ANA Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation® Spotlight: Christine Laurita, RN, CCMC
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Nurse uses mindfulness to navigate life changes, grief, and even temporary paralysis
It doesn’t matter where you start. It matters where you end.
This philosophy, passed down from her father, has guided #healthynurse Christine Laurita, RN, CCMC, for as long as she can remember. It has also deeply influenced her approach and lifelong commitment to wellness.
The irony is that Christine’s wellness, which is grounded in mindfulness, sprouted and grew because of how she started her career.
A Road Less Traveled
Christine graduated from nursing school during a hiring freeze. She couldn’t find a nursing position anywhere. She took a job as a mental health counselor. It was not only eye-opening; it was also life changing.
“I worked in a locked, community-based unit for people who were duly diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and Alzheimer’s disease,” Christine says. “I was 22. Looking back now, as my older self, I see how challenging that role was. But I didn’t approach it that way at the time.”
Instead, Christine soaked it all in. She learned about counseling, especially how to listen. She believes listening is the best communication skill a person can have.
“This unexpected path profoundly changed my life,” Christine says. “It helped me understand that health is a journey with unique implications for each individual.”
The Value of Mindfulness
Christine eventually found her way back to nursing. But a significant portion of her nursing career centered around individuals with mental health issues and developmental delays.
She worked in many roles: handling a crisis center hotline, conducting emergency evaluations for a psychiatric hospital, and managing health care services in community-based group homes for people with disabilities. Through it all, mindfulness left its mark.
“The teams I worked with did a lot with cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness,” Christine says. “I learned the practices, helped people with them, and applied them to myself. I’ve used mindfulness practices ever since.”
Christine practices mindfulness daily through prayer and meditation. She’s found it invaluable during the darkest and scariest times in her life, including her recovery from a horseback riding accident on her honeymoon. The injury left her partially and temporarily paralyzed for a year. Christine had to find ways to stay positive as she healed and worked her way back to nursing.
She relied on mindfulness again when her twin daughters were born 2 months premature. She found herself feeling out of control, overwhelmed, and angry.
“But I was able to instinctively embrace the situation, drawing on the mindfulness practices I previously learned,” Christine says. “And I don’t believe there are any accidents. People come into and out of your life. Things happen. There is always a reason for it.”
Lessons in Mindfulness
Mindfulness can look different to different people. What matters is that you find a way to stay connected to the present moment.
Christine says these critical guideposts help her be mindful:
- Know yourself: Christine was able to draw on her mindfulness practices in traumatic times because she knows herself. She pays attention to the things that make her feel unraveled.
“What are your triggers? Tune into them so that you know what is getting to you at any given moment,” Christine says. “Recognizing those triggers is a starting point.”
- Stay in your wise mind: “Staying in your wise mind” is how Christine describes finding balance. When things happen, and she is triggered, she centers herself and identifies what can and cannot be changed. Then she focuses on the person, colleague, or task in front of her and puts her energy there.
“I take a moment and breathe,” Christine says. “I don’t give my peace away. I get back into my wise mind where I can make good decisions. I don’t act in emotion. I just take a minute to absorb what’s happening and find my balance.”
Reflecting on Where She Ended Up
Looking back, Christine says her journey was not what she had imagined when she graduated with her nursing degree. Because of how her career started, she is a nurse who has never worked in a hospital or inpatient setting.
But her experience with mental health and mindfulness has helped her raise two well-adjusted and mindful daughters. And it’s the reason she volunteers as the wellness advocate for her department at Humana. She connects her coworkers with wellness resources and oversees fun challenges that encourage healthy behaviors.
“It comes down to listening and trying to meet people at their current wellness level,” Christine says. “I encourage people to be mindful of where they are right now, in this moment, so they can figure out one small step they can take today toward their larger goal.”
As Christine navigates empty nest syndrome and the loss of her parents, she finds herself in a deeply reflective stage of her own life and wellness journey. Her mindfulness practice is more robust than ever. She realizes that every step of her career — including where she started — has brought her to where she is today. And she knows from decades of mindfulness practice that where she is now, in this moment, is what matters.
Christine Laurita, RN, CCMC is a Humana nurse and serves as her department’s wellness advocate.
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Blog #healthynurse Spotlight
03/04/2025 2:59pm CST
The #healthynurse Spotlight is a shout out to nurses who are making changes in their lives to improve their health and wellness. You can too! Read their stories for inspiration here.
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