I am honored that a blog post from a couple of years ago was featured in the February Newsletter from The Spirit of Water. You can read what was included in their newsletter below. The details are a bit muddled, but the sentiment is still real.
Love is in the NICU
An extraordinary expression of love arrived in my email this past month. It was from a doctor who writes a support blog for NICU parents (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). She shared a link to her blog where she has written about water blessing labels and how she used them for her own premature infant and now recommends them to other terrified parents - those who wait and hope their precious infants will survive. Her blog brought tears to my eyes.
But it also opened my heart to a new way of offering love to those who face such challenges. Though her blog [post] was written a few years ago, it is still pertinent today. Read it and weep with love!
The post, Water Blessing Lables Turn Water (or Medicine) into Liquid Prayers was written in June 2007, soon after I discovered the site.
Gifting Water Blessing Labels
I have since gone on to send these labels to friends who are going through tough times, colleagues who are trying to lose weight and as a supportive gift for an athlete facing a cancer diagnosis
They have a variety of themes including: Personal Growth, Prosperity, Healing Medicine, Sacred Feminine, Feng Shui, Sacred Symbols, Law of Attraction and Love & Gratitude. Some of the labels lend themselves better to being used in the NICU, other to being used in different situations.
You can order Water Blessing Labels for yourself from the Spirit of Water Website.
More Resources:
The Spirit of Water Website.
Dyer KA. 2008. Water Blessing Labels. Squidoo.com
Dyer KA. 2007. Water Blessing Lables Turn Water (or Medicine) into Liquid Prayers.
When I stumbled upon this website, I immediately loved the concept of using words as a simple way to enhance healing especially in the hospital setting and turn water or medicine into a liquid blessing for the patient and also for the family members.
Their motto seemed to resonate with me also:
Transform your water into Liquid Prayers.
The concept is simple. The Spirit of Water company has created crystal clear static-cling labels that be placed on containers of water or other fluids.
The wheels started turning as to how these labels could be used in the NICU setting to support NICU Parents and NICU Babies.
Empowering Parents to Participate in the Healing Process
My greatest frustration in being a NICU Parent was the helplessness and the feeling that I was not able to contribute anything to my daughter's care.
The inability to do anything, to contribute to my daughter’s care medically as a physician or emotionally to hold her hand and pacify her as a mother was indescribably frustrating. How was I supposed to "turn off" my years of training as a physician—being in the hospital, caring for patients and providing them comfort during a tormenting time? It was impossible.
We used several different additional modalities--music, blessings and touch--when my daughter was in the NICU. These were things that I thought to bring in as part of a more Integrative Approach to care, a way that I could participate in her care and enhance her treatment. It was my hope that these additional treatments would bolster her inherent strength and inner healing abilities.
Many of these ways of helping a NICU baby that we used have since been shown in research studies to have some positive benefits with NICU babies. If nothing else, as long as the treatment is not harming the baby, I think letting parents 'do something' to actively participate in their child's care is very important.
Using Water Blessing Labels in the NICU setting
If the water blessing labels had been available at the time, I would have asked the NICU staff put them on her I.V. fluids. (e.g. love, healing, trust, courage, guidance).
I also would have used them on any bottled water we were drinking (e.g. love, healing energy, manifesting miracles) as another way to feel that we were doing something by holding her in our foremost thoughts and using the power of words and positive thoughts even if we weren't with her.
Favorite Words or Combinations
This is a list of my favorite words or word combinations from their various collections. Maybe with enough interest, the company will eventually develop a line for the hospital setting.
- From the Healing Medicine Collection - energy, courage, healing, wholeness, breakthrough, nurturance, body wisdom, healing + energy
- From the Personal Growth Collection - love, health, trust, strength, success, vitality, gratitude
- From the Prosperity Collection - focus, trust, success, miracles, manifest + miracles, gratitude
Source:
The Spirit of Water Website - http://www.thespiritofwater.com/
Testimonials - http://www.thespiritofwater.com/Miracles.htm
Observing Mother's Day with Renewed Appreciation - http://www.journeyofhearts.org/resources/momday.html
