TXT us your feedback!! <3 your fayce!

This episode was recorded in the middle of stress, exhaustion, and December chaos while I was preparing for my doctoral defense. It turned into a real conversation about nurse burnout, nervous system overload, and what it looks like when the nurse finally needs care too.

The moment the brain turns to static is the moment the body asks to be heard. I found myself there, slides blurring, coffee failing, and a doctoral defense looming...realizing I’d never send a patient into a high-stakes moment the way I was sending myself. So I pulled the brake and walked through a rapid, sub‑60‑second reset I call RISE: breathe once, orient to the room, drop into the body, and yield to the moment. That tiny sequence flipped my physiology from fight-or-flight into just-enough safety to choose the next right action.

From there, we get practical and personal. We talk about why December is a special kind of exhausting for nurses and healthcare workers, how chronic stress narrows reasoning and scrambles memory, and why you can’t think your way out of nervous system overload. I share how analog rituals: leather crafting, traveler’s notebooks, and pen-on-paper; gave me a tactile, rhythmic way to calm my system. I also reimagined The List (Yes, Next, Pass, Goodbye) into journal-friendly inserts that close mental tabs and reduce that 2 a.m. anxiety spiral. If you’re neurodivergent or just maxed out, you’ll get a tool that’s fast, portable, and rewarding enough to finish before stress hijacks your focus.

We lean into soothing tea rituals, talk about choosing decaf when your nerves are cooked, and pull crystal and tarot cards that land squarely on intuition, voice, and leading your own recovery. This isn’t performative self-care; it’s nervous system medicine you can feel in under a minute. If your holiday spirit is MIA, or if you’re working while everyone else celebrates, consider this your permission slip to pause, ask for help, and protect your peace. Take a breath, pick one regulating action, and start again with kindness.

If this resonates, subscribe, share with a nurse who needs it, and leave a review to help more caregivers find a way back to themselves.

Love your faces. I’ll see you in the next episode.

Support the show

Hey! Make sure you subscribe to stay connected. Love a nurse? Who doesn't! Share with all the nurses you know. The more we reach, the more we help. We feel like no one deserves center stage focus more than nurses and our mission is to reach the millions of superstars out there. We'd love to hear your stories, your adventures, your wins, and especially your needs and questions! Email us at hello@ritualnurse (dot) com. Also, you can send us fan mail! Use the link at the beginning of the show notes. The Ritual Nurse Podcast is part of The Code Team educational platform.

Follow for resources, classes, blogs, and podcast info:

• Instagram & TikTok: @ritualnurse
• Shop: https://bit.ly/RitualNurse
• Website: tcth.org

Love your FAYCES!

TXT us your feedback!! <3 your fayce!

This Thanksgiving episode is simple. It's my love letter to my nurses. MY 'patient population'. MY why.

Not the kind people write on holiday cards. The kind nurses never get but always deserve.

In this conversation, we step away from the noise and endless dumpster fires. We talk about what nurses actually carry. The invisible work. The emotional labor. The moments that never make the chart but stay with you long after the shift ends.

We breathe together.
We pause for moments that belong only to you.
We name something to be proud of, no matter what it is, we're here for it.

We talk about rest in ways that do not require money, PTO, or a miracle. We talk about how micro rests can calm a nervous system that has been working too hard for too long. We talk honestly about why none of this is weakness. It is survival.

In Coffee, Crystals, and Divination we explore peppermint bark tea, Aqua Aura Quartz, Ocean Jasper, the Death card, and the Wheel of Fortune. Each one points to release, renewal, and the possibility of something gentler.

This episode is my love letter to nurses. All nurses. The ones at the bedside. The ones in clinics. The ones in leadership. The ones who left to save themselves. The ones still trying to find their way back to themselves.

If no one tells you thank you this week, I will.
I see you.
I honor you.
I am grateful for you.

Support the show

Hey! Make sure you subscribe to stay connected. Love a nurse? Who doesn't! Share with all the nurses you know. The more we reach, the more we help. We feel like no one deserves center stage focus more than nurses and our mission is to reach the millions of superstars out there. We'd love to hear your stories, your adventures, your wins, and especially your needs and questions! Email us at hello@ritualnurse (dot) com. Also, you can send us fan mail! Use the link at the beginning of the show notes. The Ritual Nurse Podcast is part of The Code Team educational platform.

Follow for resources, classes, blogs, and podcast info:

• Instagram & TikTok: @ritualnurse
• Shop: https://bit.ly/RitualNurse
• Website: tcth.org

Love your FAYCES!

TXT us your feedback!! <3 your fayce!

In this hauntingly beautiful finale to the Ritual Nurse spooky season specials, Riva explores the sacred and often unseen role nurses play as modern-day psychopomps, guides who walk with souls through the threshold between life and death.

Drawing inspiration from Anubis, the jackal-headed guardian of the ancient Egyptian afterlife, this episode traces how the healers of the Houses of Life understood illness, dying, and care as sacred acts of transformation. Riva brings these ancient rituals forward into the present, showing how nurses today continue that lineage by holding presence at the bedside, bearing witness to suffering, and protecting the liminal space where science and spirit meet.

Listeners will learn how the concept of liminality connects anthropology, nursing science, and spirituality; how research supports the power of consoling presence and modern rituals such as The Sacred Pause; and how reclaiming this identity as a guardian of the threshold can help nurses rediscover meaning and resilience in their work.

The episode closes with Coffee, Crystals, and Divination, featuring Egyptian spiced coffee, the grounding protection of aragonite, and uplifting divination cards that reminds every nurse to trust their intuition and honor the mystery of their work.

This one is personal, reverent, and deeply reflective. To be a nurse is to walk between worlds.

Listen If You Have Ever

• Sat at a patient’s bedside during their final moments
• Felt the weight and holiness of your work
• Needed to reconnect with the reason you chose this profession
• Wanted to blend spiritual reflection with clinical insight

Mentioned in This Episode

• BMJ Open and BMC Palliative Care research on nursing presence and liminality
• The ancient Houses of Life (Per-Ankh) of Egypt
• The modern ritual of The Sacred Pause
• Anubis, Sekhmet, and symbolism that spans millennia

Coffee, Crystals, and Divination

Coffee: Egyptian Spiced Coffee (qahwa)
Crystal: Black Obsidian for grounding, protection, and truth
Tarot: The High Priestess for intuition, wisdom, and honoring the unknown

The Ritual Nurse Podcast — where science, spirit, and story meet to help nurses heal themselves first.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you stream.
Visit ritualnurse.com
or bit.ly/RitualNurse
for show notes, downloads, and free resources.

Support the show

Hey! Make sure you subscribe to stay connected. Love a nurse? Who doesn't! Share with all the nurses you know. The more we reach, the more we help. We feel like no one deserves center stage focus more than nurses and our mission is to reach the millions of superstars out there. We'd love to hear your stories, your adventures, your wins, and especially your needs and questions! Email us at hello@ritualnurse (dot) com. Also, you can send us fan mail! Use the link at the beginning of the show notes. The Ritual Nurse Podcast is part of The Code Team educational platform.

Follow for resources, classes, blogs, and podcast info:

• Instagram & TikTok: @ritualnurse
• Shop: https://bit.ly/RitualNurse
• Website: tcth.org

Love your FAYCES!