We continuously cross thresholds in our journey to best health. A threshold is a beginning, a change – before you weren’t, now you are. You cross a threshold when entering a building, a room, a relationship, an experience. Cross a threshold as you park your car, enter a clinic, go for an MRI. Cross a threshold when your doctor or nurse enters the room or responds to your email, when you call your insurance company, when someone asks, How are you? Cross a threshold as you feel a lump, hear a diagnosis, throw up, panic, feel pain, fall. Before you didn’t, now you do.These thresholds upset our sense of balance, our inertia. The manifestation of imbalance can be spiritual, mental, and/or physical. Why me? Hopelessness, annoyance,frustration, fatigue The sense of imbalance when crossing a threshold can require or suck energy, depending on the moment and perspective.
A pivotal moment for me as a nurse was discovering the opportunities I had to experience some of these threshold crossings, moments of imbalance, with others. Having a companion or a guide at these moments is huge. A smile, a touch, information can change the trajectory of that crossing, speed the regaining of balance, add energy, provide relief, increase hope. My mission became: to increase the sense of balance patients, caregivers, and clinicians feel as they work together towards best health.
Threshold crossings occur around us constantly. Sometimes we notice them. How can we increase our personal and organizational capacity to be a guide or companion?
