Emotional Intelligence, Healing Power of Humor, & Guided Imagery

Hi there and sending my best to you and yours. I have been hard at work finishing up my "Continuing Education Units" for renewal of my Registered Nursing license. This year I took some really eye opening and even fun classes to keep my clinical skills and knowledge up to date.
The courses included clinical updates on pediatric and maternal/child health issues, Emotional Intelligence (EI), The Healing Power of Humor, and Guided Imagery. I really enjoyed these last three courses and utilize them in my daily practice even more than clinical stuff.

Emotional intelligence refers to self awareness, empathy, and motivation. This differs from IQ (Intelligence Quotient) which I learned only accounts for about 4 - 25% success in job performance. The ability to empathize and have self aware social skills not only helps your clients, patients, students, etc. but also the practitioner, nurse, teacher, lawyer, and Indian chief by improving job satisfaction and reducing "burn out". Really cool stuff and glad to see EI in addition to IQ acknowledged and researched.

The "Healing Power of Humor" was another excellent class and one I definitely practice. Humor stimulates the immune system (NK cells and Immune globulin A for my clinician friends) and promotes restful sleep. (10 minutes of mirthful laughter results in 2 hours of pain free sleep according to Norman Cousins' research). Clinicians also use "Gallows" or Black Humor to help cope with stressful or overwhelming situations. Other professions have this too - law enforcement, teachers, pilots, etc. I remember taking a flight and hitting a Huge Air Pocket (Gee how I hate those!!) and the pilot came on to apologize for "Unexpected Turbulence and people pay money for that experience at Disneyland". It certainly lightened a stressful situation.

The Guided Imagery class described using visualization as a coping and healing tool. The examples included standing on the banks of a frozen river which contained your negative feelings and throwing rocks of all sizes onto the ice until the ice breaks up and the river runs free. Whew, powerful stuff. I use guided imagery during painful or stressful procedures for both myself and my patients. I will put myself or ask the child (or grown up) to place themselves in a serene and joyful place like at the beach or next to a mountain stream and experience with all their senses, feeling the wind and sun against their skin, listening to the birds and water, feeling the soft sand. I send you peace and a ticket to a calm, happy place this weekend. Thank you so much for stopping by, I appreciate it.