Healing through self-reflection

BACKGROUND: Today, women have an enlightened view towards their life cycles, which is evidence of their healing potential. Women need to share their insights about their healing potential gained through self-reflective processes. Their voices must be heard so that we can benefit from their collective wisdom. The process of healing through self-reflection has begun as a group of nurses share their insights. Documenting the perspectives of these nurses provides the opportunity for other women to learn from and apply this knowledge to their lives. METHOD: Through purposive sampling, eight registered nurses, all women, were selected to participate in in-depth, personal, semi-structured interviews. The purposes in this paper are to describe a three-stage (i.e. awareness, critical analysis, and new perspective) reflective-thinking model and discuss the application of this model to women's expressed inner knowledge and wisdom across personal and professional life cycles. RESULTS: Three themes, signifying their ability to heal themselves, were labelled: Spirituality, Be-ing Versus Do-ing, and Eustress Versus Distress. CONCLUSIONS: Essentially, self-reflection results from both personal and professional stimuli and signifies the need for change so that healing can begin. Recommendations are offered for nurse educators and researchers.