Inner Life of Healers for Health Sciences Students

Students Benefit From the Inner Life Renewal Program
Classes, Workshops and Retreats
Learn Answers to These Questions
What Health Sciences Students Say About The Inner Life Renwal Program
For more Information

Acquiring technical knowledge and skill has long been at the heart of health sciences education. Health care and public health students are challenged as never before to learn and integrate a universe of information about the human body, medical advances and the day-to-day rigors of serving others.

Yet, there is growing recognition that the best health care is more than science and skills. The best health care depends on the inner qualities and integrity of the health care professional, and the understanding that the patient-healer relationship is served best by a personal foundation of inner strength and self-awareness.

Too few courses prepare students for the challenging aspects of health care that test inner strength, life's passion, resilience and spirit.

That's why the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota offers The Inner Life Renewal program for health sciences students.

Students Benefit From the Inner Life Renewal Program  Back to Top

The quality of health care depends more often on the inner qualities of the healer and the health care advocate than his or her technical skills. Being a health care professional or an advocate means having the skills to maintain a healthy inner self, deeply listen, feel compassion, and be self-aware. Each of these impact the quality of the patient-healer relationship and the health care system.

In this program, health care professionals from all walks of life learn the importance of cultivating such competencies as presence, communication, and personal energy. Through The Inner Life Renewal program, students learn why inner balance is key to both a relationship-centered practice and a fulfilling health care career. Students learn to develop such skills as:

• Self-care and resilience strategies
• Deep listening, compassion and presence
• Breathing and relaxation skills
• Positive energy flow and touch
• Life balance
  
  

Classes, Workshops and Retreats Back to Top

Our program team works with the schools and colleges of the Academic Health Center (AHC) and with the Center for Health Interdisciplinary Programs (CHIP) to offer health professional students an array of workshops and retreats that teach them how to develop the inner qualities that will complement technical health care skills and knowledge. Self-care classes and workshops, including mindfulness, yoga, and Inner Life Renewal retreat, are among the tools for creating meaningful relationships with patients, colleagues, family and friends.

Students are invited to take advantage of ongoing Stress Busters, held Tuesdays and Fridays, which provides an hour of meditation and light stretching. The instructors approach meditation as a physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual inquiry using quiet meditation and stretching. You will develop the ability to enter a state of calm, meditative awareness. Stress Busters on Thursdays is Movement Meditation, which incorporates gentle, relaxing meditative, playful and restorative experiences drawn from a range different healing, movement and meditative practices. Held at 12:15 pm in the Meditation Space of the Mayo Building on the University of Minnesota campus, Meditation Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays are sponsored by The Inner Life Renewal program.

Twice a year, in the spring and fall, the Inner Life Renewal program offers a day-long yoga/meditation retreat.  This event, held at the Bluewater Yoga Studio in Redwing offers an opportunity for deeper exploration of meditative awareness. 

Learn Answers to These Questions Back to Top

The Inner Life Renewal program is for health sciences students who are interested in personal growth. Use these questions as a starting point.

• How can I calm down in a fast-paced environment?
• How do I integrate my clinical skills and knowledge with my intuition and wisdom?
• Can I recognize the signs of an inner and outer life that are out of balance?
• How can I listen to my patients and their loved ones so that they feel trued cared for and loved?
• How can I stay connected to the passion, hopes and values that led me to a health care career?

What Health Sciences Students Say About The Inner Life Renewal Program  Back to Top

"Refocusing on our passions and why we are struggling through school has helped to focus me and will help me to get through the coming months of unbalance."
-- Health sciences student

"The Inner Life program answers a vital need in the health professions. With increasing demands on time and energy, the program teaches us to access our spiritual depths to meaningfully engage in our work. I strongly believe the program is shaping a more humane and humanistic future for health care and as a student, the program is vital to my spiritual and mental health. Through the program, I hope to develop humanistic values to share with my patients. It is comforting to know that there is a forum in which to discuss my spiritual challenges during my time in the scientific context of medical school."
-- Second year medical student

"This program helped me to remember why I've been working so hard for the last six years to complete this degree. I saw my colleagues become as emotional as me - remembering what our careers mean to us. Thanks for helping to put things in perspective."
-- Occupational therapy student

For More Information Back to Top

To learn more about Inner Life Renewal classes, workshops and retreats offered by your school or college, talk with your program advisor or visit the events list . For information about Stress Busters or how you can incorporate an Inner Life Renewal class or retreat into your health sciences program, call 612-626-2395.