What is love?

A year ago, I had this counselor who gave me a writing challenge.

She asked me this simple question, “What is love to you?”

These are the words that came pouring out of my heart…

Love is noticing the little things. @nursehealingadvocate

Love is…

Noticing the little things

Sideways glances, silly smirks

Playful winks across the room

Saying my name with tenderness and joy

Spending time connecting with me

Walking, talking, laughing, joking

Snuggling on the couch

to watch a movie or our favorite show

read books together

just talk and listen with our whole hearts

dancing together in the kitchen

encouraging each other often

to chase our passions and dreams

texting and calling just to say,

“I miss you” – “I love you” – “I believe in you!” –

“You’ve got this!” – How can I love you today?”,

__________________

Love is knowing me

And not knowing just about me

But knowing who I authentically am

Knowing what makes me tick

My likes, my dislikes

My victory, my disgrace

And still…

Wanting and needing to be with me

Love is letting me know all of you

Your strengths, your weaknesses

Your hopes, your heartaches and despair

Love is letting me in, trusting me

In the most fragile, vulnerable sense

Love is coming together

As a united front

Seeking something beyond ourselves and our love

Love is…

Praying, hoping, and worrying with me

Forgiving me when I do you wrong

Apologizing when you do me wrong

Enduring life with me through it all

Love is a choice that must be made each new day. @nursehealingadvocate

Love is patient, kind, and believes the best

Love not only melds time and space

Love binds and fuses hearts in the deepest sense

Love is hearing me, seeing me, understanding me

feeling me before you touch me

And me also being that person for you

Seeing you, hearing, you, understanding you

Love is caressing my face softly

Just because you love to be near me

You love to touch me sweetly and gently

And our love is more than a feeling

Love is choosing to hold on to “hope against hope”

even when love feels stagnant, hard, or hopeless

Holding on to God until the difficult moments pass

Believing and trusting they will

if only we “be still and know”

Serving each other and others

Love is seeking God with me

as we grow in grace

Love is never giving up on growth

Love is never giving up on yourself, God, or each other

Love is not a return on your investment

But love seeks to invest without thought of return

Love seeks to be of service without recompense

Love seeks to lay down your life for your beloved

Love is unfailingly choosing to be on the same team

Fighting together for those you love

__________________

Love is a choice

That must be made each new day.

Love is letting go of the past

Love is wiping the slate clean

Starting fresh each new day

True love is choosing to forgive

“Love keeps no record of wrongs”

from day to day

Love is never giving up in the belief of the goodness in your beloved

Because of the ultimate goodness of God

The light that never fades

The love that leads to hope

Our ever present refuge

Love is choosing to surrender our pride for the higher good

Taking the first steps to trust again

In this world without peace or rest

The God of grace alone is the way

__________________

With hope and faith,

Ruth Renee

09.07.2020

I would love to know, “What is love to you?”

Please like and follow, or leave a comment below. I can be emailed at nursehealingadvocate@gmail.com.

Book a FREE 30 minute coaching call with me and discover what nurse coaching is all about! Facebook @ The Healing Advocate RN

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We are wired for connection…

We have to get back to a place where we look each other in the eyes, in person as much as possible!

If you’re feeling isolated or lonely, I have this question for you…

How is your connection with humans in the real world? It it greater than, equal, or less than your connection to social media and the digital world?

If you need some help finding balance and connection, I can help.

My hope is for our world to come out of isolation, and find greater peace in connecting with each other as raw, vulnerable humans.

My challenge for you today: connect with 3 people today in person, and really look each other in the eyes. 👀

Where is your favorite place to connect with others in person?

We are wired for in-person connection. @nursehealingadvocate

http://www.RuthRenee.com 🌺

Follow me on IG/FB @nursehealingadvocate – Book a 30 minute Advocacy Call and discover what nurse coaching is all about! 🌿

Join my FB Group- The Healing Advocate RN Community- for Women Empowering Women 🪴

connection #digitalconnection #humanconnection #heainghearts #balance #socialmedia #recoverycoach #lifecoach #wellnesscoaching #holisticliving #wholeheartedliving #cptsdsurvivor #cptsdawareness #cptsdrecovery #traumarecovery #traumahealing #empoweredwomen #dailychallenge #femaleempowerment #nursecoach #nursecoaching #nursecoaches #nursehealingadvocate #nursecoachruthrenee

I Am Blessed!! ✨✨✨

I am blessed. @nursehealingadvocate

Welcome to my raw, authentic, messy and brave nurse coaching world! I’d love to introduce myself to everyone.

My name is Ruth Renee, and my favorite colors are turquoise and deep blue. To me, these colors signifies healing, inner wisdom, and boldly speaking the truth in love.

It took me many years to discover how powerful and needed my voice truly is!!

For too long, I believed lies that I was not enough, that I was not worthy, that I was not lovable, loving, or loved.

CW//brief mention of sexual abuse

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When I was 7 years old, I was sexually abused for a short time. It shattered me in a profound way. But because of my courage and faith in God, I continually persisted forward. I take the next right step in faith, and I can now trust that God will not fail me.

Today, I accept who I am and where I have been. I know that my past does not define me. It may have shaped and molded me for a season, but God transformed me in a way that I will forever be grateful. In God’s image and by His love, I am forever changed. A new creation! A beautiful butterfly who now knows that she has wings and was always meant to fly!!

My purpose as a nurse coach is to help other women heal and move beyond the ashes of destruction, lies, and limiting beliefs trapped in their hearts and minds. It is the pure desire of my heart to be an advocate for real and lasting change. As a nurse coach, I gently guide other women toward healing and grace, toward receiving the perfect love that only God can give. “We love because he first loved us.”

“Carry Me Home” Photographed by @nursehealingadvocate -Painted by Jacob Secrest

If you don’t feel lovable, loving, or loved, please know that I have been where you are now. I appreciate how hard it is and how alone you may feel. I plead with you to not suffer in silence, to not isolate, to not believe the lies playing over and over in your head. Please know that I am here hoping and praying that you never give up on yourself!

Many times, I wanted to give up. Unfortunately, trauma patterns had a strong hold on me for a season because I believed the lies told to me by unsafe people. But, God sent believers into my life to be the hands, feet, and heart of Jesus; to show me sincere loving kindness in a way that I had not been able to receive for many years. Right place, divine timing! I give the glory to God for saving me. But I did play a part. I prayed for angels and God sent many beautiful souls to help me heal and learn to trust again. I believed in faith that God would help me. I took the first step in courageously bold prayer.

If you feel lost, I am here. If you are afraid, I am here. If you feel hopeless, I am here holding on to Hope against Hope until you can trust and believe for yourself that you are beautiful and loved, just as you are. You are perfectly imperfect, and God made you just as you are for a unique purpose. I am here to be your guide, to help you see the light and truth until your vision becomes more clear. I am here to help you get out of your own way so that you can be the bright light you were created to be. I am here without judgment, control, or manipulation. I am here carrying gentleness, grace, empathy, even courage and peace. I would love to share these gifts God has given me. You are worth it. Your greatest identity is as a child of God.

If you are struggling to feel hope, I would love to be a bridge to peace. I would love to be a light on your path to help you see the way forward to hope. You were fearfully and wonderfully made to receive God’s love and grace so that he can carry you home. I believe with all my heart, might, mind, and strength that God is for you. You are created by love, for love. To love and be loved. It is wired in your DNA to be connected to God and to other people. Please know that there are safe people to whom you can reach out! I would be honored to be that person who holds a safe nurturing space for you. A rich soil to help you blossom and grow.

As a nurse coach, I am passionate about helping other women feel wholly confident in their own skin. I am believing for you until you can fully believe in yourself that “all things are possible when we believe.” God is a promise keeper and a “man of His word!”

🎶Man of Your Word – Song by Maverick City Music ✨✨

If you feel stuck, look up! The sky changes every day!! Peaceful Sunset @nursehealingadvocate

So many women come to me for help because they believe the lie that they are not enough. I am right here, right now telling you that this is simply not true!!!

God created YOU just as you are for a reason. You are fearfully and wonderfully made because you have a purpose and you are UNIQUE, SPECIAL. and LOVED! God wants to prosper you and give you a hope and a future, not harm you. GOD IS FOR YOU!! f you believe, then all things are possible. This is my faith and my hope. Empathy and desire for restoration is what motivates me to get out of bed each and every day.

If you would like to connect, please consider reaching out to have a conversation. You don’t have to live in fear. You don’t have to suffer alone. I am here. I see you. I believe you, and I believe in you. You are more than enough. You are worth it! You are not alone.

I’m so curious, where do you find even the tiniest spark of hope? Focus there and remember that HOPE is the belief to “Hold On, Pain Ends!”

You can reach out to me by email at nursehealingadvocate@gmail.com to set up an initial call. Or, you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn @nursehealingadvocate.

I hope to talk to you sooner than later, and would absolutely love to help you become your own best healing advocate!!

In the meantime, you are more than welcome to join my online healing community on Facebook ~ The Healing Advocate RN Community – for Women Empowering Women 🪴

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With hope,

Nurse Coach Ruth Renee RN

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My Foundational Values ~ Forgiveness. Grace. Honesty. Hope against Hope. Authenticity. Vulnerability. Courage. Peace.

#nursecoachruthrenee #nursehealingadvocate #holistichealing #advocacy #nursingadvocacy #savedbygrace #coachingforwomen #empoweringnurses #empoweringwomen #nursecoach #nursecoaching #nursecoachingcollective #recoverycoach #holistichealthcoach #traumainformed #edsawareness #HashimotosWarrior #hashimotosthyroiditis #hashimotosawareness #ehlersdanlosawareness #autismsupport #adhdsupport #cptsdsupport #metoo #rewriteyourstory #hopewriter #hopewriterlife #jesusfreak #godislove #miracles #miracleshappen #mylifestoryisamiracle

Seasons Change, So Can We…

Just as the seasons change, your past is not your present.

As humans, it seems change doesn’t happen as naturally for us, as it does for the seasons. So what’s the difference?

We humans always have a choice, and often times we choose to live in our past, rather than fully living in the present, in the now ~body, mind, and spirit integrated in the same place at the same time.

Trust me, I know how hard it is to let go of broken dreams. I’ve struggled to surrender many of my heartaches to God.

The sudden tragic loss of my father when I was a teen. My divorce and the loss of my dream in life to grow old with my first love.

I struggled to let go, to move on, to accept that I couldn’t fix this broken dream just like I couldn’t fix the dream of having my father heal and stay alive. I so badly wanted my dad with me to celebrate my graduations, my wedding, the births of my children. It has been so hard to let go, to let myself surrender these broken dreams to God.

I feel deeply and it’s okay to grieve loss for as long as we need, but for me I realized my chronic grief was hurting me more than it was helping me heal. I became stuck. I stopped living. My body was present, but my mind lived in the past trying to analyze, overthink, and find a way to fix unfixable problems.

Two lessons I’ve learned the hard way…

1) Praying someone to stay alive doesn’t always work, no matter how great your faith. Our time is not always God’s time. Our will is not always God’s will.

2) I can’t “do the work” for another to heal their past trauma, as much as I desperately want. I can’t change anyone except myself.

I have tried to do things my own way, to do the work for others, to fix others because I could not fix my dad.

I have lived the past over and over expecting a different solution. And that, my friend, is the very definition of insanity, and why letting go of the past and surrendering our will to God is so important.

Through many years of hard life experiences, trauma counseling, and doing the healing work for myself, I have learned that change requires the same from all who want to step out of brokenness, from all who want to let go of the broken dreams of the past, from all who want to step into being your greatest empowered healthy self, the person you were always called to be.

The good news is that change is always possible. As a good therapist told me over and over, I always have choices and options!

When we find the motivation to change, it begins with a single shift in our mindset, followed by a choice, then lots of small steps, and for sure we need to celebrate all the little victories and even the failures. It is all just feedback and a learning process about ourselves, the goal being to peel the layers until we reach the core of who we truly are at the deepest level.

The most important thing I’ve learned about transformation is that we get there the fastest by slowing down, speaking our truths, and becoming our authentic selves as best we can.

Some words by recovery expert Melody Beattie have been balm to my weary, grieving soul over the last few years.

“Let go of all expectations.
Cut the strings of resentment and negativity that connect you to another.
Detach from bitterness and forgive.
Make room for love and positivity.
The universe will do what it will.

Sometimes your dream will come true,
sometimes they won’t.
Sometimes when you let go of a broken dream, another one gently takes its place“
~Melody Beattie

It can be hard to let go of broken dreams, to let go of the past and love fully alive in the present moment, but it is possible!!!

With the help of my higher power I am doing so, and I believe you can too.

We decide if we let the past continue to be our present, like the perpetual Groundhog Day movie.

Or, we decide if we choose to allow each new day be a fresh start to do something different, for us to be someone healthier than we were the day before.

Change is always possible!!

And I believe you are worth it!

With hope and confidence,

Ruth Renee, RN

Student Nurse Coach

Are there any broken dreams you are struggling to let go? What have you learned because of the struggle?

If you’d like to connect, please email nursehealingadvocate@gmail.com or comment below.

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