May 11, 2011 a message from the heart

It has been a long while since I actually worked in a hospital. My last position was in home health, which turned out to be one of the most stressful (and rewarding) nursing work I had ever done in my many years as a nurse. But, I remember, acutely and clearly, all my days quickly walking down hospital halls and trying to get it all done. I used to call that pace my “nurse’s walk.” Today’s nurse is walking faster than I ever did, and with much fewer fellow nurses on the team. The stress has become an accepted part of the job, something that you just handle and “man-up” in dealing with it.

At present I am not working as a nurse for an employer, but I am always working as a nurse in my life. Learning to be a nurse and working as a nurse has taught me skills that intersect with all aspects of my life. Even organizing my kitchen or combing the fleas from my cat, and of course, making my bed (I remember well the instruction of how to get the sheets tight without any wrinkles) come from my nursing days. I blend the compassion and sensitivity from my nursing into my art-making and craniosacral work, and it infiltrates into almost every aspect of my bed and breakfast hosting.

This retreat, which I call “Re-Membering the Healer’s Spirit”, was born in my mind in all the many years I worked as nurse. I see it as a rest stop for a nurse, one that is more that just resting and doing nothing (although it could be.)  It is a hopeful container for a new true respite, where you can discover and connect with your essence. The sorrowful thing is that many nurses don’t often recognize rest stops, and don’t feel they even deserve one. So not as many nurses have come to this beautiful place where I live, which is a huge part of the potential for transformation in the retreat, as I had hoped for the past few years.

I have been told I could “market” this retreat differently, but I can’t quite connect with that frame of mind. I see it as a simple gift you give to yourself.

After forty-two years, and counting (45 years if you count nursing school), I still see myself always as a nurse, a person who cares and wants to be of service. This retreat is an offering I hold in my hand and heart, extended warmly to those in need, working in the trenches of the modern and challenging nursing world.

Elsah Cort, RN, CMT has been practicing craniosacral work since 1997, blending the work with a feng shui consultation practice since 1998. She has completed the curriculum in Visionary Craniosacral Work with The Milne Institute and studied with Charles Ridley (Biodynamic Craniosacral Work) and with The Upledger Institute.

She graduated from the Grady Memorial Hospital School of Nursing, in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1969. She has worked in many fields of nursing, including psychiatric nursing, operating room, pediatrics, ICU, hemodialysis, and recently seven years in home health.

She is now dedicating her professional work to the care of nurses and others, who have job burnout, through her teaching and writing. She offers individual life coaching sessions and the burnout retreats. She also is a collage artist and poet, who organizes the Three Rivers Artists’ Biennial Studio Tour. She has maintained Cort Cottage Bed and Breakfast since 1986.

Life-Coaching sessions:
$65 per hour
Individual burnout life-coaching sessions are available by phone or in person in Three Rivers.

Craniosacral Work sessions:
$65 per ninety minutes
Individual craniosacral sessions are best scheduled when registering for the workshop, 
but may also be made at the time of the workshop, if appointment times are available.
Elsah practices biodynamic craniosacral work, which allows for the person’s cranial wave and dreambody to direct the session. It is very still, subtle and deep. Hugh Milne writes, in his essay on the ancient origins of craniosacral work, “The Lakota Sioux shaman Black Elk said, ‘When I am called to go to the sick man I have a different (i.e., special) feeling, it is like being back on the mountain. There is some fluid in me which I have drawn from the air and I do not mind walking a great distance. When I work on the patient it does not tire me out at all and it makes me very happy. But I do not always know how things are going to be.‘ “

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October 10, 2010 Burnout Emergence

On February 19, 2009, I acted on the notion of trying twitter as a way to briefly record my inner experience as a burned out nurse. I started writing, or rather recording, daily burnout blips.  The 140 character limit seemed to be a small and manageable platform to start a daily practice.

Each morning, I have told my internal (ego) editor to step aside, and have written down exactly what has shown up. Only minor editng was done to fit the message into the 140 character format. The blips were posted without attachment. The only requirement was listening, which happened both before and after the blip was posted.

In the recent weeks I have felt a weariness in continuing the practice, although not a reluctance to continue to “hear” the messages coming forward. Today it became clear that the words “burnout blip” were no longer needed.

I’m not quite sure of the meaning of this and don’t want to examine it too closely.  Sometimess the best course is just to follow your hunches with no explanation needed.

This morning’s twitter conversation about all this:

thedeeperwell: After 18 months of daily burnout blips, it seems that the burnout has burned out and just the ideas and new thoughts are left.
dhavalmehta: thedeeperwell makes sense! beautiful, all the clutter is gone, only the gold remains.
thedeeperwell: for @ClaireBoyles Came to me to stop using the words “burnout blip” in the am daily blips given to me to write, started the blips 2-19-09.
thedeeperwell: for @dhavalmehta yes, it finally feels time to emerge from the burnout, still have experiential memory of it, but it now feels quite free.
dhavalmehta: @thedeeperwellthe memory is needed to ensure you don’t gather more clutter along the way & the clarity will only continue to shine through!