The Ritual Nurse

Happy Nurses' Week!! NO PIZZA. All POWER.

• Riva - The Ritual Nurse

Share episode

TXT us your feedback!! <3 your fayce!

Happy Nurses Week, sacred soul. This episode is your reminder—and your ritual—that you are not just part of the system… you ARE the medicine.

This year’s Nurses Week theme is “The Power of the Nurse,” and we’re making it more than a slogan. In this episode, we reclaim that power together.

We talk about:

  • Why “power” in nursing isn’t just about staying strong—it’s about rest, boundaries, and reclaiming your nervous system.
  • My trauma-informed nursing skill, Code Pause, and how to use it to reset in moments of chaos
  • How to protect your peace, vocalize your needs, and prioritize yourself without guilt
  • The actual science behind why these practices work for real, sustainable healing
  • A guided ritual to remind you that your needs matter
  • This week’s Crystals, Coffee, and Divination prescription to fuel your spirit

BONUS: It’s Gift-Giving Time

To celebrate YOU during Nurses Week, we’ve dropped some sacred magic into your hands:

🛍️ The Code Team Store is LIVE → TCTH.org
🎉 Use code NURSEPOWER for 20% off everything in the new shop
📚 The Authentic Nurse Course is only $20.50 (normally $297)
📝 Download the special Nurses Week editions of The List – totally free!

These offers disappear at the end of Nurses Week. Go grab your ritual tools, resources, and reminders that you are worthy of the same care you give everyone else.

✨ Let’s Connect + Share the Power

If this episode spoke to your soul, share it with another nurse who needs to hear it. Tag me @theritualnurse and let me know:

What boundary are YOU holding this week?
 What are you calling in?


This isn’t just a podcast. It’s a movement.
 And this week, it moves with you.

Hey! Make sure you subscribe to stay connected. Love a nurse? Who doesn't! Share with all the nurses you know. The more we reach, the more we help. We feel like no one deserves center stage focus more than nurses and our mission is to reach the millions of superstars out there. We'd love to hear your stories, your adventures, your wins, and especially your needs and questions! Email us at hello@ritualnurse (dot) com. Also, you can send us fan mail! Use the link at the beginning of the show notes. Resources, classes, blogs, and podcast info can be found on our home site at TCTH.org. The Ritual Nurse Podcast is part of The Code Team educational platform.

Love your FAYCES!

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Ritual Nurse, where healing meets humor, science and a touch of magic. Happy Nurses Week, you sacred, exhausted, wildly powerful beings. I see you, all of you, from the new grad just trying to remember what the heck SBAR stands for, to the seasoned nurse silently whispering get your orders together under their mask. This week isn't about pizza parties or those weird acrylic trophies. It's about power, your power, and this year's official theme says it out loud the power of the nurse. So today's episode is going to focus on just that. It's not just a celebration. It's a reclamation of our peace, our voices, our priorities. Let's talk about what it really means to be powerful when you're burned out, stretched thin, still getting hit with increasing workplace violence, rising anxiety and ratios that should probably be illegal. Power isn't just showing up, it's protecting your peace, it's vocalizing your needs, it is prioritizing yourself, even when the system wants you to self-sacrifice. We're going to take a look at distress, tolerance and interpersonal effectiveness. You know you're allowed to pause, you are allowed to step back, you are allowed to choose you. So here's something I want to cover first. This is a tool from my trauma-informed care model, and it's something that I call code pause, because, well, this time you're the patient and we need to pause. When everything around you is chaotic, when the alarms, the charting, the family drama, maybe grief, maybe even microaggressions and endless patient needs are threatening to hijack your nervous system, you're going to call a code pause. Here's how it works. The first thing you do is unclench your jaw and drop your shoulders. The next thing you do is breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth just once, slowly, and then you're going to name the moment. This could sound like this is intense, and I'm still here. I am overwhelmed, but I'm not in danger. This isn't mine to carry all alone. Or maybe it sounds like I am extremely frustrated right now, and that's valid and I still have to function. I must complete this task. So you're going to name the moment. If you can, you're going to vocalize it out loud to yourself. If not, you're going to consciously vocalize it in your head and then you're going to choose your next move on purpose, even if it's just saying I'll answer that call light as soon as I finished charting this med. You're not going to plan out multiple steps in advance. You're halting the moment and consciously choosing your next move, the very next step and once you reach that step, you can proceed forward. Step you can proceed forward.

Speaker 1:

Calling a code pause is a way to actually pause everything, internally and externally, even if it's just 10 seconds, and allowing you to regroup, to validate or radically accept, as the case may be, and consciously choose to be in control of your next movement forward. Now, code pause is short, really short, but it's sacred and here's why it actually works. This isn't just fluff. It's not just a fancy acronym or some kind of buzzword to use. It's nervous system CPR. So quick science, science drop.

Speaker 1:

Why code pause works is because, physiologically, it is interrupting your acute stress response. That single deep breath is activating our parasympathetic nervous system. You are telling your brain we are not in physical danger. By taking the time to stand still and slowly inhale through your nose and slowly exhale through your mouth, you are sending the signal we are not in fight or flight. We're reducing cortisol spikes and giving our prefrontal cortex a fighting chance to stay online.

Speaker 1:

Now, psychologically, we're incorporating mindfulness and emotional regulation. We're labeling what's happening and, instead of being ruled by it, we get to control it. So that's one of the first steps to regulating emotion. Naming it gives you your power back to regulating emotion. Naming it gives you your power back, validation and or radical acceptance are baked in, so you're not fighting the chaos, you're acknowledging it without letting it decide your next step. That's regulation, that's powerful and it's healing. The body remembers trauma responses. The body remembers our responses to our environment and situations around us. So every time we practice utilizing these skills, we are teaching our body a different memory and response to our environment. And, most importantly, codepause reminds you that you're allowed to reset even mid-shift and, yes, even mid-chaos. Is it a good idea, in the middle of a code blue, to stand there and do a real quick five-minute meditation? No, we all know that that's most likely absolutely not possible. However, 10 seconds to go through a code pause and establish what your next step is with clarity is absolutely imperative. You don't owe anyone your nervous system in fight or flight mode ever. You deserve peace, and peace doesn't have to mean quitting. It doesn't have to mean showing up as less than it can mean 10 to 15 seconds to just reclaim your, your breath and your balance and then to move forward decisively.

Speaker 1:

A few other skills that I know we've covered in other episodes earlier, but I just kind of want to touch base on them again. One of them is vocalizing your needs. So vocalizing your needs can be kind of difficult. Depending on how you grew up, depending on your culture, vocalizing your needs may not be something that you ever saw in practice or were taught how to do. So it can feel really limiting and foreign and almost like your throat closing, almost like you can't do it. And I'm here to tell you that you can.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes, putting it in a recognizable system or like a mnemonic, dbt as a therapy has a mnemonic called DEARMAN that helps people understand how to vocalize their need and approach it. And dear man as an acronym is a way for you to advocate, even to yourself. Now, sometimes, if you're not practiced at vocalizing your needs, you may not be ready to acknowledge or validate or voice your needs to yourself. That may be something that you have to practice. So we're going to try this, because as nurses, we're incredible at advocating for patients, but when it comes to our own needs, a lot of the times we whisper, we minimize, sometimes we avoid not anymore. So we're going to try this. You're going to describe what's happening, you're going to express how it affects you. You're going to assert what it is that you need and you're going to reinforce why it matters. You're going to focus on staying mindful. You're going to focus on staying mindful, appear confident and negotiate if needed.

Speaker 1:

Now that dear man formula uh, you can do in a letter format. You can actually use the acronym itself and write it in a column. There's a bunch of different ways you can utilize this to communicate, not just with yourself in order to understand and acknowledge your needs, but to practice the skillset so that you can use it to communicate with others. So that you can use it to communicate with others so that you can use it to understand where your boundaries are, what your needs are and their priority, their importance to you. You don't have to wait for permission to say what's not working. Power means telling your manager, for example, the truth about unsafe assignments. Power means asking your partner for decompression time after your shift. Power means saying no clearly without an apology, or saying yes clearly without an apology, an apology. Using dear man gives you a structure to practice this in until you become comfortable with vocalizing your needs and expressing what they mean to you and reinforcing that.

Speaker 1:

Being able to be mindful in the moment instead of overcome with emotion, being or appearing confident in your approach and the ability to negotiate if needed, if you're met with pushback, if you are met with resistance. Practicing the skill over and over again, just like practicing any other skill, helps us be successful at it and internalize it. So you can't pour from an empty cup. And our last skill set that we're going to cover here is prioritizing yourself. You're going to use please and a little bit of radical acceptance, and no coffee refills, by the way, don't count towards that empty cup, empty cup. So my framework also teaches a nurse specific version of what DBT would call please.

Speaker 1:

So for nursing, we're going to look at physical illness, and yes, I mean Aches, pains, body aches, metabolic conditions, things that are going on with you that are physically affecting you. We're going to look at our eating. Do we have balanced eating to the best of our ability? How are we fueling our bodies to get through this chaos and avoiding mood altering substances? We want our neurochemistry to be at the top of its game, and I'm not saying that this is a permanent abstinence of any kind or being decreed to you as some kind of moral imperative. It is not whatsoever. This is a great skill set to use in moments or passages of life where you are facing adversity you are under extreme duress, stress, anxiety. Using dear man and please, along with some radical acceptance, is a great way to ground yourself, center yourself, establish your structure and priorities and navigate it successfully with the most healthy coping behaviors that you possibly can.

Speaker 1:

So, in addition to avoiding mood-altering substances, you need to sleep you want to make sure that you're balancing your sleep as best as possible and physical exercise we know that exercise releases endorphins and neurochemical brain boosting molecules. As simple as walking for 20 minutes before your shift. That's different than running all over creation during your shift. That's different than running all over creation during your shift. Mindfully and purposefully walking to enjoy the fresh air to inhale and exhale, to stretch, is far different than the mindless walking we're doing 12 hours on our feet running back and forth, and it doesn't have to be walking, it can be yoga stretches, somatic exercises. You just want to make sure that you are incorporating each one of these facets into your intervention for yourself during this phase or time period or moment of adversity that you're that you are existing through at the moment.

Speaker 1:

Self-care is not bubble baths. It is and it isn't Okay. So I'm not saying don't do bubble baths, it absolutely can be. But self-care, really, it's brushing your teeth after that brutal double shift. It's texting a friend instead of doom scrolling. It's allowing your humanity to matter as much as your hustle does. Self-care doesn't have to be expensive, bougie, fancy or out of the ordinary. Self-care looks like remembering to pack your lunch. Remembering to pack your lunch. Self-care looks like hydrating, sleeping, nurturing yourself.

Speaker 1:

And here's the kicker Throw that radical acceptance in there, and that means we're not fighting what is. We're radically accepting what is and what's going on and we're using our energy to choose what comes next. It doesn't mean that you're accepting it and rolling over and acting like a doormat or playing dead. We're not talking about that. It means you're looking at the situation and you're acknowledging man, this really sucks. This is really frustrating. Angering, this grief hurts, this exhaustion is real. Whatever it is that's going on in your atmosphere at that moment, you're validating that it exists and then you are getting to use your energy to decide your next steps.

Speaker 1:

So what I want you to do is make a note. I don't care if it's on the back of your brain, a napkin, the glove sitting next to you. If that's all you've got. I want you to do this. I want you to write down three things. The first one a boundary that you're going to hold. Keep in mind, this is all about self-care, preservation of you. A boundary that you're going to hold. Keep in mind, this is all about self-care, preservation of you. A boundary that you're going to hold, a need that you're going to voice. Doesn't have to be long, can be one word things and one way that you're going to prioritize yourself this week Without guilt. Read them out loud, read them several times, sit with them, think about them. If you're one of my ritual girlies, I want you to say it like a spell, because that's exactly what it is. You are putting that out there and confirming and affirming to yourself that these things matter, that you matter and that you're going to prioritize them. And by prioritizing those three things, you're inherently prioritizing yourself this week.

Speaker 1:

All right, nurse, if you're driving home, hiding in the supply closet or just finally sitting down for your first sip of coffee in six hours, this moment, right here, it's yours. I want you to take a breath, roll your shoulders. You've already made it through the first half of this episode and we have more amazingness ahead Coming up. We're going to shift into ritual mode, you know it, with coffee, crystals and divination. I've got your weekly prescription of coffee, your weekly crystal prescription and your divination, our collective card poll that's waiting on the other side of this break. So use this musical interlude to refresh your hydration or your coffee to pause, so you know exactly where to come back to after shift or on your way home, and don't go anywhere. Your magic shift is just getting started. As long as I'm with you, as long as I'm with you, as long as you're with me, welcome back. Thank you so much for sticking with us. We are into, of course, our favorite segment, which is coffee, crystals and divination.

Speaker 1:

And remember last week well, actually the week before now that the ritual nurse is every other week releases, but the week before that I was talking about finding cherry cold foam and also ways that you can make it if you don't want to buy coffee from the mermaid fish people, and I was saying that I was really nervous about it, but I wanted to try it combined with matcha. Wasn't sure how that was going to marry. The lavender cold foam was a really good idea. I wasn't sure about the cherry. Okay, I so I did, and I also did the dirty chai version of it. I have a really great chai tea, um, that I can brew at home and a dirty chai just FYI is mixing espresso shots with chai and then adding in you know lovely things like cherry cold foam.

Speaker 1:

But it was unexpected. It was really. It was brightly flavored. It wasn't like you know, you picked up cherries that fell on the grass and rolled around and popped them in your mouth, which is kind of what I was a little bit worried about, because matcha matcha, excuse me, can be green flavored, shall we say but it was really refreshing and it just it kind of I don't know. It felt like spring, it looked like spring, the beautiful light pink color and beautiful green color, I don't know. Just a super, super fun drink. So whatever concoctions you're making this week, think about them being spring themed. You know, maybe an iced fruit tea concoction with a flavored foam thrown on top, maybe that kind of thing.

Speaker 1:

The crystal of the week. So we're going to pull from our crystal portal Oracle and I'm going to take that deck out here and see what our crystal is going to be for this week. The last episode we had an amazing one that was so very apropos to what we were talking about this week. We are looking at the power of the nurse, your power, my friends, and let's see what crystal prescription we have. And it is hematite persistence. Let's take a look here. Ooh, this is such a gorgeous um image. Okay, I love how sassy these cards are.

Speaker 1:

So hematite deals with endurance, willpower and focus. Like a skilled archer with a bow and arrow, you're locked and loaded with unwavering determination and laser-like focus, just as the arrow hits its mark. Trust in your inner strength to propel you towards your goals with precision. Now is the time to channel your inner warrior, aim high and let nothing stand in your way on your path to success. Well, if that doesn't fit nurses week and the power of nursing like a glove, I don't know what does. That is an incredible card pull for this week. So hematite a lot of people have rings and bracelets that are made from it, so this is an easy one to carry around with you and have in your sphere you. And have in your sphere Um and keywords like persistence and endurance, willpower, focus really great for contemplating some of the mantras or manifesting um or even incorporating into the three goals that you wrote down before the break in the end of that segment.

Speaker 1:

Now we're going to pull our collective card for this week's episode for reading, and again it's the power of the nurse that we're focusing on. So let's see what our collective poll is for this week and what card we get using the crystal struck tarot. So this is the companion deck. Both of these are by Moonstruck Crystals and if you look at our socials, I've posted a couple pictures of them. They're stunning. They are absolutely gorgeous. I just I love the aesthetic so much. She did come out with a mini version and I had some pretty intense discussions with myself about needing pocket or purse sized versions of both decks that I already had. My decks are edged in this beautiful kind of holographic silver, and she makes a gold one as well.

Speaker 1:

So let's see what our poll is for this week, and it is the Ace of Pentacles, which is Jade. Oh gosh, that is absolutely gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous, the ace of pentacles. And normally, um, with any kind of reading, I, if I'm answering someone's question or working with a person individually, I do it much differently because this is a collective poll. It's really the theme of the week, the episode that is on my mind as I'm pulling these. So the ace of pentacles is financial opportunity, wealth and new path. Jade also signifies abundance, manifestation and harmony. This is a very prosperous card, particularly when it comes to new opportunities relating to the material or financial areas of your life. You are being presented with a welcome invitation to abundance, but it's up to you to manifest your success. Absolutely incredible. Completely ties in with the crystal prescription for this week and the theme of power, of empowerment, self-empowerment. I absolutely love this.

Speaker 1:

So that is our coffee for the week, our crystal prescription for the week and our tarot divination for the week. Our crystal prescription for the week and our tarot divination for the week. Would you guys I was kind of toying with this idea in the show notes for every week, do you guys want me to put down the uh coffee drink ideas, the crystal prescription and the divination poll? If that's something that you guys would like me to start doing intentionally, sometimes the transcription does it, but if that's something that you want me to start doing intentionally in the show notes for every episode, leave me feedback on socials. I keep asking for feedback on socials and I don't know, maybe you guys are shy, maybe who knows, but give me feedback on socials. Let me know if you would like that information in the show notes. Let me know if you've tried any of the drinks or if you've come up with an even better combination.

Speaker 1:

Um, there is a link. If you're on Apple podcast or Spotify, at the very top of the show notes there's a link that you can click on that automatically pulls up a text box, meaning like text messaging, and it anonymously sends me a text both to my phone and to the dashboard on my podcast. Now, it is anonymous, so you can send me stories, you can send me information, and you don't have to worry about your privacy. It's completely anonymous. There's no number, information, there's nothing even collected, but you can give me feedback that way, and also on TikTok. I am the ritual nurse on TikTok and I'm just building the account now, so definitely go give us a follow and help us get our content out there. On Instagram, it is the code team. There's an underscore in between each of the words and um, our website, tcthorg.

Speaker 1:

But before we close out today, um, I've got something extra special just for you guys, because to me, celebrating you means investing in you. So, first up, the Code Team store is officially live. If you go to tcthorg there is a tab that says shop in the navigation. There'll be links on the very front and the shop is live. And so as we develop and accrue our favorite, you know, ritual tools, divination, nursing resources, science, brain, all the science info and exclusive downloads for you guys, all that stuff is going to be in one absolutely gorgeous space on our website at tcthorg. To celebrate Nurses Week, I do have a gift for you. I want you to use the code nurse power. It's all caps and, don't worry, it'll be in the show notes for 20% off of everything in the entire store and that's good for the entire, for the whole nurses week, all the way up until midnight on May 12th. And that's not all.

Speaker 1:

So the authentic nurse course which um came out a few years ago those of you that have been friends of mine for a long time or part of the code team community before the ritual nurse podcast, was even a thing um may have already taken the course. Um or you know, remember the course itself launching Um. That course is the precursor to a lot of my trauma-informed care model and the secondary course that we'll be releasing in the fall. But the authentic nurse course is just this beautiful self-discovery. It's an asynchronous course that you do on your own pace that walks you through the process of establishing your intrinsic, your core beliefs, your structure and validating your authenticity. It's really a precursor to a lot of the skills even that we covered in the very beginning episodes of this podcast.

Speaker 1:

So the authentic nurse course is normally 297 and for nurses week well, because it's nurses week 2025, the course is going to be $20 and 25 cents for the entire week. $20 and 25 cents for the entire week. You guys are the reason that my courses even exist. You're the reason that the educational platform even exists. So it's time you know to invest and give back to you guys. And I just thought that this was a fun and cute way to do it. So the authentic nurse course will be $20 and 25 cents for the entire week. I encourage you.

Speaker 1:

Once you buy the course, you own it, any updates to it, all the downloads in it. I can't even explain how packed this course is. It took about oh my gosh, it took almost a year to get all the materials together, to do all of the audio recording, to create all of the downloads and content for it to the audio mastering and it incorporates years of research into looking at how we establish our core beliefs and authenticity. So it's a it's a phenomenal course it there's a lot of meditation that's built into it. It's incredible. I encourage you to check it out. And also if, on the basis of my birthday episode, if you're already a fan of the list I've created special nurses week versions that you can download for free on tcthorg, just like the regular, the basic white version.

Speaker 1:

Because organizing your chaos should should feel special and sacred too, because organizing your chaos should feel special and sacred too. So all of those gifts and goodies and special codes are going to be in the show notes, so you don't have to worry about jotting them down or remembering them. And enjoy, enjoy. They're my gifts to you guys and a labor of love, and nothing is more important to me than investing in and celebrating you guys. So everything is going to be linked in the show notes and it's going to be available the entire week, all the way through the last final day, up until midnight.

Speaker 1:

So the power of us as nurses isn't just in saving others. That's the number one thing that TV shows focus on just in saving others. That's the number one thing that TV shows focus on. It's the number one thing that stories about us focus on. The power of being a nurse is having the ability to understand and assimilate and bring together so many treatment modalities and therapeutic interventions and science and holistic healing, and holding all of it together. In saying that, however, another part of it is also in choosing to save ourselves too, to stay, to speak, to stand, to go where you're going to thrive, to protect your peace, so that you can thrive.

Speaker 1:

I want you to light a candle this afternoon, this evening, after your shift, and I want you to whisper those intentions into it. I want you to look at your stethoscope like it's a special tool to you and remind yourself that you're not just part of the system. You are a part of the medicine delivered in this system. And why did I say stethoscope? Well, because you know, we know they're not doctor stethoscopes, we know they're ours. Grab your free copy of the list in the show notes, your sacred tool to organize your chaos.

Speaker 1:

Make space for what matters. Don't forget to use your exclusive nurses. We code for your uh. 20% off the entire store, the authentic nurse course itself. Um, you don't need to code for uh, the price has just been adjusted to $20 and 25 cents, so you don't even have to worry about it. But enjoy and indulge and take care of yourself. Please tag a nurse, please send a friend this episode. Let's lift each other the hell up this week and every single week. And, as always, I love your faces. This is your ritual nurse Reva. Thanks for tuning in to the ritual nurse podcast. You can find us wherever you listen to podcasts, so don't forget to subscribe and stay connected for all our social links free education classes, blogs and podcast notes with resources. Head over to tcthorg until next time. Love your faces.