Terri Moss, Co-author and Publisher
Healing with Heart: Inspirations for Health Care Professionals
WINNER: American Journal of Nursing 2008 Book of the Year Award in the Leadership and Management category

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As we pass the shortest day, the winter solstice, and the gradual return to light, winter invites us to slow down, pause and reflect on the year coming to a close and consider the future that awaits us. Many of us will be heaving a big sigh of relief. “Thank God that year’s over!” It’s been a challenging one financially for many of us. If we have been fortunate enough to keep or improve our jobs, we’ve most certainly watched friends or family members experience the stress and hardship of losing jobs, settling for part-time or under-employment and struggling to adjust to a new financial reality.

Right sizing our selves financially seems to have been the theme of 2009. Re-calibrating our financial lifestyle to fit our means: being happy or at least satisfied with what we have rather than constantly striving for more, more, more. And while this period of contraction has been painful for many and eye-opening for the rest of us –

I love this time of year. The short days beckon me to slow down, light a candle, bring out my journal, go within, reflect, and write. I take a personal inventory.

• What worked well for me this year?
• What didn’t?
• Where did I fall short and why?
• What do I want to change, accomplish, and strive to improve this coming year?

  I fast forward to the end of 2010: What do I want to look back on as my greatest accomplishments?

• Maybe I will hope that I took better care of myself physically, emotionally and spiritually.
• Maybe I will want to be thankful for the new and renewed friendships and improved family relationships that I actively cultivated.
• Perhaps I’ll be pleased that I’ve paid down my debt, lived within my means, or started or added to my savings account.

I don’t know about you, but when I set down my year’s goals and aspirations for this fresh year that lies ahead, I invariably write down virtually the same things each year:

“Lose 10 (or more) pounds. Exercise 20 times a week. Never be angry again. Be more patient. Eat more fruit and absolutely no chocolate!”

Then here I sit at the end of the year, unable to check off any of these items as “done.” This is mostly because I’ve either set entirely unrealistic goals or ones that are really lifestyle and lifetime choices.So this year, the first goal on my list will be to set realistic, lifelong way-of-life objectives. They may include taking better care of myself physically, emotionally and spiritually. Having this as an overarching objective to inform my daily choices is bound to yield better results rather than set ups for failure.As a profession, nurses are especially hard on themselves. As a rule, you are far better at taking care of others than caring for yourself.

With sincere wishes and hopes that you give yourself the gift of reflection during these dark, cozy nights….and commit to a new year of self-care and striving for an inner peace.

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Joining your colleagues from around the world in the Million Nurse Project is a great way to start the year with reflecting and healing the world!

Heads Up… We will be changing our name!  NurseFit will be updated to: Self-Care Academy as we have found our application encompasses so many beyond the nursing profession.  Stay tuned for updates!