This is a personal journey, but its also a journey that is shared by women and by healthcare professionals across the country and across the globe. The uncertainty of this unprecedented journey we have take separately and together has brought into focus many things that are important, that we have learned to ignore through the busy-ness that has been created in our every day lives. This pandemic world is so devastating in many ways, and in Canada, it’s getting worse. It has also created positive change, new ways of using the technology to help each other to communicate, to heal, to reach out to one another and support each other in new ways. The shared grief and desire to make an impact and to positively effect the outcome is shared by nurses I speak to every day. The more I have these conversations the more I realize that this journey ultimately has created a change in the way we do things, the way we see the world and the things that are accessible to all of us.
For me and many healthcare professionals it created a hard stop. As I shared in a previous post, the hard stop manifested in a health crisis and started a journey of re-assessing my priorities and trying to figure out how to strike a balance between taking care of myself, taking care others, managing an overwhelming workload in order to create a positive impact.
Creating clarity is work! The mantra of “I can do it all” spun out of control, for me, and I see it spinning out of control for many women and healthcare professionals that I work with. The truth is, “I can’t do it all” and learning that new mantra is the work, it includes exploring what I needed to keep, and what I needed to let go of and forming boundaries on what I take on. When we don’t “put our own oxygen on first” we can’t help others or ourselves.
So, this journey started with a gift from a beautiful friend and included coaching, meditation, yoga, personal training, diet changes, a makeover of my personal habits, they way I spend my time and an introduction to my self. The person I was ignoring and hiding so I could keep up the façade of “having it all and doing it all”. The stripping of layers that I had put on myself is at a journey that I am just starting to learn about and that I really want to share with you.
Personal and Group Spiritual Coaching – This has had the largest impact for me and made me realize that everything else had to wait until I truly understood who I am and how I got so muddled. I am not a believer in going back, pulling apart past experiences and relationships to heal from trauma is something that I have avoided for much of my life. This is a profoundly deep and intimate process that I now believe we all need to take.
Putting appropriate boundaries into my life has changed every conversation I have. Taking time to understand my personal goals and to hold space for myself has changed the trajectory of my personal and professional life. Its a journey, and I certainly have a lot of work still to do but through this deep dive, I ask better questions and I’m careful about over committing – to make a deeper more accountable commitment to the things that are truly important to me. The thing that I have realized the most is that when we, as women and nurses say “no, sorry, I don’t time in my schedule to take that on” no one cares, its a reasonable response. Why don’t we know this, why didn’t I know this?
Introducing Jennifer Ackad
Certified transformation coach, yoga therapist and Life seeker, Jennifer transitioned from a career of mechanical engineering to following her calling. She has a pure passion of everything that touches the human being and its potential, by body consciousness and awareness, and by everything that allows each one of us to express our natural colors all the while giving back to others.
Jennifer’s mentoring programs are intimate containers where women rebirth into a life of more power, authenticity & alignment. She accompanies women to create space in their body and in their lives in order to reconnect with the wisdom, truth and answers they hold inside. She deeply believes that when women re-ignite their intrinsic value, feeling safe to rest in their innate sacred power, they experience life in a much more authentic, fierce and creative way, embodying their gifts all the while empowering others.
If this is helpful to you, or you feel like personal spiritual coaching is something that would benefit you, I have included links on the side panel of this page for you to check out. So much more is available through the new ways we are using technology, I invite you to explore the things that have literally changed the direction of my life.