Dear Nurses... My Letter to You

This Thanksgiving episode is simple. It's my love letter to my nurses. MY 'patient population'. MY why. 

Not the kind people write on holiday cards. The kind nurses never get but always deserve.

In this conversation, we step away from the noise and endless dumpster fires. We talk about what nurses actually carry. The invisible work. The emotional labor. The moments that never make the chart but stay with you long after the shift ends.

We breathe together.
 We pause for moments that belong only to you.
 We name something to be proud of, no matter what it is, we're here for it.

We talk about rest in ways that do not require money, PTO, or a miracle. We talk about how micro rests can calm a nervous system that has been working too hard for too long. We talk honestly about why none of this is weakness. It is survival.

In Coffee, Crystals, and Divination we explore peppermint bark tea, Aqua Aura Quartz, Ocean Jasper, the Death card, and the Wheel of Fortune. Each one points to release, renewal, and the possibility of something gentler.

This episode is my love letter to nurses. All nurses. The ones at the bedside. The ones in clinics. The ones in leadership. The ones who left to save themselves. The ones still trying to find their way back to themselves.

If no one tells you thank you this week, I will.
 I see you.
 I honor you.
 I am grateful for you.

Chapters

• 0:21 A Softer Shift Toward Gratitude
• 1:18 The Invisible Work Of Nurses
• 3:29 You Are The Intervention
• 4:32 Guided Breath And Self‑Pride Practice
• 8:12 A Thank‑You Rolled In Reality
• 9:12 Evidence Of Nursing Impact
• 10:18 Dance Break And Reset
• 11:35 The Case For Micro Rest
• 16:00 Cozy Corner: Tea, Crystals, Cards
• 21:30 Death, Wheel Of Fortune, And Change
• 23:07 A Closing Love Letter To Nurses

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:11

Welcome back to the Ritual Nurse Podcast. I'm your host, Reba, and today we're stepping out of the endless scroll of Dumpster Fire News and into something a little softer. Something a little warmer, something nurses rarely get for themselves. Gratitude. Not the Pinterest version, not the corporate email version, the real version. The kind that forms in the center of your chest, like a small sun that refuses to go out. The kind that makes your throat feel just a tiny bit tight, and you have to blink a few times. If you work in healthcare right now, I probably don't need to tell you how heavy this world feels. I live in the United States, and here especially. It feels like every time I open my phone, someone's yelling, something's on fire, some politician is actively trying to send me into hypertensive crisis or SVT. So for today, we're not doing any of that. Tonight is about you. The nurse, the healer, the one who stayed. This is my Thanksgiving love letter to the profession that holds up the whole damn world. Let's start with the simple truth. If people had any idea what nurses actually do, Thanksgiving would be a global holiday specifically dedicated to you. Because most of what you do isn't documented. It's not captured in the highlight reel of the job. It's the invisible work, the emotional labor, the quiet, heroic moments you don't talk about because you're too busy doing the next thing. You sit with the dying so that they're not alone. You catch subtle changes in patients before anyone else even knows something's wrong. You translate the medical chaos into something a terrified family member can understand at three in the morning. You notice when a patient's breathing changes while the rest of the room is distracted. You protect dignity with your whole chest. You teach, you advocate, you intercept harm. You run interference with dedicated intention. You advocate with ten toes down. You become their voice when they are silenced. You become their safe harbor when the fear and pain try to swallow them whole. These are not small things. These are the things that keep humanity intact. And nurses do them constantly. You've been fed this myth that all this labor is, quote, just part of the job. That it's the norm, expected, nothing special. Well, I'm calling that what it is: a lie. Nurses are the miracle. Nurses are the intervention. Nurses are the variable that changes the outcome. You are the reason a scared kid lived long enough to get a diagnosis. You're the reason a mother's blood pressure was caught before a catastrophe. You are the reason a confused elder finally understood how to take their new medication. You are the reason someone made it home. Not because you had to do any of those things. But because you chose to. And I need you just for the next few minutes to stop believing that isn't heroic, isn't extra, isn't above and beyond. I want you to pause. Wherever you are, unless you're literally holding a human airway, which in that case, how are you listening to this? You can take 10 seconds for yourself. I'm gonna tell you the steps, and then we're gonna actually no shit do it together. Me too. Right here, right now. So here's the steps. I'll repeat them when we do it again together. So don't worry if you're the type of person that needs to grab a pen and jot it down. What I want you to do is listen to the steps and just kind of let it normalize in your brain that that's what you're gonna do, so that you can just slip into doing it when we start. So first we're gonna unclench our jaws and drop our shoulders. We're gonna slowly inhale through the nose, count to four. Then I want you to let your exhale just be slower than your inhale. Don't count. Just one breath that is fully yours. If it takes you a few tries to let that breath fill you, then exhale. With steady, calm clarity, then do that. Do it a few times. Then we're gonna name one thing that we're proud of for ourselves for this year. Okay, it doesn't have to be huge. Okay. Alright, so ready? I know. A whole bunch of you just grimaced. You can do this. I'm gonna hold your hand while we do this. I do want you to unclench your jaws. I want you to lower your eyebrows as well. And I want you to drop your shoulders. We're gonna inhale through our nose, and we're gonna count to four mentally while we're inhaling. Now, I want you to name the one thing that you're proud of yourself for this year. You can do that. Don't hesitate. It doesn't have to be nurse talk, trendy. I just want real. For me, I'm proud that this year I invested so much time and energy into teaching the next generation of nurses how not to be bullies, how to be compassionate and caring, but set boundaries to actually protect their peace. Because nobody did that for me or most of you, and somebody has to start doing it, so that more and more of our nurses come out the gate knowing how to protect themselves while still being able to provide the legendary care that we do. And for you, maybe you kept showing up when you didn't think you could. Maybe you advocated for a patient when everyone else checked out. Maybe you survived. That counts. Every day that counts. Here's my gratitude from me to you. Thank you for showing up when you were exhausted. Thank you for advocating when the room went silent. Thank you for being the one your patients trusted most. Thank you for bearing witness to the hardest moments of human life. Thank you for holding the line even as the system failed around you. Thank you for caring even when it hurt. And thank you for staying human in a job designed to grind the humanity out of you sometimes. The sheer tenacity of will that takes is legendary. You are not invisible to me. I see you, I honor you, and I am grateful for you. Let's talk about impact. How nurses change the world. Real, measurable scientific impact. Nurses reduce mortality rates. Nurses improve recovery times. Nurses reduce complications. Nurses stabilize families. Nurses influence policy, whether anyone realizes it or not. You are the most trusted profession for a reason. Not because the polls say so, but because every day you prove it. You change the world at the bedside, in the clinic, in the community, in leadership, in education, and in every quiet moment no one sees. And if you're listening to this right now, hear me so clearly. The world is better because you exist in it. Because you are the ones who keep healing in every form it takes. Alright, let's take a little breather before we get emotional enough to need a hydration break. When we come back, we're going to talk about rest, ritual, and the soft places you need to land, especially in a profession that rarely gives you one. So dance break in three, two, one.

SPEAKER_01: 10:26

Let's get some sun, baby, someone.

SPEAKER_00: 11:24

The call to rest. The little kind, not the luxury kind. Nurses hear the word rest and immediately assume it requires a PTO, a plane ticket, and someone else's credit card. Probably because the size of the rest our exhaustion feels like sometimes is Ocean's 11-scale operations. I'm talking about micro rest, the kind you can steal, the kind that counts. A five-minute sit in your car before walking into the building counts. Waiting to walk out of the bedroom door for 30 seconds just to breathe counts. A shower after a brutal shift where you let the water run down your spine and imagine the day rinsing off of your skin counts. Rest doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to exist. The reason for this is simple. Our nervous systems, adrenal glands, and compensatory mechanisms need to reset from redline. And every micro rest resets us. The more we reset, the more break that consistent high-tension fight or flight state gets. And all of the physiological consequences of that state. Micro rests allow you to develop the habit of being tactilely aware of your physiology and your body's innate response to your environment in that moment. That puts context conceptually together with thought processes and bodily awareness. This gives you control over regulation, recognition of mind-body states, and allows you to acknowledge your response and emotions. You're in control. So in this state, you signal to yourself that you are safe. That two or more things can be true in any given moment. That you can be in a high stress situation exposed to secondary trauma or emotions, and yet still safe. That you can experience a wide range of emotions, and yet you are still safe. That you can function and depend on yourself to stay safe in heightened or escalated situations. You are allowed to pause, you are allowed to tend to yourself, you are allowed to matter. I know a lot of this sounds flowery, woo-woo, but every word of it is true. This can be as imperfect, raw, and as real as you need it. Remember, not hallmark, just human. So now we're gonna head into the cozy corner of today's episode. I know all of us nurses get a little too close to a lot of emotion, and all of us immediately, okay, thanks. No thanks, goodbye. So you can breathe, you can relax, we're gonna go, we're gonna be cozy for a minute and do coffee, crystals, and divination to round out our segment. The coffee or tea of the week, let me tell you. Last week, while I was browsing World Market for a few things, I primarily get food types and spices there that I can't find in stores elsewhere around here. And I happen to find the Republic of Tea's peppermint bark tea. I'm hooked. I love peppermint. And as a note, this one isn't blow your sinus' mint, but it's aromatic, it's slightly sweet, and it's beyond amazing to sip. Perfect for when the rain or snow comes down, while you're working on a hobby, listening to your ebook, or just simply existing in space peacefully for a few minutes. I'm sure grocery stores carry it in the tea section. If you do try it out, let me know on the show feedback link on Apple or Spotify, or on socials. Hit me up with a comment or tag me in your post and let me know what you think. We're gonna do our live draw. Alright, let's see what our crystal for the next two weeks is gonna be from our deck here. I almost flung like two-thirds of the deck in the air. There's one. So I didn't pick those up, but they seem to have, there we go, uh like a holiday tea type section, of course. Um, which I'm sure, you know, grocery stores will have if you don't have a world market near you. Um, and I know Amazon has it, I think even, I think Walmart has it. Um, a bunch of different places would. So definitely give those a try and let me know. Um, gingerbread something, the peppermint bark. There isn't, there's supposed to be cocoa in the tea, but I didn't get a very strong chocolate flavor. Maybe that was part of like the hint of sweetness, I don't know. The peppermint was just like the perfect strength peppermint, if you will. Uh let's take a look at our crystals. So we have invigorate, which is aura aura quartz, and flow, which is ocean jasper. Now, the aura aura quartz, I think we've had a couple times. Um the ocean jasper, I don't think. So the aura aura quartz, it's soothing, confidence, auric cleansing. Wild, totally unrelated. The presence of aura aura quartz signifies a powerful moment of revitalization and inner peace. As the soothing and calming energy of this crystal washes over you, this card invites you to invigorate your spirit and renew your sense of calmness. Just be still in this moment to revitalize your energy, release stress, and connect with a deeper sense of peace within. Allow the gentle energy of Aura Aura quartz to cleanse your spirit, lift your emotions, and guide you towards a renewed sense of vitality and serenity. I think I just realized in looking at this, the whole time I've been saying this quartz name, I've been thinking in my head, I have some of this, and I don't think there's a duplicate name in it. And there isn't. It's actually Aqua Aura Quartz. So I'm not even gonna edit that out because I think that's funny. The way that it's spelled here, I totally, my ADHD brain just dyslexically swapped the U and what doesn't even look like an R to make it a duplicate of Aura, but it's aqua Aura quartz. Just to be clear. Since I just now noticed that. Yeah, like I said, I'm not even gonna edit that out. I think that's funny. And the next one is flow, Ocean Jasper, which I don't think we've had before. Let's see what Ocean Jasper said. So Ocean Jasper is uplifting, relaxation, and calmness. You can't control everything. Now's the time to sink into a state of pure relaxation and go with the flow without a care in the world. With the help of Ocean Jasper's uplifting energy, allow yourself to surrender and let go of all that stress and tension. Take your time to luxuriate in the moment, finding peace in the simple act of being. Relax, rejuvenate, and just go with the flow, baby. Amazing. Perfect crystals for the next two weeks. So flow, which is ocean jasper, invigorate, which was aqua aura quartz. Aha. Um, if you have those, then keep them near you, tuck them in your pocket. You have them on a bracelet. You could even uh draw pictures of them and have those near you as representations of them if you don't happen to have the stone. That also works. And if you're not into the crystal thing, I don't I mean, I do have to say how how do you not like the pretty rocks? But if you're not into the crystal thing, you could use that, use this as a channeling prompt. Manifestation, something like that. So let's see, speaking of manifestation, what cards what's our divination for this week? Alright. That was quick. Oh, incredible. We have two big cards, huge cards. I've never even seen one of these. I mean, correction. Okay, I've seen it. I just mean in this deck, I haven't pulled it in the podcast. So the first one is death, which is obsidian. Don't panic. Doesn't mean what you think it means. And the second one is Wheel of Fortune. So Wheel of Fortune is Aventuring, and Death is Obsidian. Let's read it and see what they have to say. Incredible. Alright, death. Ending, change, release, and obsidian means grounding, protection, and transformation. Out with the old and in with the new. Don't freak out, but the death card is actually the end of a phase or cycle that is no longer serving you. Hmm. Remember at the beginning of the podcast how we talked about what we're not buying into? Yeah, exactly. Release past attachments so you can focus on what's ahead of you. And attachments that can also be long-held systemic beliefs. So, perfect card. That's amazing. Now let's focus on the Wheel of Fortune. The Wheel of Fortune usually signifies life cycles, luck, and destiny. Aventurine is good luck, prosperity, and optimism. This card often signifies that a positive change is coming up or a cycle is coming to an end. Just remember that whatever the outcome may be, remain optimistic. Trust that the universe has your back and things are unfolding as they should. That was the perfect one-two punch. Literally. First card telling you, hey, let go of it. Time for change, put it to bed. The second card reassuring you, yep, that was a right decision. Let it go. On with the new. Absolutely incredible. So you have your crystals for the next two week, uh, Aqua Aura Quartz and Ocean Jasper, and we have the death card and wheel of fortune for our divination cards, which couldn't be more perfectly matched to the meaning and episode uh for today. So, nurses, I want you to hear me when I say this. I am grateful for you. Not in the shallow holiday card way, but in the real way. The way that sits in your chest, the way that stays with you on the hardest nights, the way that reminds you that your work means something, even when the system refuses to see it. You are my people. You are why I do this work. You are why this podcast exists. So if no one tells you how grateful they are for you, know that I will. And that I am so grateful for you. And as always, I love your faces.