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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

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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!

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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 nursin

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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This week, we’re taking a journey through time and trust me, it’s wilder than any Halloween story you’ve heard.
Tarot didn’t begin in the dark corners of an occult bookstore or a dusty Romani caravan (yep, we’re busting that myth). It started in Renaissance Italy as a card game for nobles who probably had more coin than conscience. So how did those gilded game cards become the magical, psychological, and spiritual tool we use today?
We’ll trace the transformation from the Visconti-Sforza decks and the Tarot de Marseille to Court de Gébelin’s “Book of Thoth” fantasy, through Eliphas Levi, the Golden Dawn, Pamela Colman Smith’s revolutionary artwork, and into modern tarot as a tool for reflection, ritual, and healing.
I’m breaking down the history, the myths, and the moments where humanity turned art and archetype into alchemy. Whether you’re witchy, clinical, skeptical, or just tarot-curious, this episode reminds you that the magic isn’t in the cards — it’s in you.

Listen if you want to learn:
•The real, documented origins of tarot in Renaissance Italy
•How myths of Egypt and “fortune-telling gypsies” shaped the story
•Why the Golden Dawn and Pamela Colman Smith matter more than you think
•How tarot evolved into a spiritual mirror for modern witches, pagans, and even therapists

If you love Halloween, history, and a little magical realism with your caffeine, this one’s for you.
Share this episode with your favorite tarot friend, your skeptical coworker, or anyone who loves a good story grounded in truth and mystery.
And if you have thoughts, feedback, or a favorite tarot myth I missed, use the feedback link at the top of the show notes or email me directly. I love hearing from you, and your messages help keep this podcast as authentic as a midnight coffee on night shift.
Stay ritual, stay curious, and remember,  the cards don’t have power. You do.

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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Happy October, fam!!! Spooky season is here (read my favoritest season besides summer), and so are some big firsts for The Ritual Nurse. This month we’ve got special off-schedule episodes dropping, TikTok Lives (Go follow @theritualnurse!!!) in the works (yes, with crystal pulls and live divination), and some major announcements that are going to shift how we do this together.

But today? We’re talking survival. Nursing doesn’t hand out privacy breaks. You don’t get a quiet room to cry it out or a meditation cushion mid-shift. What you get is the med room, a hallway, or maybe two seconds at the scanner and meanwhile your body is betraying you with a racing heart, shaky hands, and a foggy brain.

That’s why this episode is all about regulation in real time. Not the “self-care day” version, but the neurological reset that works in 30 seconds flat.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• Why nursing leaves you no space to process and what that does to your body
• A step-by-step guide to Code Blue to Code You
• Two add-on micro skills: B.O.D.Y. (your doorway reset) and HEART-REST (your deeper breakroom pause)
• The science of why regulation is not optional. It’s ethical survival
• Coffee, Crystals & Divination: fall coffee rituals with cardamom, Black Tourmaline, and a divination pull that nailed the theme of regulation and resilience

October is going to be huge here at The Ritual Nurse. Don’t just listen! Join in. Hit that fan mail link in the show notes, tell me your spooky season rituals, and come hang out when we go live on TikTok. This month, it’s not just about surviving the floor. It’s about grounding, rising, and building rituals strong enough to carry us through the chaos.

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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Walking into HR can feel like stepping into the unknown. For many nurses, it is a place of fear, frustration, and unanswered questions. What does HR really do? How much power do they actually have? And how can nurses really get what they need in those conversations?

In this episode of The Ritual Nurse Podcast, Riva sits down with her friend Brynnen, an HR professional who shares what it looks like from the other side of the door. Together, they break down myths, explore when to bring issues forward, and talk about how to navigate the power dynamics that can leave nurses feeling powerless. This episode is the real life highlights of how the skills in our last episode are so vital to protecting your peace and protecting your space. 

Brynnen is not only an experienced HR professional but also a BookTok and Bookstagram favorite, known for her thoughtful reviews and online presence at @librarybrynn. She is just beginning to bring her voice to TikTok, and this conversation shows exactly why her perspective resonates. She's real, honest, funny, and doesn't BS. 

This conversation goes deeper than policy. Brynnen brings honesty, humanity, and insight into how HR works, what nurses should know before filing a complaint, and how to walk into meetings with confidence and clarity. To close, she leads our Coffee, Crystals, and Divination segment with a live card pull, blending professional truth with ritual wisdom.

If you have HR questions... go smash that fan mail link at the top of the show notes and send em in!!! It's totally anonymous, and you can include (or not bestie) whatever details you feel like. Brynnen will be back for a part two later in the season and would love to answer questions on our socials and in her next episode!

In this episode you will learn:

• What HR can and cannot do in response to complaints
• When it is appropriate to involve HR and what documentation to bring
• How to protect yourself in HR conversations with clarity and boundaries
• Why understanding HR’s pressures makes the process less intimidating

Resources and Links

• Blog post with full references: The Culture Cure
• Shop Ritual Nurse tools and downloads: TCTH.org
• Connect with Riva and The Code Team: [email protected]
• Connect with Brynnen: @librarybrynn (all the BookTok/Bookstagram goodness)
  
  

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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Nursing culture has a dark side: bullying, incivility, and lateral violence. In this episode of The Ritual Nurse, Riva dives straight into the heart of toxic workplace culture and its devastating impact on nurses’ mental health, resilience, and retention. This conversation isn’t about “having thicker skin” It’s about calling out the mean girl culture that’s been allowed to fester for too long. WE'RE DONE.

Riva introduces three powerful tools from the RISE curriculum that form the Culture Cure Toolkit:

• PEACE – a step-by-step communication skill for resolving conflict without escalating.
• CALM – a de-escalation skill to center yourself and move with intention.
• ROLE CLARITY – a grounding skill that anchors you back into your professional boundaries and keeps toxic systems from draining you dry.

Together, these skills create armor, grounding, and a clear voice for nurses navigating hostile environments. Paired with evidence-based research, this episode dismantles toxic stereotypes and empowers nurses with practical strategies for survival and growth.

In the Coffee, Crystals, & Divination segment, we explore fall rituals, savor black coffee simplicity, discover Garnet as the crystal of the week, and receive guidance from the Ace of Swords and the Lovers.

This is your toolkit for saying goodbye to incivility and hello to thriving in your practice. The mean girl culture is out. Advocacy and resilience are in. #nursefirst

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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Two of my closest friends and healthcare veterans join me to explore how our decade-long friendship has kept us sane through chaos, unending workloads, and the pandemic's darkest days.

• Why healthcare friendships are survival gear; self care lifelines OUTSIDE of work
• How our friendship began with an unexpected spider encounter and a well-placed slap
• Weathering the pandemic in different healthcare roles while maintaining our connections
• The isolating effects on healthcare professionals during COVID and how our friendship helped us cope
• Using the CALM skill (Center, Assess, Level, Maintain) for effective healthcare communication
• Sharing ridiculous hospital stories including the infamous "decomp plus" patient encounter
• Finding balance through shared interests outside healthcare like gaming and nerd culture
• Crystal prescriptions for emotional balance: Morganite, Howlite, and Turquoise
• Tarot guidance on authenticity, patience and managing healthcare transitions

Tag your anchor crew this week. Send them this episode and tell them why they're your people. If you don't have one yet, maybe this is your sign to start building that circle.

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!

What's This Episode About?

Riva is BACK and she's not playing around. In this raw, powerful Season 2 premiere, she gets real about the moment everything changed: a workplace injury during a code blue in 2021 that forced her to face the trauma she'd been studying but ignoring in herself.

This isn't just another "self-care" conversation. This is the birth of something revolutionary: the RISE Theory of Nursing. A trauma-informed, science-backed framework that's about to flip the script on how we think about nurse mental health. And yes, she literally reads you sections from the actual curriculum because she's THAT serious about this.

What You'll Hear:

The Origin Story (0:00-14:45)
The pandemic code that broke everything open, the therapist she didn't want to see, and the moment Riva realized her doctoral research had her name written all over it. Plus, why Season 2 is called "RISE First" and what that means for nurses who've been last on every list for way too long.

The Science Behind the Magic (14:45-22:00)
Riva goes full professor mode (okay, the sassy version) and reads directly from the RISE curriculum. You'll learn about the four pillars (Resilience, Insight, Strength, Empowerment), the six skill-building categories, and why this isn't some fluffy wellness program but actual evidence-based intervention for nurse mental health.

Dance Break Time (22:00-23:00) YOU KNOW IT
Because your body isn't a machine and you don't need to earn rest. Shake it out for a minute.

Your Nervous System Needs You (23:00-33:00)
Ever finish a 12-hour shift and realize you didn't pee or breathe properly the entire time? That's your nervous system in survival mode. Riva breaks down why nurses live in "sympathetic override" and teaches you the B.O.D.Y. technique: a 30-second somatic skill you can use anywhere to come back home to yourself.

Coffee, Crystals & Divination (33:00-37:00)
The favorite segment returns with a special guest appearance by Mr. Ritual Nurse himself! This week's drink is a spiced mango sorbet situation that sounds absolutely divine, plus crystal prescriptions and card pulls to anchor your week.

The Call to Action (37:00-39:00)
This is just the beginning. Share this episode. Tag a nurse. Put it in a breakroom. Let's flood the system with something stronger than burnout: hope.

Resources & Good Stuff:

• Shop the aesthetic self-care goods: https://bit.ly/RitualNurse
• Free downloads: https://www.tcth.org
• Instagram: @theritualnurse
• Email: [email protected]

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 is your wrap-up report. Your sacred shift sign-out. Your permission to exhale.

In this emotional, powerful, and heart-filled finale of Season One, host Riva reflects on the journey we’ve taken together through trauma-informed healing, skill-building, and ritual creation. This season wasn’t just a podcast. It was a guided process for learning how to regulate, recover, and reconnect with ourselves, designed specifically for nurses.

Riva walks us through the key DBT-inspired nursing skills we’ve explored throughout the season, including Code Blue to Code You, IV PUSH, T.R.A.U.M.A. - C.A.R.E., and The LIST. Each skill is recapped with clarity and purpose, reminding us how and why we use them.

She also shares her personal story of how this work began during the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a front-line nurse, student, and researcher, Riva witnessed firsthand the mental health crisis unfolding among nurses and knew that something had to change. Her commitment to creating evidence-based, real, and ritual-infused healing practices is what built this podcast, and what will carry it forward.

Plus, stay tuned for what’s coming in Season Two:

• New DBT-inspired skills and deeper trauma recovery work
• Guest episodes featuring nurses, therapists, and healers
• The official launch of the R.I.S.E. curriculum
• Exclusive access to The Ritual Nurse Collective for private community learning
• All-new sticker merch and free gift offers for listener stories

This isn’t just a podcast. This is practice. This is science. This is sacred.

Want to receive a free sticker pack?
Send Riva your story: how the podcast or any episode helped you, your story... and she’ll mail you a full set of our new waterproof stickers, made for nurses who wear their truth loud and proud. You can also request a private use promo code if you prefer not to share your address via a message.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Code Blue to Code You
• IV PUSH
• C.A.R.E.
• T.R.A.U.M.A. - C.A.R.E.
• S.T.E.P.
• The LIST: A Nurse’s Survival Task Organizer
• R.I.S.E. Curriculum (launching Fall 2025)
• The Ritual Nurse Collective (by invitation only)

Support the show:
If this podcast has helped you, please consider leaving a review. It helps the show reach more nurses and healers who need it.

Website: https://bit.ly/RitualNurse
Shop: https://bit.ly/RitualNurse
Email: [email protected]
Follow: @ritualnurse on tiktok and @the_Code_Team on IG. 

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!