't share theactual trauma release movements,
because they can be reallyintense if you haven't really
gotten your body ready for it.
And that's where we really seepeople doing the shaking like
uncontrollably shaking, cryingand really working through the
emotions.
But the somatic movements I dorecommend as a daily practice.
Like you're saying that you doyour breath work before work, I
(24:58):
always.
But the somatic movements I dorecommend as a daily practice.
Like you're you're saying thatyou do your breath work before
work, I always do some somaticmovements in the, either in the
morning before I go or at nightwhen I get home.
I find them to be really helpfulbefore I try to go into my
normal life with my family.
I try to set up and you know itdoesn't need to be 15 minutes,
(25:18):
just something to if you'redoing some knee, sways or just
some sort of movement that likegrounds you into like being here
now into your body.
A lot of somatics is aboutnoticing how you're feeling
without judgment.
So you know it's like you're.
You can do these movements andyou can all of a sudden notice
(25:39):
that like, oh yeah, my hips aretight, oh yeah, I get a lot of,
I'm getting a lot of tightnessin my chest and maybe anxiety or
something when I'm doing this.
But just like noticing that andbreathing and continuing to do
these movements can help youkind of work through it and
release these things.
So, yeah, just noticing yourbody and trusting your body
through the process.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
So you can.
These are videos people can dolike at home, so they don't do.
You work with people one-on-oneto where you are Is all of your
stuff online.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
All the stuff's online now.
I've done a couple of workshopsin person, but I've moved to
online now just to reach abroader base of people and just
to make it more accessible, as II'm um, so, yeah, most of my
stuff's online.
So the workshop um the forcefield workshop is live and in
(26:31):
person.
So when I do that the workshop,it's an hour and a half of um.
I limit it to 10 people so it'spretty intimate group and it's
focused on like peer connectionwith other nurses because, like
we talked about before, wereally know what each other are
going through on like a reallydeeper level of how crazy the
(26:53):
job can be.
And so we talk about nursing, wetalk about um trauma.
I tell people the differenteffects of trauma on the body.
We do some somatic exercisesand then talk about
co-regulation, a lot in thatworkshop and just how to protect
your own energy and try to helpthat kind of radiate out to the
(27:13):
rest of the floor.
So that workshop is online,online and live.
And then the course that'llhopefully be coming out in April
is going to be pace yourself,do at your own pace,
pre-recorded so do you havevideos or anything on YouTube
that if anyone wanted to try itout they could access, or so?
(27:33):
I just right now have the videothat I shared with you and then
on my Instagram.
Every once in a while I'll, ifI I'll post something that says
like comment balance and I'llsend the video.
All my videos on YouTube rightnow are just link access only,
but if you comment on one ofthose ones that says that, then
I'll send you send a link overto you watch them and then on my
(27:57):
on my Instagram, which iszennurse, I share a lot of tips
on on regulating your nervoussystem, on doing somatic
exercises.
I do a lot of them at work, whenI'm on break.
So you know, like stockroomsessions or like stowing away to
the bathroom for like twominutes to just do some sort of
(28:17):
grounding exercise, whether it'slike a butterfly hug, and just
like disconnecting from thefloor for a minute or two.
You know, like the biggestthing I want people to know with
the somatic exercises is like,ideally, yes, you're going to be
at home in an environment thatyou find safe, lying down and
cozy, but these can also be doneanywhere.
Like I find myself on my shift,I will even going outside for a
(28:41):
walk on my break, you know,instead of sitting doom
scrolling, gossiping witheverybody else.
You know, like all these thingslike peer connection super
important to in a healthy way.
But it's also good, like I find, on my breaks at work, to
disconnect and give myself somespace to to be, you know, and
disconnect from the floor.
(29:03):
So I share a lot of those tipson my on my Instagram, just like
what to do when you're at work,like what to do when you're at
work, like what to do in astressful situation, how to
decompress when you are kind oflike in the heat of it, like
obviously you got to finish withyour tasks and make sure
there's patient safety andeverything, but there's still
things you can do.
If you need to stow away fortwo minutes on your own, that's
going to make you feel better inyourself.
(29:25):
We're going to make you abetter team member.
I'm going to make you a betternurse.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
So I like that about your videos.
I noticed that I was like, man,I never even thought about
doing that kind of stuff at work, cause you know, I like will
stow away and do a little breathwork sometimes if I'm having
like a oh my God, way too much,and so I'll stow away, do like a
little breath work.
But the physical movements forme it was something that like I
(29:48):
just had a barrier there and Ididn't know.
Until I saw your videos I waslike, oh man, you could totally
do like more physical thingshere.
I just never even considered ituntil I saw your videos.
I love that, yeah, okay.
Well, let's see here, if peoplewant to get started in somatics
, they hear this and they'relike I definitely need this.
Where would you, uh, recommendthey start?
(30:12):
um, I think I recommend, um,like you mean kind of like what
kind of practice they shouldkind of start with yeah, like,
if they're like, this soundsgood to me, but I don't know
where to where to even go aboutthis like.
But I feel like somatics wouldhelp me.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
I think on a very basic level, like what I could
tell you right now if I was like, if you were to do one thing
today that could help you, likestart in this somatics healing
kind of journey, start noticingwhat is going on in your body.
Start noticing without judgmentand listening to your body
Cause that's a huge thing isthat you know we can do all the
(30:50):
healing in the world.
We can do all the gross thingsin the world.
We can go to the classes, wecan go to the healers.
But if we're not listening toour body and knowing and
understanding that we can findthese tools within ourselves to
like heal our body and regulateour nervous system, like within
(31:11):
ourselves, then it's all kind offalls by the wayside.
We need to listen to our bodies,we need to understand that we
can trust our bodies to tell uswhen things are starting to
happen before they become thesecatastrophic health challenges.
Right, you know, like um,leading up to some of my things,
it's like, yeah, yeah, I wasfeeling stressed.
Yeah, I had knots in my tummy.
(31:31):
Yeah, like there was thingsthat could have been done sooner
if I had have listened to mybody and I think if people
wanted to do something today,right now.
Tune into your body and taketime to listen to your body.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
I love that Because I always say, like with burnout,
a lot of things, it's like oneof two things happening.
A lot of times.
It's like we know what's goingon and we're avoiding it.
Like we can hear it, but we'relike just avoiding it, pushing
it away, or we're sodisconnected from our bodies
that we don't even recognize thesignals that it's screaming at
us, and so we have to slow downand learn to listen.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Absolutely.
And that slow down piece too.
You know, it's like noticinghow you're moving through life,
like if you're moving throughlife like, oh, got to go, got to
rush, hurry up, let's go, let'sgo, let's go.
It's like again, all the amountof nervous system healing isn't
going to help if you don'tstart like doing things at a
regular pace, like if you havethat sense of urgency and
absolutely everything you'redoing.
That's not good.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Which is like that's kind of the flow of nursing,
though, right, that's like theflow of the job we do.
So we get stuck, and I thinkwomen in general because we take
on a lot of that's, you know,in our personal lives as well as
moms and as like this hustleculture that's going around to
be everything, do everything allat once there's this habit that
(32:56):
we have where I like to thinkof it as like leaving walking on
your tippy toes, like you know,you're just like grasping,
we're constantly trying to getsomewhere and what we need to do
is just like rock back on ourheels, settle down for a second
and assess where we're at.
But we spend so much time inthat, trying to get somewhere,
achieve something, find like inthat reaching place.
(33:20):
Yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
And even in nursing like, I try to convey this, like
I try to be a pillar of like,not necessarily calm, but just
like, like on the floor of like.
Yes, there is a lot to do.
I try not to say too much.
I'm like oh, I'm very busy,cause this goes into our nursing
.
Oh, there's so much to do, I'mso busy and it's like I try to
tell people, yeah, and we've got12 hours to do it, and we're
(33:43):
one person and I'm going to domy best every time I go to work,
but there is only so much I cando safely, you know, and I need
to make sure that I'm goingabout that in a safe way and a
calm way, so that I am doing thebest that I can, you know, and
so I've.
I've brought that into mynursing practice with you know,
the learning more about somaticsand everything in the last
(34:03):
couple of years, and that'schanged my nursing practice as
well and changing how I'm ableto like go about the floor.
And that's why the workshop hasso much end piece about the
co-regulation, because I noticeit like kind of ripple out like
OK, yeah, like yeah, we only cando so much you know, and
obviously there is emergencies,and there is things that like
(34:23):
yeah, you are moving faster, butyou can still only do so much.
you are moving faster, but youcan still only do so much.
You can still only do whatyou're capable of, and and that
limiting for nurses because weare our own kind of superheroes
and we think we can, can andshould do it all.
But no, we, we are just oneperson and can only do what we
can.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Yeah, yeah, I talk all the time about detachment at
work and I think it rubs someof the newer nurses who are like
really committed.
You know, like really, reallywanted to do good the wrong way,
which is okay, they'll get itone day.
But I'm like you have to toprotect yourself.
You know you have to askyourself what do I, what do I
can I do right here, do that andthen after that you can't do
anything else Cause I I get Igot caught up in years so much
(35:06):
about that, like just theinequality and the injustices
that you see in healthcaresometimes, which I found a way
to detach from.
You know, I do what I can do.
I do the best for people I can.
I still struggle sometimesgetting angry when things happen
.
That shouldn't you know.
It's like.
Oh it's so angry and that'swhere I feel like I could
definitely be a calmer rolemodel in that way.
(35:26):
So I feel like I can you havesuch a calm presence?
I bet working with you you'relike people are just feeding but
I do get them.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
I wouldn't say that I get, I probably don't get angry
, but I'm definitely quiteassertive and direct as well,
which I think people kind oflike oh, like you did that in a
very like like interesting way,that they, like, you know, the
doctor listened there and it'slike, yeah, well, it's like I'm
still gonna advocate hard.
You know, I'm not just gonnalet.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
That's part of what can you do.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
That's the part of what you have control over
totally, and so it's like no,let's do this and this.
And, like you know, even just Iremember the other day I said a
doctor, okay, well, like theyneed to know this and that's
your job to do, like not mine.
And one of the younger nurseswas like oh, my God, I'm like,
but it's true, and they knowthat, like it's their job to
tell them this new diagnosis,not mine, yeah, yeah, that's not
(36:16):
in your scope.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
I love that I that's the thing I think I do really
well at as like so, nurses whoare listening you will get this
so much Anyone that's stillbedside but like I've been a
nurse 10 years but bedsidecritical care 10 years and it
sounds like you're very, veryclose, like right in there.
And when I started nursingthere were still I still worked
with nurses that had been nurseslike 20 years, 30 years, like
(36:37):
that was.
They were there, they were in alot of them, but they were
there and like if I had aproblem, I mean, you know they
had different personalities butI knew who to go to, but I knew
who to go to and nowadays there.
I'm the, I'm the one of theolder nurses, I'm one of the
people which, to me, isterrifying because there used to
be a lot more experience therebut boundaries is something
that's so lacking and soimportant.
It's okay to say no.
If you don't feel comfortable,immediately stop that process
(37:02):
and ask questions.
If you have a gut feeling, gowith it.
And you know it's okay to askmore information.
Someone's getting defensivewith you.
You're probably finding aproblem.
You know like this is okay andI think that we're not trained
that way and you go into theworld.
No one arms you with how tospeak up for yourself and stand
alone in a world where you'retrying to advocate for people
(37:23):
and the system will swallow youup sometimes.
So it's so important to showpeople how to say no and how to
get things done using keywordsthat, like people have to listen
to.
You know what I mean Not likeaggressive stance, but serious
words, you know.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Yeah, absolutely.
And then like, yeah, just whatyou just said resonated so well.
Like we're not taught innursing school.
There's such a big piecemissing of like.
I feel like all this stuffshould be taught, like how to
protect your own own energy,like boundaries, like all this
stuff that we aren't taught.
And then you get the new nursescome out and it's like they
just want to work and they wantto do this and it's like they
have such good intentions really, I know, and it's just a recipe
(37:59):
kind of for burnout, becausethen it kind of shows your
career that, like um, it does.
Yeah, it's a projection for yourcareer that you don't say no,
you're just saying yes toeverything and then and then it
just kind of comes this cycleand yeah, and interesting that
you say that you're one of thesenior nurses now, cause, yeah,
when I started it's like nursesthat have been there 30 years,
like the nurses in their sixtiesand like 65.
(38:21):
And now it's like the oldernurses are 50, maybe like 40,
like they're all there.
Nobody's really been there 25,30 years and it's like where'd
every, where'd everybody?
Speaker 1 (38:32):
go.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
And that's where.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
I learned to stand up for myself.
To be honest, I've watched somenurses that I you know.
When a nurse has worked therelike twice as long as any of the
doctors, they just gain someknowledge that you know from
experience and don't watch in asituation where everyone's so
uncomfortable and I've seen thisover the years so many times.
Pre COVID stopped what wasgoing on and did the right thing
(38:55):
, and it was always someoneolder who cause the younger
people are nowadays don't get mewrong.
There's the new generation hassome spice and I love that about
them Cause they changed thisindustry for us.
And thank you, ladies.
But before that's like man.
Just that's where I learned todo that.
It was, that was OK.
That's not something that youknow how to say no to.
(39:18):
And also, they're mostly menwho are used to getting what
they want, that it is taught inmen to be pushy because that's
what people do.
It's not like a negativeintention from them, but we're
raised differently and theirsocial skills are usually
lacking because they just cameout of med school.
There's so many factorsinvolved.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
There's a lot of factors involved there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
So it's great that you're out there like being that
role model.
I love that because you knowalso, like my plan is to
ultimately leave bedside, butthere's a part of my heart that
hurts a little bit about thatbecause there is not very many
people left.
Not that there's anything newnurses you guys are awesome, but
you need support, you know itneeds support and they know that
they need support.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
You know and a lot of that shifted in COVID that all
of a sudden you're seeing floorsbeing run by all new grads and
in charge and they've been onnurse for and travelers, and
it's kind of like, oh, this isscary, you know, and I don't
know what I think about leavingbedside.
I don't, I don't actually thinkI will leave bedside, like I
mean, that's the beauty aboutnursing is that we can do travel
(40:23):
contracts.
We can do um, we call it casualin Canada, it's per diem in the
states, but it's like we can,you know, do casual like.
Right now I'm kind of in between.
We were in Newfoundland for thesummer on a travel contract to
travel with my family and thennow we're back in BC and I'm
working casual again at, like,my local hospital.
There's just so many optionsright like, and that's one thing
too that I try to hit home likeon um with the whole zen nurse
(40:47):
instagram and message to nursesis like if you don't like where
you are, you can pause.
Like you don't.
Just because you went to school, like nursing school, doesn't
mean that you are stuck in thesame job forever.
Like take a per diem job, takea travel job, like mix it up if
you're burnt out where you arelike half.
That is a bureaucratic bullshit.
That's going on.
That, yes, you cut from maybecould change, but that's
(41:10):
exhausting.
If you just want to be likegoing to work, you know it's
like you.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
You know one is going to change the system we have
right now.
From our level, I mean, you canget involved in things that are
changing it, but you're notgoing to change it from work
yeah, so it's like you knowyou're so right, though Nursing
is so versatile, you can haveany kind of lifestyle.
You can do so many kinds ofnursing.
There's so much educationinvolved in it.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Yeah, and even just like um, yeah, you can make your
own schedule, like with a perdiem or casual job.
It's like, yeah, I'll work here, yeah, I'll work there, like,
and then if you're burnt outwith that, you take a 13 week
travel contract, take 13 weeksoff.
You know, it's just likethere's just so many options
that if you're like, you're notstuck that's what I want nurses
to know Right, you're not stuckand nurses have the power.
(41:57):
We're smart, we're a smartgroup of folks, and it's like
you can change how you'refeeling, you can change your
environment and yeah, yeah, Ilove that.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
It's so true.
I love that you want to stay innursing too, because I don't
think I'll stay full-time.
I I've always thought like, oh,I probably work PRN forever,
just cause, like there is justsome of the most golden moments
I've had with patients,sometimes that like, yeah, you
can't put words to how awesomeit is to like connect with
people like that, like you do innursing, um, but the work, the
(42:30):
work of like the full-time work,is something that my body is
just like, not a futuristicthing for me, that's going to
work.
And I love that viewpoint too,because I think there are a lot
of nurses leaving the field ornot leaving the field, but
leaving for soft skills andleaving the field.
But like for me, when I gotvery burnt out, I thought I was
done with nursing and I wasleaving nursing forever and I
(42:51):
was angry and I was bitter and Iwas mad at nursing, I was mad
at healthcare and then, once Ihealed, I realized like it was
never nursing.
Nursing is all like.
It is the model I love, Ibelieve in it, I got excited
about it for a reason, andthere's other ways to do it.
We're just like in a system thatisn't functioning as well as it
should be right now.
So it's just beautiful becauseit's okay, you can, you might go
(43:13):
back to it and once you healit's not always what you think.
That's going on Like I don'tapproach work the same way I
used to.
I don't.
It doesn't feel like the samejob since I've gone back.
So I had to take three monthsoff when I got really, really
ill and I went.
Once I finally got to the pointI could go back it.
Just I don't feel like the sameperson there and I like that.
I feel much more free, like Idon't feel scared to say what I
(43:39):
need.
I'm not scared of them firingme either.
That's a great thing.
Traveling is like I can getanother job.
Then that's fine.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And when you move around, youbuild your skill set up to be
such a love.
You know what I mean.
You see so much, you know somuch.
It really just helps you grow.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Yeah, oh, absolutely Totally Like I.
When I came back here, I wasdoing something on the floor and
the doctor's like is that, canyou do that on the floor or is
that critical care?
I'm like, no, this is somethingwe can do on the floor.
And then the nurses on thefloor are like, oh, we haven't
really done that.
I'm like, okay, Like I know inthe policy we can do this on the
floor.
And I was doing this at a liketravel hospital I was at on the
floor, like I'm comfortable withthis, it's in my scope and it's
(44:23):
like you know, so you bringthese.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
And you see the way different places do that.
I love that.
So there's a hospital system Iworked for which I quit
traveling for a while and becamea traveler for this specific
system and they were so smart.
They use that program becauseit was like literally to all
their hospitals and it's a giantsystem, but they use that
system to make the hospital morecohesive and find issues and
(44:46):
what's working well on theseunits.
And they took cause.
You had to have quite a bit ofexperience to be the ICU travel
nurses there and once you gotthat job they sat down with
these nurses and they were likewhat's working, what's not
working places?
And there was no punitiveinvolved.
It was like they were going tomake the system better.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
And I was like man.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
That's the best way to do it Cause they're the ones
in there finding the mistakes,seeing it.
So there's so much, so much inthat.
Yeah, we're so smart, nursesare so awesome, anyway, well,
amanda, I'm so glad you havejoined us and sharing all of
(45:22):
this with us.
I always ask everyone what isyour, what is your go-to
self-care when, like, things areawful, and you, what is the
practice that you go to?
Speaker 2 (45:36):
You can probably guess.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
I can, but I'm like, is it a?
Speaker 2 (45:38):
specific one and I wonder or yeah, somatic
exercises, and it honestly justdepends how I'm feeling, you
know like, if it's like a grieffeeling, if it's an anxiety
feeling, if it's like a rushyfeeling, if I'm just down, like
it just depends how I'm feelingIf I'll do more rocking movement
, if I'll do more flowingmovement.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
Um yeah, it just kind of depends, but I love that you
said that, because I didn'teven know that like.
But it makes sense Now that yousaid that there's probably
different movements tied todifferent emotions.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
So it just depends, like, where you're holding,
holding those emotions andtension, like um your psoas
muscle, which is like the bigmuscle that runs um down your
back from your T12 to your uh,greater trochanter, and that
muscle um cannot be like it'syour muscle that it tenses up
when you like hit, bin and fightor flight, and it will not
release itself unless you domovements to help release it.
(46:33):
So if it's been really intense,um, like if I've had those
feelings at work, I'll be doingexercises to help release that,
which is like a pelvic tiltexercise to help release that
muscle.
And so the different thingslike that.
You know we hold a lot oftrauma in our hips.
I'll do more hip circles if I'mfeeling like that.
They're feeling really tightand I'm holding things there and
(46:54):
so, yeah, every differentmovements can help different
things and and also just whatwhat it helps for different
people, like I know whatmovements help me when I'm
feeling a certain way.
Speaker 1 (47:02):
So did you know your, your triggers and what boils up
for you, which I assume peoplelearn as they start to get into
this?
Speaker 2 (47:10):
Yes, absolutely, as you start noticing your body.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
Yeah, which is hard.
I think I've said this on herebefore but the first time
someone asked me, like where doyou feel that emotion, I was
like looked at them cross-eyed.
I'm like what are you?
Nobody feels their emotion inthere.
I'm like what are you Like?
I just thought that was so um,what are you talking about?
Because I was so likeoverwhelmed.
By now, after working on it foryears, I know exactly what
(47:35):
they're talking about absolutely, but it sometimes it takes time
to get in there.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
Oh, it takes a lot of time.
And it takes a lot of time tolike take the time to notice
your body and notice that, likejust noticing will actually help
you with with regulating youknow, so it all just, yeah, it
takes.
It takes time when somebodyhears about these practices to
become open enough to it to beable to try it.
Um, you know, like yeah, andjust know there is science
(48:04):
behind it.
There is like studies onholding trauma in the body and
how our body does hold that.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
Have you read that book?
The body keeps the score.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
Yes, absolutely.
It's been recommended a lot.
I love that book.
It's a really intense book.
I find that book really intenseand there's just so many good
pieces in it.
Another really good one is whenthe body says no, by Dr
Gavramate, and that's about likechronic stress and how we hold
it in the body.
And yeah, he's an MD in Canadaand he has a lot of really great
(48:36):
work.
But that book really attunes tothis kind of work I'm doing and
he's curious about it, right,he gets curious about his own
habits and how he holds chronicstress and just even like
habitual patterns that we havefrom like childhood and what we
do.
And it's all just sointeresting learning all this
stuff so cool.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
Well, amanda, is what is the Zen nurse on Instagram?
Just Zen nurse, right?
Zen dot nurse.
Zen dot nurse on Instagram.
Where else can we find you?
Speaker 2 (49:07):
That's the best place to find me right now is just on
the Instagram channel, and thenI do have the link in my bio is
to sign up for my and become anemail subscriber, and email
subscribers are the first tohear about workshops.
They'll be the first to hearabout the course drop with a
little discount code in there.
So I do have another workshopthat I'm planning for march that
I'm gonna announce to mysubscribers tonight or not
(49:30):
tonight because this is march17th but but that's the best
place.
Um, yeah, so the best place tohear about all that is to, uh,
sign up as an email subscriberawesome, yeah well, thank you so
much I thank you so much forhaving me you're welcome, okay,
bye.
Hello and welcome to Empowered Ease.
Our guest today is Amanda Fark.
She is a registered nurse, awellness warrior and a nervous
system educator.
Welcome, amanda.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hello, thanks for having me on today.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I'm so happy you're here.
So tell me a little bit aboutwhat a registered nurse,
wellness warrior and nervoussystem educator is um, so it's
just kind of a broad title I use.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I'm a registered nurse, um by profession.
So I've been a registered nursefor about nine years working in
various fields from medical,surgical, rural, emerge, my deep
travel nursing around Canadaand um and I've, before I became
a registered nurse, I wasreally into like holistic
healing.
I was really into.
You know, I wanted to become ayoga instructor when I was
(00:51):
younger and then I became anurse and a lot of that kind of
fell by the wayside, as as itdoes when you do four years of
university and you start thiscareer and that becomes kind of
what your your main focus is.
And then through being a nurseand through my own health issues
and my own traumas and seeingthat of my friends and coworkers
(01:12):
, I kind of went back to myroots of like.
Remember when my younger selfwanted to be a yoga instructor
and so two years ago I became ayoga instructor, which was super
exciting and fulfilled thatdream.
Years ago I became a yogainstructor, which was super
exciting and fulfilled thatdream.
And then through some of my ownyeah, just things that I was
going through in my life, I wastrying a lot of different things
(01:38):
to help myself heal and nothingwas really hitting the mark
until I started diving intosomatic work, somatic exercises
and nervous system regulationand I'm like, wow, this is, this
is really, this is really doingit for me and it was getting
healing pieces and bringing uppieces that were so deep down I
barely knew they still existedbut they were adding to a lot of
(02:00):
my chronic health challengesthat I was having.
There's kind of a long answerabout that.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
that big title there, yeah, I can't wait to dig in
and learn more.
I have some parallels in mystory, but first of all I did
not know you were in Canada,which I'm so excited about.
Where are you in Canada?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I'm in British Columbia.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Okay, so I just did.
I don't know if you know her.
You probably.
I mean, canada is a huge place,right?
But her name's Lillian DeFreeand she is like a big advocate
for nurses in Canada and fornurse burnout, and she's been on
the podcast.
So we're going to have to thethree of us are going to have to
talk one day.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
So I'm so excited about that Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
So first of all, I love that like I parallel you in
that, like when I startednursing school, I was really
into holistic health and Iwanted to like the trauma aspect
.
The acute care medicine is whyI went into it, cause I was like
I can do both.
I was in a yoga teacher programwhile I went to, but I dropped
(03:00):
it.
I couldn't.
I couldn't do both.
So I went away, got totallyburnt out, had a bunch of
physical problems and then founda coaching program.
Well, I was always doing yogaand mindfulness on my own, but
really getting really burnt outis what made me jumpstart back
into like, hey, that was thehealthiest I was in my life,
that was the best I feltmentally.
(03:20):
And I also love that you weretouching on like nervous system,
because I think for nursesespecially nurses working
bedside right now, like nervoussystem dysregulation, just alone
with the environment, takingall the other factors that
definitely contribute out theenvironment alone, is so
difficult on your nervous system.
(03:41):
So I cannot wait to hear moreabout this.
Tell me a little bit about well, I guess your your story.
Like what kind of healthstruggles were you going through
?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
There's been a lot down the line which is weird.
Weird to admit, because I feellike I'm a very healthy person.
I can relate, yeah, yeah, and Ifeel, you know, like, even
though I wasn't doing I wasn't ayoga instructor I was still.
I was always doing yoga, Ialways had a yoga practice.
I was always like trying to bephysically active.
I live an active lifestyle, youknow.
(04:21):
But then, you know, in nursingschool I got diagnosed with
endometriosis, sciatica, likeall this stuff that I now know
is like stagnation of sittingand learning and stress.
You know it's like all thesehealth issues I feel for myself
and for a lot of people can bestemmed back to stress.
You know, it's like a stressresponse in the body that we've
(04:44):
ignored that all of a sudden isa big catalyst.
Um, so there was that, thathappened.
Um, and then I, between mychildren, I had a baby at at 24
weeks and he didn't.
He didn't survive,unfortunately, which was pretty
devastating, and just goingthrough the healing process of
(05:05):
that really, really got me intothe nervous system work because,
you know, I was, I was running,I was doing all the things I
was supposed to do and I wasdoing talk therapy and like I
feel like I was better, but Iwas still like holding this
extra weight, my, I had thishuge.
Like you know, my posture wasbad and then I got into this
kind of stuff and it's like, oh,this stuff is, this is deep,
(05:25):
this is really deep to heal fromthis.
Um, yeah, when I start talkingabout the health challenges I
have, I am just shaking my headbecause I'm like as if, as a
healthy person, I feel this.
And then three years ago, I wentthrough a lot of stress and got
(05:45):
displaced from my job and Ilost my best friend to cancer
and two months later I wasdiagnosed with ulcerative
colitis.
I had like all these symptomsof just like bleeding and
couldn't eat and bloated, andall this is just horrible and
I'm like, ok, something needs tochange here.
Like this is this is stress.
You know, like all the otherthings, I'm like, okay,
(06:06):
something needs to change here.
Like this is this is stress.
You know, like all the otherthings I talked about, like you
know, I healed myself from thesciatica and endometriosis.
You know, like, by relievingstress in my life.
Like you know, like with doingall the yoga and doing this and
like, or you know nursing schoolis done, so it's like, okay,
that's that stress is over andI'm not being stagnant, so it
moves on.
And then with the ulcerativecolitis it's been a lot more
(06:27):
healing and getting to the rootof it and the somatic exercises
is really what has helped mewith that is just.
I tried the talk therapy andthat was good.
But it's just like I mentionedbefore, it just sits so deep.
And the thing with trauma andtension that sometimes we forget
or it's not on our radar is wehold that in our body, like our
(06:48):
body remembers what we gothrough.
So some like we can think thatwe've talked it through and we
need all these modalities rightto help us heal.
But it's like sometimes that'sjust not enough.
We need to listen to our bodyand we need to let our body
release that trauma and tensionin ways that are more intuitive.
So our culture has reallystopped us from releasing
(07:10):
tension and trauma through likeshaking and crying and all these
ways.
And that's where somaticexercises come in.
They're gentle movements thathelp you guide these tension
releases through your body.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I love that.
My I recently working with likea trauma therapist and she met,
said something to me thatresonated that I've thought of
while you were talking, and itwas like you know, sometimes
there are things that happenthat you don't have words for
like, or even they happen to youat an age where you don't have
words yet, but, or when you getolder, you just it's just, it's
(07:45):
just not words.
That's what happened, and soyou can't like talk that out,
that's not like.
You know, cause talk there.
It worked for me on some levels.
I got great tips, but I didn'theal and, um, I thought that for
me that was just such apowerful thought Cause I thought
, oh yeah, it didn't occur to mebefore, but that's so true.
Things happen before we havewords to put to them, and then
also things happen socomplicated and complex and like
(08:09):
duality is present and we don'thave words to give them.
So the only thing we can do isreprogram our nervous systems
response to it.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Absolutely and let ourself move through that trauma
response in like a safe andtrusting way.
You know, like so the traumaresponse to be finished.
You need to have that traumaresponse.
You need, like trembling oryawning, crying, deep breathing,
like the animalistic way, likewe see this in animals, right,
like animals will shake afterthey're scared.
(08:39):
You know you might see your dogdo it with thunder or fireworks
they shake and this is themreleasing that trauma response.
And us, as humans, we've beenconditioned in our culture that
something traumatic happensYou're not just going to, you
know, shake like you might ifsomething's big and then maybe
that person is probably going towork through it a lot quicker.
But a lot of times we kind of,okay, suck it up, grin, bear it,
(09:03):
nope, I'm all good kind of okay, suck it up grin, bear it, nope
, I'm all good moving.
Put it in that little closet,put it away I'll deal with this
later or?
Or we've also been conditionedto think like this isn't a big
deal, what I'm going through isnot a big deal, where it is like
your body is going to hold thatunless you give it space and
time to move through it andprocess it physically.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
So, yeah, yeah, it's powerful, it's very powerful.
So tell me, like when you, Isaw you specifically work with
nurses, which I know wementioned a little bit before
this.
But nurses is a hard populationto work with because sometimes
we're not the first to jump tohelp ourselves.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
We're usually not the first to jump to help ourselves
, but I feel like there's ashift happening.
I feel like there's a shift innurses realizing what we do go
through.
And again, that's a, it's acultural perception within the
nursing culture that what we gothrough is normal, that
everything we deal with on adaily basis is normal.
You know, like hearing callbells for 12 hours is normal, de
(10:04):
dealing with a patient code andthen packing that up and moving
to the next room is normal,like we, we just have a totally
messed up way of thinking ofwhat normal is.
Um, so, because it's not, youknow, and and sometimes I think
nurses will realize that ifthey're, you know, talking,
(10:24):
maybe to their partner aboutsomething, and then you know,
kind of look at you, it's likewhat like?
That's not like, that's notnormal, that's not a normal
experience.
And we go through that everyday.
You know, we go to work and wego through that and we're seeing
a lot of nurses acknowledgethat they're burnt out.
You know, having that pre-shiftanxiety, post-shift anxiety,
but maybe not quite knowing whatto do with it.
(10:46):
So I just that's why I reallywanted to focus in on nurses.
Like, as a nurse, I see it and Isee it, you know, on the job,
and then I see it also in thechronic health challenges that
the nursing population has.
You know, like the nurses, thatit's like, oh, they always have
a sore back, oh, theirshoulders are always so, or I've
got this really weird leg thinggoing on.
(11:08):
I don't know what it's from andit's like or digestive issues,
or like menstrual issues, likeall these issues that nurses are
having that probably can berelated back to chronic stress
and the tensions and traumasthat we hold from our job and
then from, like, the peripheryof our life, because nursing is
also a very triggering, it's avery triggering profession.
(11:31):
You know, like when I wentthrough the loss of my son, it's
like, and then I had some timeoff work, but then I go back to
the hospital and it's like thisis where this happened and this
is just so.
It's a lot right, it's a lot.
So when people are dealing withwhether they're dealing with a
loss of a friend, a parent, agrandparent, it's like or their
own, their own traumas, or theirchildren, it's like then you're
(11:53):
going to go back and usuallywork in that exact same hospital
like it is.
It's, it's a total.
Yeah, mind fuck, I'd call it.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
I don't know sorry if I'm allowed.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
No, it is, it is it's hard because now you're
carrying your own weight andyour own trauma while trying to
look after everybody else andhold it together.
And so much in nursing is likewe're trying to hold it together
.
We deal and a lot of times wedeal with that by like dark
humor and like the weird senseof humor we have as nurses,
which is fine Like I'm here forthat If you also have coping,
(12:26):
healthy coping strategies.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Oh, yeah, yeah, that's so intense and it's
something like if you don't likeI.
Personally, one of my bigstruggles was finding a
community of people thatunderstood cause I don't have
healthcare in my family and soto come home and talk to people
they're just like they didn'tget it at all.
So it's so important to likework with someone like you who,
like you, know exactly what thestruggles are and how difficult
(12:50):
it can be.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah, and I think that's why it's important too
for a nurse to be doing thiswork.
You know, like nurses, helpingnurses, I think, is really
important because as much asother health modalities and
other healthcare practitioners,they'll know that nursing is
hard for sure.
But just to know that struggleof being deep in it for 12 hours
and it's, it's a lot, it is alot, it is a lot.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
And I don't know about Canada, because I feel
like, overall, you're probablyI'm probably going to get people
to hate on me, but you guys areoverall you have a healthier
population than we do.
But from working in all over theUnited States and all kinds of
ICUs and on being floated as atravel nurse to every floor as
well, illnesses and mentalhealth are tied together and I
(13:40):
would say that maybe mentalhealth wasn't the root of it for
a lot of people, for somepeople, I would say it
definitely is, and I would saythat the mental health aspect is
definitely what makes a lot ofit worse.
And for me, that was the likewhatever you call it, like your
rock bottom or whatever.
The moment that I thought likemy health issues that I was
(14:02):
having were, like you know, alot of cardiac issues.
What made me think like if Idon't do something about it, I'm
going to end up one of thesepatients.
To me, that was like worst casescenario ever.
That was enough to like shakeme out of it, like I'm not gonna
end in my life in this likework that I do every day.
(14:22):
So such powerful, powerful stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And it is.
It's like you can see, and withthe, the alternative colitis,
for me it was I I'm not going tosay it's the biggest thing, but
that would be the biggestchronic health issue because
it's like it's really big and ithas the ability to progress.
So, same as you're talking withyour cardiac stuff, it's like
I'm like if I don't changesomething and if I don't get
ahead of this, I'm alreadybehind it.
(14:46):
If I don't get ahead of this, Iam gonna end up in the hospital
.
I'm gonna end up and that's notwhere I'm gonna be, like you
know.
And then that's another thingthat the disconnect with um
health care and the medicalworld is that I remember after I
got my um colon, because thisis the other thing with nurses
I'm going to circle back to thisbecause how you're talking
(15:09):
about how nurses ignore theirhealth.
So I was having.
I was having all these issueswith my bowels and I was too
much information here, but likeI was bleeding, every time I
went to the bathroom I wasbloated, like it was just.
It was awful.
But you know, when I went tothe doctor because I hurt my
knees two months earlier, so Iwent to, I was making work hard,
yeah, like.
(15:30):
I was.
I was my knees were really sorebecause I had a skiing accident
with my daughter and I was likeI think I need like just
wondering what I'm doing.
There's this other thing that Ijust want to mention, just to
see if you think it's a big dealor not.
And he's like Amanda, like,like what, like what are you
talking about?
Like yeah, and he was, he waspretty pissed at me and I hadn't
(15:53):
told anybody, anybody aboutthese symptoms.
My husband was mad at mebecause it was like immediate
blood work, in for a CT and infront of a colonoscopy within
like the week.
You know it was and I was like,wow, okay, yeah, I was ignoring
my own health and uh, yeah, andthat's what we do as nurses.
I think we do that as as a lotof people, but anyway, but um,
(16:14):
moms, yeah and then circlingback to after my colonoscopy, I
said something to the doctor inmy in my uh haze there I was
like, okay, like just dietstress, I can go through a lot.
And he's like nope, nothing todo with that, nothing to do with
stress.
Here's your prescription, it'slike.
So when I came out of it, youknow I was kind of like is, like
(16:35):
directly related to stress yeah, and I'm like okay, so I'm
gonna have to take matters intomy own hands here, and it was
hard and it's been hard, youknow.
It's like how can I release thestress that I was going through
?
But you know, that was um threeyears ago now and I'm I mean
they'd say I'm in remission, butit's like I feel like I've
(16:56):
healed, healed myself from itand but it's just crazy that
disconnect of like no, this hasnothing to do with stress, this
has nothing to do with yourlifestyle.
It's like everything has to dowith this.
Like how can we be tellingpatients this, you know?
Like how can we be likespreading this myth that it's
not all connected, like thatnothing is connected.
(17:18):
It's like it is all connectedand we need to work together,
like because I'm so happy that Igot those diagnostics to know
like, okay, this is what we'redealing with.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
This can help lead me on, like my healing journey a
bit more, but like and there'sresources available that for you
to dive into your own house,since no one and the system
wanted to educate you about itTotally so.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
it's like, you know, but it'd be just be so nice if,
like the interconnectedness oflike allopathic medicine and
complementary medicine would belike, okay, yeah, here's like,
here's a prescription to helpyou get started on your healing
and then here's also a bunch ofother resources or like um
practitioners you should beseeing as well to discuss your
(17:59):
stress and you're, you know,like in a perfect world.
Here's my perfect, like the twoare going to collide and it's
right.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Treat the human like the nursing model is which is
why nurses are amazing yeah, Itotally agree.
It's crazy.
Yeah, I I got a lot ofmedications thrown at me as well
and I was like not what I waslooking for.
Wanted to look on how to makeit better, not how to live with
it, but thank you.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Exactly Right.
And then it's like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
So how do you start with nurses when you like?
How do you work with them?
How do you help them start toheal?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
So I'm just kind of I'm just kind of bringing up my
practice here.
So I've gotten all these stepsin place and I'm just kind of
building it up right now.
So I've worked with nurses,like in person, with workshops,
and so I brought that workshoponline.
It's called the Nurses ForceField Workshop.
And the great thing about myworkshop, too, is you earn two
(19:01):
nursing CEUs for it.
Um, it's been accredited, uh,through debriefing the front
lines, so, um, you can get twonursing CEUs.
And then the course I'm creatingis um, um, the 30 day chronic
stress and trauma release course, like specifically for,
specifically for nurses.
Um, but it would work.
(19:22):
I mean, this is going to workfor any anybody who's feeling
like they need this.
But my content is specific toto nurses, even though other
people could probably apply itinto their other women could
probably apply it into theirlives.
But with this course it's goingto be a 30-day course 15
minutes a day of somaticexercises to help work through
that trauma intention for nurses.
(19:44):
So my whole big thing withnurses is I want to make
something easy, accessible andsimple for them to do.
And when I say easy and simple,that term is just so broad at
first, because before we'vehealed from our trauma intention
, nothing in healing seems easy,nothing seems simple.
It all just seems so like,where do I start?
(20:06):
How do I do this?
So I want to just packagesomething up nicely for nurses
to be like, hey, you get homefrom your shift or when you get
up in the morning, just clickthis and I will show you 15
minutes maximum 15 minutes whatyou can do today to regulate
your nervous system.
So that's going to be myoffering that I'm hoping I can
(20:27):
bring to fruition by April, andthat's actually going to be 10
CEUs for that course as well.
So that's something I'm veryexcited about.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
That's awesome.
I love that you put the CEU inthere.
It's so smart of you, too, toget nurses there too yes, like,
and that's kind of what you know.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
It's like how do you get nurses who don't want to um,
not necessarily don't want to,but maybe feel like they need to
do something, but don't reallywant that push or like, don't
want to, like you know, spendtheir money on that.
They'd rather spend their moneyon this.
It's like if you've beenthinking about needing a little
bit of extra help in regulatingyour nervous system, a little
extra help because you've beenoverly stressed out, it's like
(21:06):
here it is and you get nursingceus for it, like, so I'm very,
very excited about that do youknow, are those just canadian
ceus?
Speaker 1 (21:14):
are those no?
Speaker 2 (21:16):
no, they're american, so it's really yeah that that
is amazing in Canada.
We don't necessarily.
We need continued education,but not in the same model as the
states.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
I was like it's different state to state.
Not all states require it, butmost do yeah and so um.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
So yeah, I did it through debriefing the front
lines.
They um she Tara, the CEU, umnurse, she um is getting that
accredited.
So she's gone through that alland so it's yeah for the US.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Yeah, so I met Amanda because I did one of your
videos and wrote you atestimonial.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
And it was I felt very calm afterwards.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
I was, I had put it off and put it off and I was
gonna do it and then I finallydid it and I was like Whoa, like
I feel good and I'm a big like.
If you've listened to any of mystuff, I advocate a lot for
breath work, cause I do it everysingle day before I go in the
ICU in my car and if I don't doit it's a bad day because I I
have mood.
Like you know, it's a stressfuljob that I've done, so I have
(22:27):
to regulate how I walk in thereevery day.
Breath works, but a big toolfor me because it is a direct
acting on your nervous system,your vagus nerve.
But this is similar and I'm asI'm, so I'm neurodivergent and
you know, as I get older and allthe perimenopause, like
hormones hit me, I get to coverall these great things about
myself.
But one of the things that I'mlearning, which is involved in
somatics so much, which is justone of the reasons I'm so
interested in, is the balancingof the sides of the brain which
(22:49):
somatics does that.
It's the tactile and it isbalancing.
So tell me, tell me a littlebit more about that if you can,
yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Like the bilateral simulation.
Yeah, so everything you justsaid, totally the bilateral
simulation.
It helps like reprogram thebrain, it helps you get more in
tune with your body to helpprocess those emotions and let
them go, and just it's aboutreprogramming those like neural
pathways in the brain and reallygetting in tune with your body
(23:17):
without having to put words onwhat is actually going on.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I love it.
I love it.
It's so helpful because asnurses, we're big stuffers,
right Like we have to be.
You could not do your job ifyou had to feel your feels in
the moment every time.
It just wouldn't work, so wehave to be able to push things
away.
But then taking that back outand unloading that suitcase is
not something all of us know howto do.
I mean, I remember when I wasfirst a nurse, like I'm a crier
now I'll cry at anything, butwhen I was younger, in my
(23:45):
twenties, that was not something.
I was not a crier and I wouldfind myself like making myself
watch like sad stuff or likebecause I could feel it, I could
feel it building, like I needto cry, I need to like mournn,
like kind of grieve, all thiscrazy, crazy stuff I'm seeing,
and so I'd have to trick myselfinto doing it sometimes.
(24:07):
Um, so I love that this is justlike a gentle way to process as
you're going so do you recommend?
This is like a daily practicefor people.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
I do and and so with the 30 course that I'm creating,
it's like it's a lead up andthen there's actually a trauma
release on the eight, on the18th, 20th day of the course.
So it's like a lot of gentlemovement to open up, release
tension, open up these pathwaysso that when the actual trauma
release day comes which youwould never just throw the
(24:37):
videos I share don't share theactual trauma release movements,
because they can be reallyintense if you haven't really
gotten your body ready for it.
And that's where we really seepeople doing the shaking like
uncontrollably shaking, cryingand really working through the
emotions.
But the somatic movements I dorecommend as a daily practice.
Like you're saying that you doyour breath work before work, I
(24:58):
always.
But the somatic movements I dorecommend as a daily practice.
Like you're you're saying thatyou do your breath work before
work, I always do some somaticmovements in the, either in the
morning before I go or at nightwhen I get home.
I find them to be really helpfulbefore I try to go into my
normal life with my family.
I try to set up and you know itdoesn't need to be 15 minutes,
(25:18):
just something to if you'redoing some knee, sways or just
some sort of movement that likegrounds you into like being here
now into your body.
A lot of somatics is aboutnoticing how you're feeling
without judgment.
So you know it's like you're.
You can do these movements andyou can all of a sudden notice
(25:39):
that like, oh yeah, my hips aretight, oh yeah, I get a lot of,
I'm getting a lot of tightnessin my chest and maybe anxiety or
something when I'm doing this.
But just like noticing that andbreathing and continuing to do
these movements can help youkind of work through it and
release these things.
So, yeah, just noticing yourbody and trusting your body
through the process.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
So you can.
These are videos people can dolike at home, so they don't do.
You work with people one-on-oneto where you are Is all of your
stuff online.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
All the stuff's online now.
I've done a couple of workshopsin person, but I've moved to
online now just to reach abroader base of people and just
to make it more accessible, as II'm um, so, yeah, most of my
stuff's online.
So the workshop um the forcefield workshop is live and in
(26:31):
person.
So when I do that the workshop,it's an hour and a half of um.
I limit it to 10 people so it'spretty intimate group and it's
focused on like peer connectionwith other nurses because, like
we talked about before, wereally know what each other are
going through on like a reallydeeper level of how crazy the
(26:53):
job can be.
And so we talk about nursing, wetalk about um trauma.
I tell people the differenteffects of trauma on the body.
We do some somatic exercisesand then talk about
co-regulation, a lot in thatworkshop and just how to protect
your own energy and try to helpthat kind of radiate out to the
(27:13):
rest of the floor.
So that workshop is online,online and live.
And then the course that'llhopefully be coming out in April
is going to be pace yourself,do at your own pace,
pre-recorded so do you havevideos or anything on YouTube
that if anyone wanted to try itout they could access, or so?
(27:33):
I just right now have the videothat I shared with you and then
on my Instagram.
Every once in a while I'll, ifI I'll post something that says
like comment balance and I'llsend the video.
All my videos on YouTube rightnow are just link access only,
but if you comment on one ofthose ones that says that, then
I'll send you send a link overto you watch them and then on my
(27:57):
on my Instagram, which iszennurse, I share a lot of tips
on on regulating your nervoussystem, on doing somatic
exercises.
I do a lot of them at work, whenI'm on break.
So you know, like stockroomsessions or like stowing away to
the bathroom for like twominutes to just do some sort of
(28:17):
grounding exercise, whether it'slike a butterfly hug, and just
like disconnecting from thefloor for a minute or two.
You know, like the biggestthing I want people to know with
the somatic exercises is like,ideally, yes, you're going to be
at home in an environment thatyou find safe, lying down and
cozy, but these can also be doneanywhere.
Like I find myself on my shift,I will even going outside for a
(28:41):
walk on my break, you know,instead of sitting doom
scrolling, gossiping witheverybody else.
You know, like all these thingslike peer connection super
important to in a healthy way.
But it's also good, like I find, on my breaks at work, to
disconnect and give myself somespace to to be, you know, and
disconnect from the floor.
(29:03):
So I share a lot of those tipson my on my Instagram, just like
what to do when you're at work,like what to do when you're at
work, like what to do in astressful situation, how to
decompress when you are kind oflike in the heat of it, like
obviously you got to finish withyour tasks and make sure
there's patient safety andeverything, but there's still
things you can do.
If you need to stow away fortwo minutes on your own, that's
going to make you feel better inyourself.
(29:25):
We're going to make you abetter team member.
I'm going to make you a betternurse.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
So I like that about your videos.
I noticed that I was like, man,I never even thought about
doing that kind of stuff at work, cause you know, I like will
stow away and do a little breathwork sometimes if I'm having
like a oh my God, way too much,and so I'll stow away, do like a
little breath work.
But the physical movements forme it was something that like I
(29:48):
just had a barrier there and Ididn't know.
Until I saw your videos I waslike, oh man, you could totally
do like more physical thingshere.
I just never even considered ituntil I saw your videos.
I love that, yeah, okay.
Well, let's see here, if peoplewant to get started in somatics
, they hear this and they'relike I definitely need this.
Where would you, uh, recommendthey start?
(30:12):
um, I think I recommend, um,like you mean kind of like what
kind of practice they shouldkind of start with yeah, like,
if they're like, this soundsgood to me, but I don't know
where to where to even go aboutthis like.
But I feel like somatics wouldhelp me.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
I think on a very basic level, like what I could
tell you right now if I was like, if you were to do one thing
today that could help you, likestart in this somatics healing
kind of journey, start noticingwhat is going on in your body.
Start noticing without judgmentand listening to your body
Cause that's a huge thing isthat you know we can do all the
(30:50):
healing in the world.
We can do all the gross thingsin the world.
We can go to the classes, wecan go to the healers.
But if we're not listening toour body and knowing and
understanding that we can findthese tools within ourselves to
like heal our body and regulateour nervous system, like within
(31:11):
ourselves, then it's all kind offalls by the wayside.
We need to listen to our bodies,we need to understand that we
can trust our bodies to tell uswhen things are starting to
happen before they become thesecatastrophic health challenges.
Right, you know, like um,leading up to some of my things,
it's like, yeah, yeah, I wasfeeling stressed.
Yeah, I had knots in my tummy.
(31:31):
Yeah, like there was thingsthat could have been done sooner
if I had have listened to mybody and I think if people
wanted to do something today,right now.
Tune into your body and taketime to listen to your body.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
I love that Because I always say, like with burnout,
a lot of things, it's like oneof two things happening.
A lot of times.
It's like we know what's goingon and we're avoiding it.
Like we can hear it, but we'relike just avoiding it, pushing
it away, or we're sodisconnected from our bodies
that we don't even recognize thesignals that it's screaming at
us, and so we have to slow downand learn to listen.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Absolutely.
And that slow down piece too.
You know, it's like noticinghow you're moving through life,
like if you're moving throughlife like, oh, got to go, got to
rush, hurry up, let's go, let'sgo, let's go.
It's like again, all the amountof nervous system healing isn't
going to help if you don'tstart like doing things at a
regular pace, like if you havethat sense of urgency and
absolutely everything you'redoing.
That's not good.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Which is like that's kind of the flow of nursing,
though, right, that's like theflow of the job we do.
So we get stuck, and I thinkwomen in general because we take
on a lot of that's, you know,in our personal lives as well as
moms and as like this hustleculture that's going around to
be everything, do everything allat once there's this habit that
(32:56):
we have where I like to thinkof it as like leaving walking on
your tippy toes, like you know,you're just like grasping,
we're constantly trying to getsomewhere and what we need to do
is just like rock back on ourheels, settle down for a second
and assess where we're at.
But we spend so much time inthat, trying to get somewhere,
achieve something, find like inthat reaching place.
(33:20):
Yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
And even in nursing like, I try to convey this, like
I try to be a pillar of like,not necessarily calm, but just
like, like on the floor of like.
Yes, there is a lot to do.
I try not to say too much.
I'm like oh, I'm very busy,cause this goes into our nursing
.
Oh, there's so much to do, I'mso busy and it's like I try to
tell people, yeah, and we've got12 hours to do it, and we're
(33:43):
one person and I'm going to domy best every time I go to work,
but there is only so much I cando safely, you know, and I need
to make sure that I'm goingabout that in a safe way and a
calm way, so that I am doing thebest that I can, you know, and
so I've.
I've brought that into mynursing practice with you know,
the learning more about somaticsand everything in the last
(34:03):
couple of years, and that'schanged my nursing practice as
well and changing how I'm ableto like go about the floor.
And that's why the workshop hasso much end piece about the
co-regulation, because I noticeit like kind of ripple out like
OK, yeah, like yeah, we only cando so much you know, and
obviously there is emergencies,and there is things that like
(34:23):
yeah, you are moving faster, butyou can still only do so much.
you are moving faster, but youcan still only do so much.
You can still only do whatyou're capable of, and and that
limiting for nurses because weare our own kind of superheroes
and we think we can, can andshould do it all.
But no, we, we are just oneperson and can only do what we
can.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Yeah, yeah, I talk all the time about detachment at
work and I think it rubs someof the newer nurses who are like
really committed.
You know, like really, reallywanted to do good the wrong way,
which is okay, they'll get itone day.
But I'm like you have to toprotect yourself.
You know you have to askyourself what do I, what do I
can I do right here, do that andthen after that you can't do
anything else Cause I I get Igot caught up in years so much
(35:06):
about that, like just theinequality and the injustices
that you see in healthcaresometimes, which I found a way
to detach from.
You know, I do what I can do.
I do the best for people I can.
I still struggle sometimesgetting angry when things happen
.
That shouldn't you know.
It's like.
Oh it's so angry and that'swhere I feel like I could
definitely be a calmer rolemodel in that way.
(35:26):
So I feel like I can you havesuch a calm presence?
I bet working with you you'relike people are just feeding but
I do get them.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
I wouldn't say that I get, I probably don't get angry
, but I'm definitely quiteassertive and direct as well,
which I think people kind oflike oh, like you did that in a
very like like interesting way,that they, like, you know, the
doctor listened there and it'slike, yeah, well, it's like I'm
still gonna advocate hard.
You know, I'm not just gonnalet.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
That's part of what can you do.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
That's the part of what you have control over
totally, and so it's like no,let's do this and this.
And, like you know, even just Iremember the other day I said a
doctor, okay, well, like theyneed to know this and that's
your job to do, like not mine.
And one of the younger nurseswas like oh, my God, I'm like,
but it's true, and they knowthat, like it's their job to
tell them this new diagnosis,not mine, yeah, yeah, that's not
(36:16):
in your scope.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
I love that I that's the thing I think I do really
well at as like so, nurses whoare listening you will get this
so much Anyone that's stillbedside but like I've been a
nurse 10 years but bedsidecritical care 10 years and it
sounds like you're very, veryclose, like right in there.
And when I started nursingthere were still I still worked
with nurses that had been nurseslike 20 years, 30 years, like
(36:37):
that was.
They were there, they were in alot of them, but they were
there and like if I had aproblem, I mean, you know they
had different personalities butI knew who to go to, but I knew
who to go to and nowadays there.
I'm the, I'm the one of theolder nurses, I'm one of the
people which, to me, isterrifying because there used to
be a lot more experience therebut boundaries is something
that's so lacking and soimportant.
It's okay to say no.
If you don't feel comfortable,immediately stop that process
(37:02):
and ask questions.
If you have a gut feeling, gowith it.
And you know it's okay to askmore information.
Someone's getting defensivewith you.
You're probably finding aproblem.
You know like this is okay andI think that we're not trained
that way and you go into theworld.
No one arms you with how tospeak up for yourself and stand
alone in a world where you'retrying to advocate for people
(37:23):
and the system will swallow youup sometimes.
So it's so important to showpeople how to say no and how to
get things done using keywordsthat, like people have to listen
to.
You know what I mean Not likeaggressive stance, but serious
words, you know.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Yeah, absolutely.
And then like, yeah, just whatyou just said resonated so well.
Like we're not taught innursing school.
There's such a big piecemissing of like.
I feel like all this stuffshould be taught, like how to
protect your own own energy,like boundaries, like all this
stuff that we aren't taught.
And then you get the new nursescome out and it's like they
just want to work and they wantto do this and it's like they
have such good intentions really, I know, and it's just a recipe
(37:59):
kind of for burnout, becausethen it kind of shows your
career that, like um, it does.
Yeah, it's a projection for yourcareer that you don't say no,
you're just saying yes toeverything and then and then it
just kind of comes this cycleand yeah, and interesting that
you say that you're one of thesenior nurses now, cause, yeah,
when I started it's like nursesthat have been there 30 years,
like the nurses in their sixtiesand like 65.
(38:21):
And now it's like the oldernurses are 50, maybe like 40,
like they're all there.
Nobody's really been there 25,30 years and it's like where'd
every, where'd everybody?
Speaker 1 (38:32):
go.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
And that's where.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
I learned to stand up for myself.
To be honest, I've watched somenurses that I you know.
When a nurse has worked therelike twice as long as any of the
doctors, they just gain someknowledge that you know from
experience and don't watch in asituation where everyone's so
uncomfortable and I've seen thisover the years so many times.
Pre COVID stopped what wasgoing on and did the right thing
(38:55):
, and it was always someoneolder who cause the younger
people are nowadays don't get mewrong.
There's the new generation hassome spice and I love that about
them Cause they changed thisindustry for us.
And thank you, ladies.
But before that's like man.
Just that's where I learned todo that.
It was, that was OK.
That's not something that youknow how to say no to.
(39:18):
And also, they're mostly menwho are used to getting what
they want, that it is taught inmen to be pushy because that's
what people do.
It's not like a negativeintention from them, but we're
raised differently and theirsocial skills are usually
lacking because they just cameout of med school.
There's so many factorsinvolved.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
There's a lot of factors involved there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
So it's great that you're out there like being that
role model.
I love that because you knowalso, like my plan is to
ultimately leave bedside, butthere's a part of my heart that
hurts a little bit about thatbecause there is not very many
people left.
Not that there's anything newnurses you guys are awesome, but
you need support, you know itneeds support and they know that
they need support.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
You know and a lot of that shifted in COVID that all
of a sudden you're seeing floorsbeing run by all new grads and
in charge and they've been onnurse for and travelers, and
it's kind of like, oh, this isscary, you know, and I don't
know what I think about leavingbedside.
I don't, I don't actually thinkI will leave bedside, like I
mean, that's the beauty aboutnursing is that we can do travel
(40:23):
contracts.
We can do um, we call it casualin Canada, it's per diem in the
states, but it's like we can,you know, do casual like.
Right now I'm kind of in between.
We were in Newfoundland for thesummer on a travel contract to
travel with my family and thennow we're back in BC and I'm
working casual again at, like,my local hospital.
There's just so many optionsright like, and that's one thing
too that I try to hit home likeon um with the whole zen nurse
(40:47):
instagram and message to nursesis like if you don't like where
you are, you can pause.
Like you don't.
Just because you went to school, like nursing school, doesn't
mean that you are stuck in thesame job forever.
Like take a per diem job, takea travel job, like mix it up if
you're burnt out where you arelike half.
That is a bureaucratic bullshit.
That's going on.
That, yes, you cut from maybecould change, but that's
(41:10):
exhausting.
If you just want to be likegoing to work, you know it's
like you.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
You know one is going to change the system we have
right now.
From our level, I mean, you canget involved in things that are
changing it, but you're notgoing to change it from work
yeah, so it's like you knowyou're so right, though Nursing
is so versatile, you can haveany kind of lifestyle.
You can do so many kinds ofnursing.
There's so much educationinvolved in it.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Yeah, and even just like um, yeah, you can make your
own schedule, like with a perdiem or casual job.
It's like, yeah, I'll work here, yeah, I'll work there, like,
and then if you're burnt outwith that, you take a 13 week
travel contract, take 13 weeksoff.
You know, it's just likethere's just so many options
that if you're like, you're notstuck that's what I want nurses
to know Right, you're not stuckand nurses have the power.
(41:57):
We're smart, we're a smartgroup of folks, and it's like
you can change how you'refeeling, you can change your
environment and yeah, yeah, Ilove that.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
It's so true.
I love that you want to stay innursing too, because I don't
think I'll stay full-time.
I I've always thought like, oh,I probably work PRN forever,
just cause, like there is justsome of the most golden moments
I've had with patients,sometimes that like, yeah, you
can't put words to how awesomeit is to like connect with
people like that, like you do innursing, um, but the work, the
(42:30):
work of like the full-time work,is something that my body is
just like, not a futuristicthing for me, that's going to
work.
And I love that viewpoint too,because I think there are a lot
of nurses leaving the field ornot leaving the field, but
leaving for soft skills andleaving the field.
But like for me, when I gotvery burnt out, I thought I was
done with nursing and I wasleaving nursing forever and I
(42:51):
was angry and I was bitter and Iwas mad at nursing, I was mad
at healthcare and then, once Ihealed, I realized like it was
never nursing.
Nursing is all like.
It is the model I love, Ibelieve in it, I got excited
about it for a reason, andthere's other ways to do it.
We're just like in a system thatisn't functioning as well as it
should be right now.
So it's just beautiful becauseit's okay, you can, you might go
(43:13):
back to it and once you healit's not always what you think.
That's going on Like I don'tapproach work the same way I
used to.
I don't.
It doesn't feel like the samejob since I've gone back.
So I had to take three monthsoff when I got really, really
ill and I went.
Once I finally got to the pointI could go back it.
Just I don't feel like the sameperson there and I like that.
I feel much more free, like Idon't feel scared to say what I
(43:39):
need.
I'm not scared of them firingme either.
That's a great thing.
Traveling is like I can getanother job.
Then that's fine.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And when you move around, youbuild your skill set up to be
such a love.
You know what I mean.
You see so much, you know somuch.
It really just helps you grow.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Yeah, oh, absolutely Totally Like I.
When I came back here, I wasdoing something on the floor and
the doctor's like is that, canyou do that on the floor or is
that critical care?
I'm like, no, this is somethingwe can do on the floor.
And then the nurses on thefloor are like, oh, we haven't
really done that.
I'm like, okay, Like I know inthe policy we can do this on the
floor.
And I was doing this at a liketravel hospital I was at on the
floor, like I'm comfortable withthis, it's in my scope and it's
(44:23):
like you know, so you bringthese.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
And you see the way different places do that.
I love that.
So there's a hospital system Iworked for which I quit
traveling for a while and becamea traveler for this specific
system and they were so smart.
They use that program becauseit was like literally to all
their hospitals and it's a giantsystem, but they use that
system to make the hospital morecohesive and find issues and
(44:46):
what's working well on theseunits.
And they took cause.
You had to have quite a bit ofexperience to be the ICU travel
nurses there and once you gotthat job they sat down with
these nurses and they were likewhat's working, what's not
working places?
And there was no punitiveinvolved.
It was like they were going tomake the system better.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
And I was like man.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
That's the best way to do it Cause they're the ones
in there finding the mistakes,seeing it.
So there's so much, so much inthat.
Yeah, we're so smart, nursesare so awesome, anyway, well,
amanda, I'm so glad you havejoined us and sharing all of
(45:22):
this with us.
I always ask everyone what isyour, what is your go-to
self-care when, like, things areawful, and you, what is the
practice that you go to?
Speaker 2 (45:36):
You can probably guess.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
I can, but I'm like, is it a?
Speaker 2 (45:38):
specific one and I wonder or yeah, somatic
exercises, and it honestly justdepends how I'm feeling, you
know like, if it's like a grieffeeling, if it's an anxiety
feeling, if it's like a rushyfeeling, if I'm just down, like
it just depends how I'm feelingIf I'll do more rocking movement
, if I'll do more flowingmovement.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
Um yeah, it just kind of depends, but I love that you
said that, because I didn'teven know that like.
But it makes sense Now that yousaid that there's probably
different movements tied todifferent emotions.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
So it just depends, like, where you're holding,
holding those emotions andtension, like um your psoas
muscle, which is like the bigmuscle that runs um down your
back from your T12 to your uh,greater trochanter, and that
muscle um cannot be like it'syour muscle that it tenses up
when you like hit, bin and fightor flight, and it will not
release itself unless you domovements to help release it.
(46:33):
So if it's been really intense,um, like if I've had those
feelings at work, I'll be doingexercises to help release that,
which is like a pelvic tiltexercise to help release that
muscle.
And so the different thingslike that.
You know we hold a lot oftrauma in our hips.
I'll do more hip circles if I'mfeeling like that.
They're feeling really tightand I'm holding things there and
(46:54):
so, yeah, every differentmovements can help different
things and and also just whatwhat it helps for different
people, like I know whatmovements help me when I'm
feeling a certain way.
Speaker 1 (47:02):
So did you know your, your triggers and what boils up
for you, which I assume peoplelearn as they start to get into
this?
Speaker 2 (47:10):
Yes, absolutely, as you start noticing your body.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
Yeah, which is hard.
I think I've said this on herebefore but the first time
someone asked me, like where doyou feel that emotion, I was
like looked at them cross-eyed.
I'm like what are you?
Nobody feels their emotion inthere.
I'm like what are you Like?
I just thought that was so um,what are you talking about?
Because I was so likeoverwhelmed.
By now, after working on it foryears, I know exactly what
(47:35):
they're talking about absolutely, but it sometimes it takes time
to get in there.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
Oh, it takes a lot of time.
And it takes a lot of time tolike take the time to notice
your body and notice that, likejust noticing will actually help
you with with regulating youknow, so it all just, yeah, it
takes.
It takes time when somebodyhears about these practices to
become open enough to it to beable to try it.
Um, you know, like yeah, andjust know there is science
(48:04):
behind it.
There is like studies onholding trauma in the body and
how our body does hold that.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
Have you read that book?
The body keeps the score.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
Yes, absolutely.
It's been recommended a lot.
I love that book.
It's a really intense book.
I find that book really intenseand there's just so many good
pieces in it.
Another really good one is whenthe body says no, by Dr
Gavramate, and that's about likechronic stress and how we hold
it in the body.
And yeah, he's an MD in Canadaand he has a lot of really great
(48:36):
work.
But that book really attunes tothis kind of work I'm doing and
he's curious about it, right,he gets curious about his own
habits and how he holds chronicstress and just even like
habitual patterns that we havefrom like childhood and what we
do.
And it's all just sointeresting learning all this
stuff so cool.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
Well, amanda, is what is the Zen nurse on Instagram?
Just Zen nurse, right?
Zen dot nurse.
Zen dot nurse on Instagram.
Where else can we find you?
Speaker 2 (49:07):
That's the best place to find me right now is just on
the Instagram channel, and thenI do have the link in my bio is
to sign up for my and become anemail subscriber, and email
subscribers are the first tohear about workshops.
They'll be the first to hearabout the course drop with a
little discount code in there.
So I do have another workshopthat I'm planning for march that
I'm gonna announce to mysubscribers tonight or not
(49:30):
tonight because this is march17th but but that's the best
place.
Um, yeah, so the best place tohear about all that is to, uh,
sign up as an email subscriberawesome, yeah well, thank you so
much I thank you so much forhaving me you're welcome, okay,
bye.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com