Bang! The door closed sharply behind the patient. Anxiety tightens his face and propels his body forward to seek solace from the nurses. Before he reaches the counter where he could find someone to help him calm down, he slows his walk and his facial muscles begin to relax. By the time he stands in front of the counter, he is quiet. I leave the stool where I have been sitting against the wall behind the counter and walk toward him. We talk for a few minutes about the pain, anger, and fear that had overwhelmed him in therapy group and he is ready to face, once again, the healing process.

What was I doing and where was I doing it?

Having been a registered nurse for forty years working in a variety of inpatient and outpatient settings, I was working at a residential treatment center for addictive behaviors and psychiatric disorders. In the moments when I wasn't occupied with paper work, or engaged in a one-to-one dialogue with a patient, I used the skills I learned as a Krieger/Kunz Therapeutic Touch practitioner.

An observer might have thought I was sitting on that stool daydreaming, but in actuality I was sending thoughts of peace and imagining a blue light filling the entire nursing station - reaching to the door where the patient entered. In this treatment facility, emotions were not treated with medication. Group therapy for patients is intense and feelings erupt suddenly and as ferociously as a volcano. When this occurs, a distressed patient often flees to the nursing station for solace. Maintaining a state of peacefulness and projecting that around me has become my most effective tool for calming patients.

To project a calm state and peacefulness requires intentful action. This practice is sometimes called centering or mindfulness. While I remained alert to all that was occurring around me, my focus was on my breath. Preserving a regular rate and slow, deep inhalations and exhalations, I was fed with a continuous flow of oxygen. Physiologically, this helped clear my mind of cluttering thoughts. In this mode, it is relatively easy to keep my thoughts on peaceful words, places, and images. It is a powerful practice. Instead of 'doing for' the patient, it allows the patient to take control of himself or herself to achieve a more ordered state.

For instance, when I was working in an outpatient addiction recovery program, a patient told me that his brother had been murdered and he wanted revenge. He believed he knew who had done the killing. This man, though normally mild mannered, seemed focused on violent reaction. I quieted my own alarm but my thoughts were on the words peace, order, and wholeness. When the treatment concluded, I counseled him regarding his response to the situation and how to take care of himself. Because he mentioned that he wanted to go away from the city for a weekend in the country, I encouraged him to spend time sitting under a tree and concentrate on the beauty of nature around him. I suggested he breathe slowly, deeply, in a regular rhythm, and keep his thoughts on peace and order.

The next time I saw him, he had let go of the need to commit a violent crime against his brother's assailant. He felt that justice would come to the man responsible for his brother's death. In the rural setting he had been able to come to peace with himself.

What part did my treatments and counsel play in his decision? How can one accurately connect our thoughts with another's actions? We can't. Yet, we now know that our minds do not just reside in our brains. They exist in every cell of our physical body. And, as quantum physicists are helping us understand, some aspect of our being appears to extend outward from our bodies to unmeasureable distances. I believe that my thoughts of peace and order while treating him reached the part of him that also believes in peaceful and ordered behavior.

© Carol Rosinski http://toadhollowstudio.com/

In this time when Americans are searching for 'something to do' to make peace happen, support for mindful and peaceful practice is growing. After 9/11/2001, communities all over America were holding prayer and peace vigils. Messages and directions came across the Internet for certain times to light candles so that people could focus on peace at the same time.

It is an ongoing, viable habit that anyone can engage in. As ripples in a pond spread wider when a larger rock is thrown in, so does peacefulness extend further and affect greater numbers of people when more than one person is so engaged.

We can begin this process in our own personal lives... Remember your primary aids are, in the order of importance:

1) Declaring to yourself your intention of helpfulness.
2) Maintaining peaceful thoughts and images.
3) Using your breath as support of order.
4) Letting silence strengthen your projection.

In difficult scenarios, it may be helpful to increase physical distance from the person and/or to briefly break eye contact occasionally. This is especially necessary if you are coming off center and losing your own calm state.