8/13/2023 0 Comments Spiritual self reflection![]() To function as holistic healers, nurses must look for patterns and meanings within our clients. This search for patterns and meaning should extend to the roles and processes we engage with as nurses. Understanding our inner panoramas can help us better understand our outer panoramas and make better, wiser decisions. Allowing self-reflection to guide our nursing practice can improve outcomes, because a strong sense of self enables us to deal with problems better (Elder, Evans, & Nizette, 2009, p. Meanings, patterns, and purpose become clear. Kanuka (2002) also writes that reflection is an essential component of understanding complex problems, issues, and concepts. Mezirow further suggests that individuals come to value reflection and its importance when they realize that not all learning involves learning to do. This leads to: 1) rational examination of assumptions, 2) action based on the question What am I doing wrong?, 3) focus on presuppositions that relate to a problem, and 4) communication with self. The process of critical self-reflection can foster transformational learning in adults, which Mezirow (1990) attributes to reflection’s higher-order mental process. In addition to avoiding burnout and improving the care nurses deliver, self-reflection helps nurses recapture the energy that accompanies passion, resulting in personal growth and feelings of fulfillment (Wright, 2010). Self-reflection helps nurses maintain and rediscover passion, the antithesis of burnout, by facilitating insight and reconnecting them with their histories. Research suggests that nurses who find their career rewarding and are passionate about their work provide better care (Kearney, 2010). To prevent burnout, nurses need to stay connected with their passion for nursing. In other words, the CMS helps provide a reality check. Research shows that damage to the CMS causes difficulty in evaluating problems and a tendency to overestimate one’s personal abilities (Van der Meer, Costafreda, Aleman, & David, 2010). More specifically, self-reflection involves the brain’s cortical midline structures (CMS). 326), the moment when the light bulb goes on and we say “aha.” The same process is associated with creativity. Moreover, radiographic imagery demonstrates that reflective meditation increases activity in the right hemisphere of the brain, which is associated with insight and “the sudden awareness of correct answers to verbal problems” (Denner, 2009, p. 5).Īccording to Denner (2009), reflection’s meditative aspect causes a change in brain wave activity, specifically increased alpha and theta wave activity. This connection enables honest outward relationships that become spiritual acts (p. Palmer also associates the feeling of connectivity and the perception of humanity and oneness that come with reflection as essential parts of spirituality. This parallels Florence Nightingale’s view that caring about and providing nursing care to others are spiritual acts (Ortiz, 2010, p. Palmer (2007) defines self-reflection as a spiritual quest, evidenced by the way it connects our inner selves with the outer world and the humanness of others. The Chinese philosopher Confucius (551-479 B.C.) wrote, “By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noble second, by imitation, which is easiest and third by experience, which is the most bitter.”Įducator Parker J. Lautebach and Becher suggest that self-reflection is a critical activity for nurses in their caring for others and, because it connects those who practice it with their inner selves and truth, is transformational. When nurses reflect, they purposefully “bend back” their attention in a focused attempt to discover personal meanings gained from professional nursing encounters and interaction with others. Purposeful reflection is a tool that helps nurses gain self-knowledge and insight (Palmer, 2007). Lautebach and Becher (1996) relate self-reflection to caring for the self. ![]() Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.” Self-reflection looks inward and listens to the whispers. How to gain wisdom and connect with truth and your inner self are important topics for nurses to explore. Florence Nightingale lived a life of reflection.
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