Okay so what exactly is “the inner work” that you’ve probably heard about but never felt was tangible? We define the inner work as a mix of your mental, emotional, and aspirational wellness.
The inner work involves your relationship with yourself, your feelings, and your thoughts. The thing you might not realize? These things can all be changed, aka improved and optimized so that you can live your best life!
But how do you get started?
Build a Deeper Relationship with Yourself
Begin by building a deeper relationship with yourself. Sounds basic, but how well do you really know yourself? How often do you spend time in deep reflection about who you truly are, what’s really important to you, and whether or not your life is turning out how you actually want it to? In the busyness of attempting to balance your shifts, your family and friends, and your home, we bet this isn’t something that always takes priority.
Prioritize Self Care
Prioritize taking care of yourself. Period. End of sentence. Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish and it isn’t a reward, it’s a basic necessity. You need to fill your cup first before you can give to anyone else. If you feel that your well being always needs to come last, even if it’s been normalized by your work or others , remember that’s not normal at all. Take it as a sign that there’s more of the inner work to be done!
Emotional Regulation and Feeling Your Feelings
Allow yourself to fully feel ALL of your feelings. This is a tough one, so bear with us. So often we overwork, allow ourselves to be constantly distracted, or we self sabotage in other ways to prevent ourselves from feeling uncomfortable things. The other thing? As nurses, we often look like we have it all together, and the appearance of success we project can backfire and make us feel like we’re totally ungrateful if we aren’t happy and positive all the time. Start by taking some time to slow down, reflect, and journal about your feelings. Know that you’re whole and it’s totally okay for all types of feelings to co-exist.
Think About Your Thoughts
Now it’s time to think about your thoughts. Pay attention to the language you use to talk about yourself and even your thoughts themselves. Your subconscious is literally always listening to you, and you’re often deeply affected by things you don’t even realize. Examine your past programming around things like identity, worth, and success. Take stock of the things you heard growing up, what was modeled for you, and the origin of those beliefs. See if your way of thinking is supportive to your current and future goals. If not, know that you have the power to shift, re-write, and reprogram your thoughts to make it happen!
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, your inner world creates your outer results! So don’t sleep on the inner work of wellness. That green juice and pilates class will only get you so far if you’re ignoring what’s inside.
We get it, this stuff is deep and it can be uncomfortable. Sometimes, it’s so uncomfy that you’ll avoid it altogether. Please know this, it may be called “the inner work,” but you’re not meant to do it alone!
As you’ve probably noticed, this is our jam! And we would LOVE to support you in doing it. We can help make it so much better too. So what are you waiting for? Book a complimentary session with one of us here ! We promise, it’s going to be like nothing you’ve ever done.
Sara and Stacy are holistic nurses and transformative mindset coaches working with clients around the world! They believe that the inner work creates your outer results and that you can truly be Well and Whole every day.
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