Nursing Alumna Leads The Way In Spanish Guided Imagery Meditation Audios During Covid-19 Pandemic
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the lives of thousands across the globe, countless healthcare professionals continue to sacrifice their lives for individuals fighting the virus.
UIW nursing graduate, Caroline Ortiz ‘95, knows the emotional and psychological toll healthcare workers experience during challenging times such as the one our society currently faces. Wanting to make a difference, Ortiz took on a project involving the translation of guided imagery meditations and affirmations specifically geared to Spanish-speaking frontline workers and affected communities.
"There are very few resources for the Spanish-speaking community in complementary and integrative health, and these [meditation] audios help to bridge the barriers of accessibility that keep so many from the potential of holistic approaches to health and healing," said Ortiz.
As the early stages of the pandemic were being identified in the United States, Ortiz had just begun discussions with Belleruth Naparstek, a guided imagery expert and founder of Health Journeys, to translate and record some of her vast library of meditations into Spanish.
Feeling the need to fast-track the project because of the extraordinary situations of frontline workers and affected communities, Ortiz and Naparstek decided it would be best to start with the Relaxation and Wellbeing audio. However, stay-at-home orders and social isolation guidelines in New York City did not permit her to travel to the recording studios in Cleveland. In the meantime, she found an alternative solution to record the meditations.
"By truly divine intervention, I found out that my upstairs neighbor happened to be an audio engineer and was also socially isolating in place! He agreed to help me record using his equipment and being creative about semi-soundproofing his tiny studio apartment on an island of 1.6 million New Yorkers," she added.
The result of this collaboration between Ortiz and Naparstek is the first-ever guided imagery meditation audio in Spanish for Health Journeys, a multimedia publishing company specializing in self-help audio recordings.
Ortiz’s passion for healing and wellness traces back to her early years at UIW when she was enrolled in a dimensions of wellness course.
"UIW not only offered a strong educational foundation on which to explore and express my nursing vocation, it also introduced me to the concept of human wellness. Not understanding its profound meaning at the time, I have grown to embrace and support the multiple dimensions of wellness that make up wholeness in healing and living," she said.
She advises current nursing students to have personal commitment and to be responsible healthcare providers in the future.
"My hope for every UIW nurse is to expand into being a facilitator of deep healing and live the practice of nursing as an embodied prayer of love," Ortiz emphasized.
Listen to the audio streams: Relajación y bienestar [Relaxation and Wellbeing] and Liberando el cargo emocional: Aliviando la depresión [Liberating Emotional Weight: Healing Depression] at https://tinyurl.com/ych4kk3k