Radical Relaxation (eBook)
192 Seiten
IVP (Verlag)
9781514009451 (ISBN)
Tracie Braylock (MSN, BSN, RN) is a holistic nurse educator, writer, and wellness consultant. As a former operating room nurse, she advocates for mind, body, spirit well-being, holistic wellness experiences, and liberating relaxation. Her work has been featured in the American Holistic Nurses Association New Beginnings magazine, Proverbs 31 Ministries, and Hallmark Mahogany. Tracie teaches workshops, leads retreats, and lectures on issues related to nursing, writing, self-care, and healing lifestyles. She lives in Ohio with her family.
Tracie Braylock (MSN, BSN, RN) is a holistic nurse educator, writer, and wellness consultant. As a former operating room nurse, she advocates for mind, body, spirit well-being, holistic wellness experiences, and liberating relaxation. Her work has been featured in the American Holistic Nurses Association New Beginnings magazine, Proverbs 31 Ministries, and Hallmark Mahogany. Tracie teaches workshops, leads retreats, and lectures on issues related to nursing, writing, self-care, and healing lifestyles. She lives in Ohio with her family.
1
Wonderfully Made
THERE I AM, STANDING ON A PLATFORM, peering over the blue surgical drapes into the body of a patient having open-heart surgery. While watching the heartbeat and blood pulse through the vessels within this cavity, I didn’t consider the various life circumstances that led this person to the operating room table, the trauma and pain endured, or the stressors that weighed heavily upon them throughout their lives. I simply loved witnessing the intricacies that comprise the human body. Each organ, vessel, and body system divinely positioned to make one’s existence possible. With every pulse, breath, and nerve signal comes a new possibility, a chance to co-create with God and leave your fingerprints on eternity.
Taking what was formless and void, God created the heavens and the earth, the wonders of which have been studied for millennia and still are not fully understood. With the same divine imagination, he formed the human body and called it good, creating systems that can function with, and without, your participation, and processes that enable healing to occur whether or not you are aware of your own wounds. God breathed into you the breath of life while weaving wisdom into every cell. You are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made, and it’s vital that you learn how.
Whether you find yourself in awe of how your body works, or if discussions about the human body make you feel a bit awkward, I’m here to help you take a deeper look into your masterful design. I’m here to remind you that before you were formed in your mother’s womb, God knew you. You are so valuable that God has numbered the very hairs on your head. Your body, including every curve and challenge it may carry, is considered God’s temple, and the Holy Spirit dwells within you. Therefore, it’s critical that you learn what your body is capable of. Acknowledging your body’s delicacy and divinity, as a museum curator appreciates works of art. Tending to and preserving it with care and dedication. Adopting healing practices and identifying the underutilized gems woven into your physical being as if your life were on exhibit. A reflection of your Creator, a faithful steward and safe handler of the precious gifts within you. A soul wrapped in the form the Potter’s hands deemed good for you to journey in. Skin, bones, muscles, and nerve fibers working in collaboration to produce life within and through you. You, my friend, are holy.
YOU ARE THE LIGHT
A patient was having a laparoscopy, the type of operation that gives the surgeon access to the abdomen or pelvis through small incisions in the skin while using the aid of a camera.
Once the camera is inside the body cavity, images of the interior of the abdomen or pelvis are relayed to a monitor. As an operating room nurse, my role in this particular operation was to hold the camera. The camera holder is required to have a steady hand and must remain attentive to the operation, guiding the camera as directed so the surgeon can see the area of the body they’re working on.
Every now and then, the laparoscopic camera can touch something inside the body cavity, obscuring the lens and obstructing the view. When this happens, the camera must be removed from the body and cleaned off so that the light and internal structures are visible again.
No matter how steady my hand, how skilled the surgeon, or how safe the procedure typically is, without the light source that shines through the scope, the operation could not take place. The light is necessary because the space where the work takes place is dark and, in many cases, has never been exposed to light. Without the light, the operation, healing, and restoration wouldn’t happen.
When you seem to keep bumping into one stressor after another in your life, you have to take some time to remove it and clean yourself off from its effects. If you don’t, the stress can obstruct your view, resulting in the dimming of your light, and may even cause you to forget your own worth and wonder. Although your light is still present, stress can act as a distraction, leaving you discouraged or experiencing feelings of defeat. So let this be your reminder: You are the light of the world, designed to shine into the darkness and illuminate the lives of people and spaces, including some that have yet to be exposed to the light. Your light enables others to see your good deeds and glorify God in heaven, so don’t allow stress to stop you from shining and sharing who you are.
INNATE HEALING WISDOM
The human body has the capacity to heal itself, working on your behalf, often beyond your conscious awareness. Your body constantly adapts for you, seeking a state of balance among all of your body systems, called homeostasis, which is necessary for your survival and the proper function of the body.
Whether you’re undergoing a surgical procedure or you cut yourself in your kitchen, as soon as you are wounded, your body takes action. Your platelets begin to clot and the blood vessels that have been cut begin to constrict. This phase, called hemostasis, keeps you from losing too much blood.
Your mast cells also release substances filled with enzymes and histamine that cause inflammation and the characteristic signs of redness, heat, swelling, and pain around the wound site. Your white blood cells move into the wound, acting as infection control agents dispatched to fight off bacteria and clean the wound of debris. These are functions of the inflammatory phase.
Next is the proliferative phase, when the rebuilding process begins. Your cells start to multiply and spread. New cells start filling in the wound, forming new tissue known as granulation tissue. Your body forms new blood vessels to deliver a sufficient amount of oxygen and nutrients to the new tissue. Your wound edges are pulled together as the new granulation tissue forms. Your wound is then layered with epithelial cells, the type of cells that cover the surface of your body.
Your wound then enters the maturation, or remodeling, phase. Your wound achieves maximum strength and flexibility at this stage. Cells that are no longer needed in the healing process are removed, reducing the thickness of the scar, and a process called cross-linking occurs in which collagen fibers align to thin and strengthen the skin.
This very intricate and complex cascade and overlapping sequence of events displays the human body’s resilience. Your body is innately designed to fight for you and built to bounce back when faced with challenges and stressors that disrupt its normal equilibrium. You see, your body has been divinely programmed to keep you alive, so it doesn’t wait for your permission, and in many cases, it doesn’t even require your participation before responding.
And still, in the midst of this deeply rooted wisdom, you can influence and improve your physical resilience and the speed at which you cycle through the healing process. Because the efficiency of your healing and your body’s sense of harmony are heavily impacted by your ability to remain well nourished, rested, and relaxed.
WHO GOD SAYS YOU ARE
Every patient who requires hospital care is given a new ID wristband containing all of the information about who they are and who’s in charge of their care. This ID efficiently communicates sensitive data to hospital personnel within a demanding health care environment so that each patient is correctly identified and able to receive their customized care. Becoming a believer in Christ also gives you a new ID that communicates your identity to the world. Your ID says that you are created in the image of God and your identity is solely found in him. If you’ve ever struggled to remember that I want to remind you of who God says you are.
Your God-given identity. Years ago, hospital personnel identified patients by their illnesses—the kidney stones in 405 or the heart murmur in 211. Not only did this practice lack compassion, it dehumanized the individual, dismissing and devaluing their wholeness, blinding caregivers to deeper levels of empathy, and trivializing an autonomous person down to a problem to be solved.
Describing someone by the type of illness they’re experiencing doesn’t take valuable characteristics into account, such as their age and overall health status, and often leads to errors in patient identification.
Patient misidentification has repeatedly led to medication, testing, and transfusion errors. It’s caused patients to receive the wrong procedure and infants to be discharged to the wrong family.
The misidentification of patients, and the well-documented history of errors that have resulted because of it, caused the identification process to undergo a shift. Health care workers now involve the patient in the process and use two patient identifiers, such as one’s name and date of birth, when identifying their patients. This greatly improves the reliability that the correct patient will receive the correct treatment or service.
Misidentification can also take place in your life. It occurs when you begin to conform to the patterns of this world, or when you’re confused about who you are because of the stories that you have heard from yourself and from others.
So if we were together right now, I’d look into your eyes and ask, “How...
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 6.5.2025 |
|---|---|
| Verlagsort | Lisle |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Themenwelt | Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Lebenshilfe / Lebensführung |
| Schlagworte | afraid • Anxiety • Body • Burnout • Care • Christian • countercultural • Depression • Diagnosis • God • Healing • holistic • Hustle • liberating • Mental Health • Mindfulness • overwhelm • practical application • present • reclaim • Sacred • self-care • SPIRIT • struggle • Value • Wellness • Worth |
| ISBN-13 | 9781514009451 / 9781514009451 |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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