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Happy Nurses Week.

If you got pizza, a pen, and a “you’re a hero” sign, congratulations. The system remains unchanged.

If you got nothing, also congratulations. At least no one pretended.

Either way, this episode is not about that.

This is the first part of a six-part series about something we don’t name clearly enough: why nurses can be surrounded by “support” and still feel like they’re carrying everything alone.

This is about lukewarm love.

The kind that sounds right, looks right, and does absolutely nothing to reduce what you’re holding.

If you have ever left a shift thinking, “I don’t know how much longer I can do this,” and then showed up again anyway, this is going to make sense in a way that might feel uncomfortable at first, but also relieving.

We break down the difference between support that is said and support that is actually felt. The difference between perceived support and received support. The gap between intention and impact.

We get into what weaponized incompetence actually looks like in real life. Not as a buzzword, but as a pattern where the work of thinking, planning, and managing gets handed back to the person who is already overloaded.

We talk about the mental load of nursing. The constant tracking, anticipating, adjusting, and holding that does not show up on a task list but absolutely shows up in your nervous system.

And we talk about how this does not stay at work.

How the same patterns follow you home. How being the one who manages everything on shift often turns into being the one who manages everything in your life. Not because you chose it, but because you were trained into it.

This series is not based on the popular “love languages” model. That framework is not strongly supported as a fixed psychological theory. But it did give people a way to start thinking about how they give and receive care.

We’re taking that idea and grounding it in reality.

Over the next few episodes, we’re going to walk through four specific forms of support that nurses consistently need in order to function and sustain themselves:

Initiative
Protection
Relief
Witnessing

When those are missing, what you feel is not random. It is patterned. And once you can see the pattern, you can start to change how you respond to it.

REFLECTION

Where in your life are you accepting support that sounds good but does not actually help you?

And what would it look like if it did?

FAN VOICEMAIL

There is a new voicemail feature in the show notes.

Use it!! woooo!

Tell me about a time when you realized what you were getting was not actually support. Or a time when it was, and it chan

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!

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There’s a moment after a shift that almost every nurse knows.

You get into your car. You close the door. And instead of driving home, you just sit there. Quiet. Still. Not really thinking. Not really doing anything.

Just… sitting.

This episode is about that moment.

We’re talking about what happens to your nervous system during a shift endlessly filled with alarms, alerts, interruptions, and constant decision-making, and why your body sometimes hits a point where even one more question feels like too much.

That “don’t touch me” feeling?
Yeah, not rude. It's so so real.

In this episode, we break down the reality of technostress in modern nursing, why your brain stays in high alert long after your shift ends, and why jumping straight into home life can feel impossible some days.

We also get honest about performative wellness. The kind that looks good on a poster but doesn’t actually help when your nervous system has been running at full speed for twelve hours.

And most importantly, we talk about what actually helps.

Small ways to reduce sensory overload during a shift. The importance of transition time after work. And how to reset your nervous system in real life, not in theory. Because nurses don’t need perfect routines. We need things that work in the middle of chaos.

If you’ve ever done the "parking lot timeout" after work trying to come back to yourself before going home… this one is for you. (see also: drove home and don't remember a damn thing; filed next to: sat in the driveway finishing my songs so I could face real life next)

In This Episode, We Talk About:

• The “parking lot reset” and why so many nurses need it
• How constant alarms and alerts keep your nervous system in survival mode
• Why your social battery is gone after a shift (and why that’s normal)
• The problem with performative wellness in healthcare
• How to reduce sensory overload during your shift
• Simple ways to transition out of work so your personal life doesn’t take the hit

Coffee, Crystals & Reflection

Today’s grounding focus: slowing the nervous system down after high stimulation. Epic card pulls and crystal prescription for the next two weeks.

Reflection prompt:
What does my nervous system actually need right now?

If This Episode Hit Home~

Send this to a nurse who has their own parking lot moment after work.

You are not the only one sitting in silence trying to come back to yourself.

Listen + Connect + Watch

Youtube: @thecodeteamhub
Apple: apple.ritualnurse.com
Spotify: spotify.ritualnurse.com
Text the show: (775) 218-3688 (keyword: Ritual)
Shop + resources: https://bit.ly/RitualNurse

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!

Well. I did it.

I put on real pants and turned on the camera.

The Ritual Nurse is officially on video and honestly? It feels vulnerable and powerful at the same time. We talk about what it actually took to set up a studio without losing our minds, why sound quality still matters more than aesthetics, and why I wanted you to see the tools we’ve been talking about for a year.

In video format now you’ll get a real-time look at things like:

• The List notepad and how I actually use it on chaotic weeks
• The Med-Surg nursing brain sheets built for clarity when your brain feels like scrambled eggs
• A peek at upcoming ICU and ER layouts
• Some seasonal sticker designs that are honestly just fun

Nothing curated. Nothing staged. Just me walking you through the stuff nurses actually use when the shift is heavy and the to-do list is wild.

Then we slide into Coffee, Crystals, and Divination, but this time you can see the pull:

Sapphire showed up. Which feels right. Reflection. Order. Truth. The kind of energy you need when your brain is juggling work, school, family, and your own nervous system. Aqua aura quartz came in like, “Hey. You’re allowed to feel better.” Invigoration without chaos. Calm focus instead of survival mode. And the tarot? Five and Seven of Pentacles. Scarcity stories. Asking for help. Tending what’s already growing instead of obsessing over what isn’t.

And also… the reminder that something is already growing. Even if it doesn’t look like what you thought it would

Video is new. Guests are coming. The dance break is staying in audio because... obviously.

If you’re tired of productivity culture pretending to be self-care, you’re in the right place.

If you’re building something bigger than bedside but still love being a nurse, you’re in the right place.

If you’re slightly feral but committed to healing anyway?

You’re absolutely in the right place.

Subscribe to this.
Text 'ritual' to me, (775) 218-3688, and join the crew.
Send this to the nurse who looks fine but hasn’t processed anything in three years. ;)

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!

We set a new tone for season three: no resolutions, no optimize-or-else. We protect the person you already are with care that fits real shifts, real bodies, and real lives, and we add video, tangible tools, and community touchpoints to make it practical.

• rejecting new year reinventions and optimize culture
• defining care that fits inside real constraints
• adding video to center presence and connection
• local pop-ups, physical tools, and Nourished Coven collab
• rebuilding the site for calm access and community
• Rise Theory course and book updates with honest framing
• rituals as nervous system anchors you can keep
• crystal themes of invigorate, flow, stabilize
• tarot arc of perseverance, scarcity healing, and joy
• invitation to share stories by text for genuine connection

Text the word ritual to 775-218-3688 to connect with us. We won’t ever share anything without your permission.

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 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!

TXT us your feedback!! <3 your fayce!

Things got weird. And not just "spooky story time" weird. It was full-on haunted podcast chaos this week as Riva and her daughter hit record, thirty episodes in, and tonight was the first time the tech itself decided to get possessed. Microphones glitching, machines coming alive, random interference everywhere. Is that just October vibes or was something actually in the room with us? You won't believe what we caught in post edit!!!

In this special Halloween-season episode, Riva and her daughter share spine-tingling ghost stories of nursing from around the world, plus a few of their own. From Mexico’s La Planchada and Indonesia’s Crawling Nurse to the restless spirits haunting military hospitals and modern ICUs, this episode travels the haunted halls of global healthcare.

Whether you believe in spirits or think it’s just the night shift getting to you, these stories are part of nursing’s folklore, told and retold across generations of healers who have worked where life and death meet.

And yes, you’ll want to stick around for the “Coffee, Crystals, and Divination” segment, where Riva and her daughter reveal which herbs to brew when you want protection… and which ones to use if you dare to open the door to the other side.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode

• The eerie legends of haunted hospitals across Mexico, Indonesia, Australia, and beyond.
• Firsthand ghost stories from nurses around the world.
• End-of-life visions, premonitions, and what science says about them.
• The infamous “Rule of Three” and unexplained happenings nurses still whisper about.
• Riva and her daughter’s own real-life paranormal experiences, recorded live before the Coffee, Crystals, and Divination segment.
• A potential EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) caught during recording.

Featured Segment: Coffee, Crystals & Divination

• Crystal of the Week: Black Tourmaline – for grounding and protection during spooky shifts.
• Coffee/Tea of the Week: Choose your path, The Protector’s Brew (rosemary, sage, bay leaf) or The Medium’s Brew (mugwort). One shields you from spirits, the other invites them in. Choose wisely.
• Divination Moment: A live card pull as usual

Behind the Mic

This episode marks the first time Riva’s daughter has joined her on the podcast. Together they dive into shared family ghost stories, laughter, and a few moments that will have you checking your call lights twice.

And about that EVP, follow The Ritual Nurse Podcast on TikTok and Instagram (@ritualnurse) to see and hear it for yourself.

Do you have your own ghost story from nursing? Share it with us for a chan

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!