Old School Meets New School

Head-to-Toe

By Lisa Solis DeLong

One of the wellbeing practices I like to share with my clients is one I call a “head-to-toe assessment.” This idea came from my nursing school training. Way back in 1983, at Los Angeles County, USC Medical Center, School of Nursing, we were taught to do a head-to-toe assessment on each of our patients at the beginning of every shift.

This patient assessment only required a few minutes starting at the head, looking at the face for skin color and tone, lip and eye color, then using a stethoscope to listen to the lungs for breath sounds, then the abdomen for bowel sounds, asking for bowel and bladder history, and continuing all the way down to their legs and feet, ending by pressing the nailbeds of the toes for capillary refill. And of course, assessing overall hygiene. After a year or so of doing these, I found myself doing them on everyone I met. Obviously, I didn’t pull out my stethoscope or asses bowel sounds, but I did visually assess and still do visually assess everyone I meet. I do it automatically. I can look at a person’s face and immediately see whether they smoke cigarettes or not by the color of their lips. I look at nailbeds and see poor circulation. Red thin skin of swollen lower legs, possible cellulitis. You get the idea.

Now, forty years post nursing school, I apply the same idea to an energetic head-to-toe assessment. I do this on myself throughout the day which allows me to maintain energetic hygiene. I especially like to do a self-head-to-toe assessment when I’m feeling stressed. I start with my head and notice my thoughts, why am I thinking this thought at this time? Am I replaying an old memory and why? Am I thinking a fear-based thought when there’s nothing to be afraid of right now in this moment? I move down my throat, my chest, continuing to my gut, is there tightness or discomfort in any of these regions? Is there a thought attached to the discomfort? Moving on to my legs, is there pain? If there is, I ask this part of my body ‘What is this pain about?’  I do the same all the way to my feet. If I’m feeling any pain, after asking, I give my attention to that location, receive inner knowing about what the discomfort is trying to convey and then I remove it by visualizing the pain or heavy energetics moving down my body, out my feet onto the earth and out of my body.

I realize this may sound strange, but I’ve done it long enough now that I’m a believer in this practice. As a nurse and grief expert, I learned after my son experienced physical death due to leukemia, that unattended grief can make people sick. We all experience losses, little ones and big ones. If the heavy emotional debris of a devastating loss does not find its way out of the body it will make us sick.

This simple practice of energetic mindfulness can lighten our load and support our overall wellbeing. Try this silent energetic sweep from the head to the toe, bringing light dimming debris all the way down into the earth, grounding barefoot if possible (my personal favorite).

Enjoy this practice once or even multiple times a day and see what you discover. With a little nursing and a little spirituality, I look forward to sharing more with you soon.