The Old Mind-Body-Spirit Connection

Holistic nursing has been one of the major themes of my life. So, I was over-the-top excited to connect with four total strangers yesterday, all wearing shirts that soon had me identifying them as nurses from a local affiliate of our hospital here in Lawrence, Kansas.

Mind-Body-Spirit  That's what the back of the shirts said. There I was, in a rather comical KU mascot shirt, that of the Jayhawkers--not dressed at all for the cause, but ready to kick right in to validate and get to know these ladies.

Immediately, I told them how I go way back and mentioned a textbook I'd studied many years ago, same one a much younger nurse, who had also specialized early-on in psych nursing, knew well. That led into what I'm doing now....

My new book, Enlarging Boston's Spotlight, of course.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/1545473544

If time had permitted, I would have told them that the greatest wound for the thousands of friends and readers (both survivors and advocates) I've connected with over the last twenty-five years, with lives impacted by the nonsense wrought by abusive clergy and the systems that support them, has seldom had to do with physical wounds, but the mind and soul-maiming. Or the wounded mind and spirit.

Often the physical body eventually breaks down and suffers, too, of course. And often, that seems to be related to the abuse, though it's impossible to fully establish this scientifically in a way that would hold up in court.

The spirit, I've oft concluded, is restored through the mind.  That's where the greatest hope is, I'm convinced. As we learn to re-think what has been experienced, to re-frame it, and to recognize the power within each of us as we get in touch with our personal stories, awakening to the value of mining all of this to be transformed into a new creation, able to see the beauty that lies within.

"Keep up the good work!" that's what I said to the professional healers of this new generation, with the attractive shirts.  That's what we all must do. Moving forward.

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