Nursing U's Podcast
Nursing U is a podcast co-hosted by Julie and Caleb. We embark on an educational journey to redefine nursing within the modern healthcare landscape.
Our mission is to foster an open and collaborative environment where learning knows no bounds, and every topic—no matter how taboo—is explored with depth and sincerity. We delve into the essence of nursing, examining the intimate and often complex relationships between nurses and their patients amidst suffering and death.
Through our discussions, we aim to highlight the psychological impacts of nursing and caregiving, not only on the caregivers themselves but also on the healthcare system at large.
Our goal is to spark conversations that pave the way for healing and innovation in healthcare, ensuring the well-being of future generations.
'Nursing U' serves as a platform for examining the state of modern civilization through the lens of nursing, tackling issues that range from violence, drugs, and sex to family, compassion and love. We will utilize philosophy, religion and science to provide context and deeper understanding to the topics we tackle.
By seamlessly weaving humor with seriousness, we create a unique tapestry of learning, drawing wisdom from the experiences of elders and the unique challenges faced in nursing today.
Join us at 'Nursing U,' where we cultivate a community eager to explore the transformative power of nursing, education, and conversation in shaping a more whole and healthier world."
Disclaimer:
The hosts of 'Nursing U', Julie Reif and Caleb Schraeder are registered nurses; however, the content provided in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing shared on this podcast should be considered medical advice nor should it be used to diagnose or treat any medical condition. Always seek the guidance of your doctor or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or health concerns. The views expressed on this podcast are personal opinions and do not represent the views of our employers or our professional licensing bodies.
Nursing U's Podcast
Ep #024 PT 2 - Beyond the Physical: Embracing Spirituality in Healthcare
Have you ever wondered how a service dog could revolutionize the way we provide nursing care? Prepare to be intrigued as we explore the innovative potential of using service dogs in hospitals, from detecting specific lab components to alerting nurses with their unique barks. We also share the poignant experience of balancing a demanding nursing career with pet ownership, shedding light on the tough decision to rehome a beloved pet. Discover the emotional and therapeutic power of pet therapy in hospice care, offering a glimmer of joy in life's final stages.
Our journey doesn't stop there. Through personal stories of a great-grandmother's funeral and a young individual navigating a gender transition, we reflect on the nature of identity and the beauty found in life's most challenging moments. These stories prompt a broader discussion on societal attitudes toward death and the fragile scaffolding of medical interventions that sustain life. We explore concepts of reincarnation and soul contracts, contemplating the life experiences that shape our identities, especially for those who feel like outsiders.
The episode concludes with a powerful critique of reductionist materialism in healthcare and education. We question whether this fragmented approach limits our understanding of the world, advocating instead for integrated learning and spirituality. We delve into Teshuva and Dolores Cannon's teachings, emphasizing the importance of reconnecting with our true selves. Holistic healing approaches and spiritual practices validated by modern science are highlighted as potent tools for fostering compassion and understanding in healthcare, illustrated through a heartwarming patient story.
Check Out Madison's Podcast: Spiritually Human, a podcast inspired by the human experience - https://open.spotify.com/show/3iMSGIMVU0PLnjBivBc7bP?si=LXNUnhm0S7mYf3xDzrFHmg
Hi, I'm Julie.
Speaker 2:And I'm Caleb. Welcome to Nursing U, the podcast where we redefine nursing in today's healthcare landscape. Join Julie and I as we step outside the box on an unconventional healing journey.
Speaker 1:Together, we're diving deep into the heart of nursing, exploring the intricate relationships between caregivers and patients with sincerity and depth.
Speaker 2:Our mission is to create an open and collaborative experience where learning is expansive and fun.
Speaker 1:From the psychological impacts of nursing to the larger implications on the healthcare system. We're sparking conversations that lead to healing and innovation.
Speaker 2:We have serious experience and we won't pull our punches. But we'll also weave in some humor along the way, because we all know laughter is often the best medicine.
Speaker 1:It is, and we won't shy away from any topic, taboo or not, from violence and drugs to family and love, we're tackling it all.
Speaker 2:Our nursing knowledge is our base, but we will be bringing insights from philosophy, religion, science and art to deepen our understanding of the human experience.
Speaker 1:So, whether you're a nurse, a healthcare professional or just someone curious about the world of caregiving, this podcast is for you.
Speaker 2:One last thing, a quick disclaimer before we dive in. While we're both registered nurses, nothing we discuss here should be taken as medical advice. Always consult with your doctor or a qualified healthcare provider for any medical concerns you may have. The views expressed here are our own and don't necessarily reflect those of our employers or licensing bodies.
Speaker 1:So let's get started on this journey together. Welcome to Nursing U, where every conversation leads to a healthier world.
Speaker 2:Madison, you'll like this idea. I've shared it before. I think you know firefighters historically have had dogs. Cops have dogs, Military has dogs. I think that we need to have dogs that are service dogs in the hospital, that can smell troponins, that can smell, you know, BUN and creatinine, and bark have a bark that's specific to each one of the lab components that would be critical to us. They come in in the ER Like what a cool idea Isn't that? Just isn't that the coolest idea?
Speaker 3:That is so cool. I honestly though I could see it. I could see it evolving as, like, the doll becomes my service dog within that.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's a hundred percent.
Speaker 3:It's for us, you bring him to work, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's for us. Yeah, our companion, yeah yeah, what a um gosh like it would know how, when the like foley bag was full and so it would have a bark from the foley bag, it would have you know when your drips are about ready to run out. Yeah or when shit river is about to overflow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, oh my god do they use dogs with hospice ever, or do they have like pet therapy within those services?
Speaker 3:so a lot of our patients are residents at facilities, and so there's been a lot of times where that facility um has, you know, pet therapy dogs that come in on a monthly basis. Okay, the hospice I work for I don't think. At least I've worked there since 2021 I haven't seen um us use pet therapy for hospice um, but, like you know, the main reason why is because so many of our patients are within those facilities. They're already having pet therapy volunteers come, um, but just seeing the eyes light up on these residents when, the when the dogs come and they get to interact and pet them, oh my gosh, pet therapy is just. I mean I it's crucial. I mean, pets are just, they're divine, they're I don't know. I feel like the pet that you have in your life is definitely who you, who your pet is supposed to be, because they are truly. They truly walk us through life. I mean, pets are magical.
Speaker 2:I want a dog. I need, I want a dog. I've wanted a service dog for a long time.
Speaker 1:I want a dog. I need, I want a dog. I've wanted a service dog for a long time. Just you know they, they take some of the weight off of you, and they can hold a lot too, you know, with intention, with intention they'll hold it for you. It should be more used.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you mentioned you want to do. That Is what's stopping you, or what's that hindrance right now? What's stopping you, or what's that hindrance right now?
Speaker 2:I tried to have a dog a couple of years ago, had a beautiful standard poodle. She was white and her name was Blanche, and it just didn't go well. I was, you know, at the I was at the hospital too much and I recognized, thank God, early enough that it wasn't a good situation for her and I rehomed her and I was just so upset that I'm going to ruin this dog because I'm just at this hospital all day long and she needs better than that, and so that was a little bit that was just upsetting for me and I've better than that, and so that was a little bit that was just upsetting for me. I've never tried again and you know that's like if I went full time hospice and they were able to, you know, accommodate me having a dog, I would. That would be a significant motivator for me accommodate me having a dog, I would that would be a significant motivator for me.
Speaker 3:That just shows how just caring and you know, no, I mean, that's such a noble thing to do. It's like hey, I actually can't take care of this pet.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean, how awesome is it that you were able to recognize that I still get get. I still get picture updates uh yeah, um, I know, I know the family that the dog went to, so, um, it was, it ended up good, it ended up really good. Um, she's had a couple litters of puppies, she's on a farm and she's just so happy. So, um, I was so terrified that it was going to be, uh, that we were it was. I was just going to ruin this dog and I just couldn't live with it.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that's interesting that's.
Speaker 1:That's some dive work there in there somewhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah but very neat.
Speaker 1:I just got pictures of like if you had a service dog, was your dog, could you, would you, is it possible? Maybe be allowed to? It was like caleb and the dog. So yeah, whatever home I could imagine would have to be like okay, um, and if not, she'd stay in the car, you know, jump around while you're in the car I know, yeah, yeah, but but also might be welcomed by and I'm sure there's policies and procedures about that too.
Speaker 1:But you know, and wait now, has anybody heard? I just saw this, probably because we've been talking about hospice and my phone listens to everything we say.
Speaker 2:Um well, I don't even have to type anymore which is neat.
Speaker 1:It just listens. Uh, it's. It's called a death doula. Yeah, what do you know about that and what is that?
Speaker 3:literally the only thing that I know about it is just what I've seen in from it on social media.
Speaker 3:There is I don't know if you've if you've seen her on instagram or whatever, but her name is hospice nurse julie um he is a hospice nurse and she I mean, she has a lot of followers and she her her goal is to educate on death and dying and to make it less um, scary, I guess, um, but I've I've heard her briefly talk about death doulas and you know how I mean, just just like a birth doula, you know, coaching you through this, through the birthing process. A birth doula, you know, coaching you through this, through the birthing process.
Speaker 1:You know a death doula, I feel like, is just a just amazing idea, like coaching you through that death and it's. I mean it's amazing because there there's birth doulas and I've heard of those and it's like an experience that you never you'll, you can't know unless you've birthed someone. And I feel, like you know, men don't actually give birth, but if you're there with the woman who is giving birth to your child, you're still wrapped up in all that energy. So it's still an experience and I feel like death is the same way and should be viewed as the same.
Speaker 1:Like you, you're not like just leaving here. You're being birthed into infinity to, to, to, to do whatever you want, to either come back or stay there, take care of other people who have died. You know it's a, it's a, it's like a birthing experience. You know you're leaving the womb, you're leaving the earth. It feels the same. We can just only see the earth, the now, we I don't, I don't remember, I didn't write down all the different paradoxes that we've touched on, but we keep touching on the idea of paradox.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that it's a paradox that you know we come into the earth naked and and vulnerable and weak and and we leave in just the same way.
Speaker 1:it's just, it's a paradox, and and everything in between is filled with paradoxes as well I mean, just think about it, you know, like they have like gender reveals and a baby shower and everyone is so excited for that baby to come into the earth. Like why don't they do that? For dying? I is it. It's just because we're programmed to feel about it. Like we're programmed to feel about it. I can remember being at my great grandmother's funeral. I was five, I barely remember it, but you know, you get those little weird bloops of like memories or picture. Was I there? I don't remember, um, but you know it's dark, it's black. Everybody's crying. You know it's terrible. Don't talk, don't talk about it, don't talk about how she died. You know, don't say and and it's like why you should be rejoicing, because I look at how much the life and and now her body, their body, is just done. What did you say? You say the DNA has expired.
Speaker 2:The expiration date has come, you have expired.
Speaker 3:I think the majority of it is fear. I think death equals fear to so many people, and I can't.
Speaker 3:I don't know which religion it is, but I want to say Buddhism, I don't know, but there's one religion where they treat death as such that they, they rejoice in it, they're you know, they, they celebrate it because this person has has, you know, been through the life and they're about to go on a different journey, like that, you know, depending on what you believe in, they're about to go be a whole new person and live a whole new life, or a whole new spirit, or it's.
Speaker 3:I wish that that was the case. I think it would also make people's experience with death be so much more rewarding, even though that sounds so, I you know it doesn't sound right to say, but I mean, in the end, like I feel like I've heard so many people say like our experience with hospice was so great. You know, it was everything. The hospice nurse was just so many compliments, whatever, but like they had that experience of pure like at the end of the day, after everything happened was just so many compliments, whatever, but like they had that experience of pure like at the end of the day, after everything happened was just beautiful, that the whole death experience was beautiful yeah, well, it's again.
Speaker 2:It's a paradox that the like even just this conversation that we're having, that it's all around death, but in so many ways it's given us life yeah but it brings so much life um.
Speaker 3:You know, it's it's just a beautiful paradox.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, it's, it's a really I have to preface it like it is it's a lot. Uh, it'll take me a little bit to get through it. I think I don't know, and it's purely caleb's mental workshop. There is I have I have no books that have informed this this thought experiment, it it actually was the result of a caring conversation that I had with a young person that was going through gender reassignment surgery. Actually, they weren't there for gender reassignment surgery, they were there for a different surgery, but they were going, they had been receiving the hormone replacement therapy and they were there for an emergent surgery.
Speaker 2:And when this person woke up, you know, I was, I was sincerely interested in the experience that this person was having. So that's the basis for the thought experiment and the conversation that I had with this person, because when they woke up, we connected and I felt I had enough rapport with them to ask questions and I asked how do you know that this is your path? How do you know this is the journey that you are supposed to go on? And this person said I've never felt like I belonged in this body.
Speaker 2:Now, a lot of people just poo-poo all of it and just disregard it. It's mental illness, they're sick or something like that, and you know I, so I'm. You know that's kind of the the response to that often and to me I'm trying to connect. I was trying to connect with that person and that person. Only I'm not trying to connect, I'm not trying to just trying to not put my biases on on this person and try to understand what their human experience, what the human experience that they are having is and and. So that's the basis for the thought experiment. I hope I don't catch a lot of hell for this.
Speaker 3:I am. There is no judgment. I am I. This is the kind of conversations that I love having like be vulnerable, be real. So, anyways, carry on.
Speaker 2:Okay, it's vulnerable. So, as I processed this conversation over I don't know days, weeks it kind of and having the, so the unique experience that I've had in the hospital, where it was a humid summer I've told this story before we had a bunch of lungers in the ICU that were fluid overloaded. The humidity in the air was just oppressing their lungs and they weren't able to exchange gases. So everybody was in there intubated, getting Lasix every you know cue, whatever, and I pulled the last bottle of Lasix out of the Pixis. There was a supply shortage and I'm standing there at you know 3am, uh, uh in the morning and going, holy shit, this is the last bottle. And kansas city's out, like every hospital in this town, is out of lasix right now, and I think they had. I think they ended up.
Speaker 2:I think what happened is we have, uh, logistics store supply houses that had reserve and I think that's how we got it supplied before the shipment could get in. But I'm standing there and it gave me an existential crisis because I realized how propped up we are societally. So we have all these people that would otherwise be dead if we didn't have the pharmacological means to keep them alive, otherwise be dead if we didn't have the pharmacological means to keep them alive. And the weight of of that being able to see society from that, from that lens was just like spun my world around. It was like I see dead people everywhere now you know everyone's dead everyone's dead supply chain goes out.
Speaker 2:They're all dead. Like it was over what it was an overwhelming thought for me. And so this is. This is where, like now, tied into to furniture design, um, which I you've only listened to one podcast, so I talk a little bit about my furniture design process. I haven't, like we haven't done any like in-depth dive into what that means or what that is, but I reduce my design process to waveforms, that my job as an ICU nurse is to monitor biological waveforms. And then, in the woodshop, I figured out how to design furniture and all of the designs that I'm working with.
Speaker 2:I use irrational vortex based mathematics, which is the golden ratio and Fibonacci sequence and all of this, and ultimately, my observation of that stuff, uh, is that it's waveforms. So I'm designing waveforms and analyzing the designs as a flow, as energetic, like, how does this piece of wood flow, uh, with its grain pattern? How does it flow with this part of the design and that part? So it's all about flow. So when you take that idea, you marry all these ideas to get to the idea of death, as we have blocked the flow flow. We've blocked the flow, and I'm not saying that we're wrong.
Speaker 2:I think that every life should be preserved. I want to be very clear that every life should be preserved. We should fight for life, absolutely 100%. But that also hasn't been fully addressed, which is what we're doing here. We're trying to out it's. We've created all these tools and systems that that are efficient and effective at keeping people alive, um, for a very long time. Um, so the idea that we've blocked uh, we've kind of blocked the energetic flow, and because our population is so huge, right um, so this is where it gets funny.
Speaker 2:Um that uh and I, I, I, when I have these ideas, when I think about these types of things, I'm genuinely entertained myself. So the idea is that we've blocked the flow, and the way that I conceptualize it is in terms of so this, take it back to the, to the transgender, transgender person that that never felt like this, I never felt like I was, I belonged in this body. Is what this person said? There's that, there's the blockage. Then do you guys remember the tv show I love lucy? Do you remember the episode where where uh lucy and uh, the neighbor lady are working in the chocolate factory?
Speaker 2:is it when they're like running around and the conveyor belt is just pulling chocolates down and they're supposed to wrap them and put them back on the conveyor belt to go forward and be packaged. They're keeping up initially and then it's going a little bit faster and they miss one and they reach out and grab it and they bring it back, and then there's just this pile of chocolates and they're stuffing them in their pockets. They're stuffing them in their pockets, they're stuffing them in their mouth, they're, like you know, panicking and freaking out and and so that that's kind of the picture of the idea that this person inspired in me, that I never they said I never belonged in this body. So is is that like? Is the reincarnation process? Like is is that happening in in this process? Like we're bringing so many people in, like because the more people that are on the planet, the more we're procreating, and and so is it this conveyor belt. That's like getting backed up and these souls are coming in and not supposed to be. It's getting stuck in the grid.
Speaker 3:The souls are just finding a place because there's so many Right right. I'm such a visual person that I'm like literally visualizing people flying out of the sky and just ending up random places.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean. So the one of the one of the like, so depending on what your theological beliefs are, so that kind of, I think I think. As I've processed this idea, I think that it conflicts with my idea that God is intimately involved in every aspect of life. So I just want to be very clear that this is just a thought experiment that I think is interesting, and this is the the truth of of everything that we're talking about. None of us, no matter what answer you think that you have about the afterlife, none of us knows Like. I don't like this idea that I had. It's it's a novelty, it's just a novelty of my thing.
Speaker 1:I ask I ask a lot now that I've kind of awakened or you know, um, I'm observing myself differently is that I always ask is it possible? Yeah, I mean, yeah, I guess it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is, it could be, that could be, that could be, it is possible and maybe, maybe, to fit it in with my theological concept uh would be that, uh, that is part of the process, that, that it was intended to be that way to help us recognize the uh and well, I don't want to say that. I don't want to say that because then it diminishes the human experience that person is having.
Speaker 1:Well, I think we have free so there's free will and, you know, despite even god being being a part of everything and a piece of everything and guiding he, still, we still have our own free will to choose. And so, even as a spirit or in the spiritual realm, you know, to choosing coming in or to be of surrender wherever, whatever, maybe that was the sole contract with that one. Whatever, wherever, wherever I land, I, that was the sole contract with that one. Whatever, wherever, wherever I land, I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker 1:You know, it's similar, just like you know, why is a child, why does a child land in a home of addicted parents and why does that child have to be neglected and abused? You know, it didn't, they didn't particularly choose that, but it was like prior to them coming where they like, I surrender. I let God place me where I may so that I can have these experiences, so that then I can learn love or compassion or be shown that I am love, and so then I can turn around and and show other people that through my experience. I mean, that's what we're all doing, we're, we're talking through our experience, and so that is just another experience, you know that they're.
Speaker 1:you know, especially the transgender, are having to learn from that not fitting in. You know, it's just a piece of one thing that is I don't fit in, I don't, I don't fit in. And I think a lot of people have felt, you know, you may have even felt that at the hospital I don't fit in here. I don't fit in, and finding where you do fit is an individual journey.
Speaker 3:I almost look at as that feeling of not fitting in. I feel like that, honestly, is what makes us more unique, because we're not like everybody else and I mean, I mean, this is not, this is not anywhere near the same same, you know, situation as the transgender. But I, I have always felt that I don't fit in and, whether it be in school, in in social settings, as an adult, and you know, I've always felt that I, you know, but but it's also because I, I'm just so curious, I have such a curious mind. I'm wondering about everything. I I'm asking all these questions that I've never asked before, like not everybody asks, you know, it's just like I think that's what makes us so, so unique, I think. And also, caleb, I don't has anybody ever told you, you I feel like you are. You've lived a thousand lives. Like I feel like you've lived a thousand lives, Like I feel like I feel like you are so you're such an old soul.
Speaker 3:I hate that because I didn't.
Speaker 1:I haven't learned how to get out, but yeah, maybe this is the one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but yeah, you probably have On your years, like just the way that you speak. Yeah, oh man.
Speaker 1:He's a very deep thinker and he's, he does have, he does have a workshop up there in that brain. That is on, constantly on. The light is always on. Yeah, he has a hard time shutting it down that's the truth.
Speaker 2:I mean what you what you were just saying about being unique I I absolutely agree will like. If you haven't listened to the previous episodes then you don't have a whole lot of context for what I've been talking about for a long time and providing different, nuanced perspectives of. But I feel like this is a nuanced perspective, this idea of not feeling like you fit in and how that plays into the enlightenment. Enlightenment thinking was essentially it is materialism. So I'll give you just a short rundown. I've been, I've been, I've been kind of analyzing and studying the Enlightenment period for a couple of years now, because it is the basis for everything that we know in healthcare, meaning all of our processes, of all of our evidence-based practice, is rooted in reductionist materialism, meaning in the late 1600s we kind of set aside theological answers to existential questions. We picked up through the Enlightenment and the age of reason, we picked up the process of taking material problems, material things, and reducing them down to empirical form. And that process, what happens when we start answering the existential questions that humanity faces, like why am I here, what is the purpose of my life, why are people suffering, why do I have to suffer All of these things. When we answered those, when we started answering those questions, we, through the exploration of materialism, again taking, you know, we'll just say, an apple the one we're looking at today is a red apple. We cut it open. It has a core, it's got seeds, it's got the skin around it, it's got the meat inside, it's got the vascular system that feeds all of the nutrients, and that's an apple, right? Well, yes, but we haven't. We haven't because there's, you know, this reduces down to this molecular form and this reduces down to this molecular form. So an apple becomes siloed. What makes an apple become? It's basically slicing it into partitions of what makes the whole, to partitions of what makes the whole.
Speaker 2:There are, in that process, there are efficiencies that have to happen to obtain that knowledge, and over the last, you know, since the late 1600s, we have built our entire Western civilization around this material reductionism and we don't believe that things are true unless there is evidence to support it. But that evidence is necessarily siloed, and so we never actually have a comprehensive picture of what the thing truly is. We have silos of information that are true, the thing truly is. We have silos of information that are true, and but we, you know I think this is part of what why COVID was so polarizing and damaging is, you know, we we were put into camps of science is true Science? Science is a method for exploring what is true. It is not true itself. There are so many biases that inform how we come to a conclusion, and those biases can manipulate the data and can manipulate the outcome of the data. So to say science is true is not an act, it's just not accurate. So that so this picture of what I'm painting here, to connect it back to you and what you said, is that all of our systems in society are rooted in this process of reductionism, siloing information like, for instance, math, mathematics.
Speaker 2:Why couldn't it? Because I'm a spatial reasoning person. I design furniture. The reason I can design furniture is because I can imagine in my mind what the dimensionality of this thing is going. I can see it all. I can move around it, I can pick it up, I can turn it upside down in my mind, what the dimensionality of this thing is going. I can see it all I can. I can. I can move around it, I can pick it up, I can turn it upside down in my mind, and and and I can. That gives me the ability to measure and understand the mathematics that are required to create the thing.
Speaker 2:If math would have been taught to me in a practical way, where it wasn't siloed into principles of mathematics, I would have been able to understand mathematics. I didn't understand mathematics as a child. It didn't make any sense to me. It's just all these processes and procedures. If it was actually connected to the material world, where I had this dimensionality that was associated with the mathematics, it would have made sense to me. I would have had a different life. But we've siloed information into all these different categories and what it has produced is people that that are siloed. So we don't feel like we fit in because we have no comprehensive experience.
Speaker 1:Or even just a humanity experience. You know we have, you know, siloed and you're just in your little own little family or world and it, you know the connectioned and you're just in your little own little family or world and you know the connection and the community and you know, I mean people used to just meet on the square and they would like chat and they used to like, you know, they used to like take walks and they would be out in the community and things were community and the community market and the and, and so you know, after hearing what Caleb just said, it just brought to why do we feel so like who am I Like what?
Speaker 3:I don't fit in.
Speaker 1:I don't fit, you know, because that's kind of what it's been reduced to, but I do feel that now in this, now you know, there have been dramatic increase of people wanting to know the same thing.
Speaker 1:And so it feels more. It feels less siloed and more like we can create a community, create an energy within all of us talking about this to make it a shift, you know, so that people do feel like they fit in or they they have more, they have more options to be like. Okay, I'm not like this, but I'm definitely like this instead of I'm not like that and I have nothing.
Speaker 3:I'm nothing, so I'm just going to drink, yeah Well if you think about it, like the first 18 years of our lives were like essentially institutionalized. I mean, we're put in these buildings and we're around the same people every day. We are, we have the same schedule, we're taught the same things and then, once those 18 years are done, you know we go into another institution and then we're taught these these same things, we're around these same school people every day, and then, once that's over depending on how long, your entire obviously the reference here is school, the entire once that is over, you're put out into the world and you're like what the hell do I do? Like who, who am I? I've, I've been told these things all these years and I've been, I've been told to do these things, and and and you know the, the, the number one thing here that comes to mind is like, you know, when you're about to graduate high school, everyone's like all right, you need to pick out what you want to do for your, for your life.
Speaker 3:You need to know what you want to do in college. Like everyone here, you know you need to take the ACT. You got to do this. It's like no, I don't Like I, and, and that's. That's a lot of where all this questioning is from. I mean, it's like what I mean if you think about it. It's like, why did you scare me into that? So?
Speaker 2:much.
Speaker 3:Like why did you put so much pressure on me to figure out what the hell I wanted to do with my life, whenever? You know, in reality I have all this time to get out and meet people and have these experiences, just like we're having right now, like this is what matters, like no wonder people are feeling that you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I think you said it earlier it's fear Our parents were fearful and they couldn't, don't, like, don't question how things work, because that's too uncomfortable. So let's just you know, I went to college, I have my doctor, my doctorate, and your mother went to college, she has two master's degrees, and so therefore, you probably are going to go to college, aren't you? And you know, get your degree, because what are you without it? Really, you know what I mean. Like that's the thought, and they, our parents, or that generation, or the generation before us, they didn't know any different and it was too scary to think of it any other way. We're the brave ones. Think of it any other way.
Speaker 2:We're the brave ones, we're the ones that are here now with the brave face, to say that doesn't have to be that way.
Speaker 3:Actually nothing, nothing, yeah, well and the unfortunate thing is as soon as when you deviate away from that, you're looked at as this crazy woo, woo off the rails person that you know what are you doing, you're supposed to be doing this and you're not. And so then, and then you, you know, for a moment, you're thinking even more like man. I really don't fit in if I'm. You know, I've deviated so far away from what is supposed to be the norm that I'm just yeah, yeah. Trauma creates a lot of trauma.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that's again the paradox.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's again the paradox, because the, the, the trauma is what like? That's what they say. The cracks are where the light gets in. Yeah, something like that. There's just, you know the saying like that's like I. There's no way that I become who I am today without just getting to the absolute worst rock bottom of myself. There's just no way. I'm who I am today and I like I I'm. I'm super happy with who I am today.
Speaker 1:Oh, I was going to say's kind of in the learning of that, like once, you can kind of be like, oh, oh, that's how it works, okay, so I'm cracking open, so I'm going to feel that and I'm going to feel that uncomfortableness, but then I'm just going to get comfortable with that. That's how the process is. Get comfortable with that. That's how the process is like for me. That has been the most recent work that I've done, which is becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable and processing through, not even to get somewhere, just processing like, yeah, processing it all you know, yeah, it's not about getting anywhere or getting a destination, it's, I mean, it's getting back to who like.
Speaker 2:So, again, in Hebrew, most of my, most of my studies are are uh, my biblical studies are in in Hebrew, and Judaism and um, the idea of repentance, in Hebrew it's Teshuva, and the idea of Teshuva, the idea of repentance, is to return to who you are remembering who you are rediscovering who it is that you are um reconnecting to the like again, the, the divine that exists within that is untouchable. They're like the, the idea that the soul has this pure essence that no darkness can touch, and returning to and connecting to that light.
Speaker 3:I don't know if you've ever heard of the workings and teachings of Dolores Cannon. Are you familiar with her? She was a very well-known like hypnotherapist. She wrote a lot of books.
Speaker 3:She's since passed, but one of her things that she talks about is how earth is no more than a school and you know, our, our souls come here and you know, depending on what you believe. Obviously everything's a theory, but you come here to essentially relearn everything that you already know to be true. But like you know once they say, like you know once you, once you pass away, you, you know, if you believe in the reincarnation route, you, you enter a new body. You already know everything that you've been through on earth as a different being, and then you're coming back to earth to essentially relearn everything. Um, but, but, yeah, her, one of her things that she really preaches about, how is you know, earth is a school and we come here to learn and you know that's kind of we take, you know, what we haven't learned to the next life and we're relearning these lessons. Whatever we didn't learn in that life, we take to the next life and, um, her, her teachings are very interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that is. I mean, it's a, it's a concept that I really resonate with as well, that I never did, that I never. Um, we're not taught to connect with our bodies and with our souls. So you know you don't, you're born and you know, kids know, babies know and toddlers know they they're happy with and they're soulful and they know. But it the programming starts from births, of of pulling you away from that knowing and it's not.
Speaker 1:I don't even think it's purposeful. It just is how, how things, how things have been, and so I think, in the process of learning and reconnecting with who you really are, that that is our purpose. And so you find the things that resonate with you, that you feel in your bones are like this is what it is, you know, and whether it whatever spirituality, whatever religion, whatever, whatever you feel in your bones is like this is the truth for me, you know, but it is, it is. I definitely believe it's a, it's a learning and if we look at it like that, it's. It's not a learning how to do, how to become, where to go, how I'm going to do this, how to make money, how to. It's more of a learning about who am I, who am I and what is my purpose and meaning. We talk about meaning all the time on this podcast. What is the meaning here? What?
Speaker 3:is it?
Speaker 1:And so, however you come to that and whatever makes sense to you as far as the information that you're using to answer the answer that those questions.
Speaker 2:The reductionist materialism reduces like, diminishes meaning. Yes, it takes away the meaning.
Speaker 3:We're so conditioned not to deep, you know, dive deeper into those feelings. You know, like I mean, take a look at you know, we, these doctors, prescribe and prescribe. But it's like did you, did you try meditation first? Like, did you try? Did you try changing your diet? Like, what does your environment look like? It's always which medication is going to help you, I mean I feel like meditation is not regularly, you know, advised, I guess, by these physicians. I mean no, by no, by no one, fortunately, you know yeah.
Speaker 2:So that's kind of the. That's kind of the that touches on one of the solutions. Like the time that we're in, where we we set down spiritual answers to the existential questions, picked up materialism, and now we're at the end of materialism where we have both of these means for answering Neither. Neither one of them has sufficiently answered the existential question, Like we were still looking for it through materialism, but now we've gotten to such a degree of efficiency in materialism that we're validating the spirituality. Yeah, so we've actually gotten to the end of this road where we are circling back to the truth of the thing that we let go of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so meaning you can feel the shift.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, meaning that we we have like mri capabilities that can show when you meditate, it does this biochemically in your brain and that works.
Speaker 1:So it validates the spiritual practices, yeah, and shows through material understanding that it's true look at all these people healing themselves, yeah, you know, from changing their diet, changing their practices, you know letting go of yeah, yeah yeah, I mean it's, it's, I wish it was more right now I look at patients now and like I had this lady yesterday, she she was young, like in her fifties, but because of her lifestyle and maybe some untreated diabetes and bad hereditary genetics, she had like an open heart in her early fifties and was is on 20 different medications. I mean she's got oxygen heart failure. I mean bad, like in stage renal disease. I mean you know, and I just have a whole different outlook on them and I my first thing is always when I look and I'm just like you must have had the hardest life, like you are so much in your body with so much trauma. And you know, it's like my compassion. I've always been compassionate for people.
Speaker 1:I mean we're nurses, that's what we do but maybe I'm recognizing it more, that like it's a deep connection, knowing that like it's not just because you did some meth in your 20s and you fucked up your arteries. You know it's like God, like you have been through so much and literally are still dealing with it. I can see it in your face, your weight, your body, like you know you, just you can look at people now and just know like people think they're choosing this, but it's like what they're really. They're not choosing freedom because they don't know. They don't know.
Speaker 3:I feel like that's what I was trying trying to. You said it better than I was trying to explain. It is like, since working in hospice, around all this death and die, and my compassion is just just rewired, like I'm looking at these people and I'm almost like getting little mental images of how their life was. I feel. I honestly feel like like we are so intuitive, like we like us as humans, like we are literally spiritual beings in a human form, like you know we we these, we, we these mental images that you know or whatever that happens, like these little thoughts that come to mind.
Speaker 3:you're like why am I thinking this? A lot of the times? It's like it it tracks with, with whatever's going on or whoever you're interacting with, but I find myself like looking at these people's lives and being like and hearing their stories is just so, oh, it is one of the best things.
Speaker 1:And it's like who?
Speaker 3:gets to almost relive this person's life. You know, but in an entirely different form, entirely different mindset, but it's yeah, I like that about hospitals too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but we did want to mention Madison. I want you to mention your podcast and tell us a little bit about it.
Speaker 3:Oh, yes, yes. So, um, spiritually human is the podcast that I uh released in October of 2024. Um, it basically is surrounded upon the human experience, so it's inspired by the human experience. Um, the episodes are kind of centered around, uh, so each episode has a guest and that guest talks about a human experience or you know, something involved within their human experience that is kind of has affected them in some way, and it really gives the guests a chance to tell their story.
Speaker 3:But also listeners, I want them to be able to have a place to come and, you know, feel connected and feel, um, relatable, uh, have that resonate, cause there are so many things that we experience in life where, like, how, like I can't be the only one dealing with this Like this is, this is insane. I, I like, I, I wish I had an outlet to go to to you know, resonate with someone, like, hopefully, someone is experiencing the same thing you know to. To you know, resonate with someone, like, hopefully, someone is experiencing the same thing you know, um, or you know similar, and so I, I, I, really I wanted that to be the kind of the backbone of it. I, I really want to give people that opportunity to be able to be vulnerable, tell their stories and, um, yeah, I I'm having the time of my life with it. It's more, it's more of a of a hobby. I I'm, yeah, I'm excited to see where it's going to go, but I'm still a baby, if you will, in the podcast world.
Speaker 2:So as are we as are we.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, so where? Where's the main plate? Do you do youtube, or is it? Is it just audio? No, just audio, just audio oh no, I have listened to it. Oh, I've seen your little clips. I've seen.
Speaker 3:Yes, I post on instagram to kind of help promote the episodes or whatnot. But yeah, it's all audio. Um, I've had to teach myself how to use this software, which has been such, a such an experience in itself. So I, I do, I record it within my home, my upstairs bedroom my studio yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I have a studio too. Yeah, all right, well, good, well, we will link that. We will link that in our show notes so that people can find you, because you're so, your soul is so beautiful and just your energy around you and you're meant. I've always known that. Even when you were baby scared and I was like you should go work in the ICU You're so smart you were like no, julie, please, please, don't make me go.
Speaker 3:Please God.
Speaker 1:No know, and I'm so, we're so blessed to have you on and to talk about hospice, which then led us into a whole, nother beautiful conversation, which it always does, and, um, we just thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts yeah, thank you for having me, thank you for doing this, this podcast.
Speaker 3:I think this is so necessary. If, if you've, if it has ever come across your mind like you know, if am I like, is this is this worth it? Am I supposed to be doing this? This, absolutely, yes, 100%. This podcast is is really, I really feel like it's going to change the world of nursing and possibly healthcare, and I mean just, I mean this in itself. You know, working in healthcare is its own human experience. So you are, you are are doing huge things for people, so, yeah, Thank you.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that yeah.
Speaker 2:I knew within five minutes you were awesome, like when we were doing the test, like what she just said about you, like immediately I saw it, You're awesome. I would love to come on your podcast.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, I would love to have you and, to be honest, you know, I actually I would love to talk for a whole nother hour and 50 minutes. This whole experience, this conversation this morning, has really like I just feel like filled my cup. It's one of those things that has made me feel fuller. So yeah.
Speaker 2:Amazing.
Speaker 1:It has been amazing. All right, Madison, we're going to, we're going to let you go.
Speaker 3:Alrighty, thanks again Thank you Bye-bye.
Speaker 2:We hope you've enjoyed this week's episode.
Speaker 1:Remember, the conversation doesn't end here.
Speaker 2:Keep the dialogue going by connecting with us on social media posted in the links below or by visiting our website.
Speaker 1:Together, let's continue to redefine nursing and shape a brighter future for those we care for. Until next time, take care, stay curious and keep nurturing those connections.
Speaker 2:Don't forget to be kind to yourself.