Jon Seskevich updates

by | Nov 30, 2017 | Blog

The Bright Hour
Received a text from a friend reading a book and saw me mentioned as “Nurse Jon” and “Relaxation Jon.” What a big surprise for us both! This book is powerful, like one of Stephen Levine, or Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ Living and Dying workshops. I read it on plane flight and trains in India! Right after she finishes about our interaction and an outcome of her practice, recovery from an anxiety, panic attack, she shares her relative, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Bright Hour story. On Facebook recently: Working at Duke put this picture and told about Nina’s treatment at the Cancer Center, and my teaching her a form of meditation that she used and gained repeated benefits over the last year of her life. LINK to the Facebook story.

The Bright Hour

During my recent trip to India, this was our last day at Kainchi Ashram in the foothills of the in the Kumoan Hills towards Nepal.

 

Body Relaxation with Hammered Dulcimer

 

So very pleased to announce the release of Body Relaxation with Hammered Dulcimer! My voice is recorded with the relaxing, soothing, fun sound of the Hammered Dulcimer with Helen Wolfson.

Spontaneously collborating one afternoon in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, we did a guided relaxation with a patient and her mom that yielded fantasic feedback and encouragement to make a recording. Here it is. Helen playing her hammered dulcimer and I speak from a place of deep heart and meditation. We have weaved together voice and music, that relaxes, the body, and calms the mind.

 

Helen Wolfson is a Certified Music Practitioner® who plays at bedside in private homes, residential facilities, and hospitals. Her relaxing music offers healing, solace, pain relief, and stress relief to clients and their families.

Jon Seskevich RN, BSN, BA, CHTP, is a stress-management nurse who works daily with patients in a major medical center in Durham, NC. He teaches simple, practical, scientifically valid, mind/body approaches for healing and stress management.

One day, Helen and Jon found themselves in the same hospital room and spontaneously worked together to create a profound difference in the patient’s attitude. At the end of the session, the patient’s mother asked them if they always worked together. Out of that question, this collaboration was born.

Body Relaxation with Hammered Dulcimer combines Helen’s mesmerizing music with Jon’s soothing voice. Sit back, listen, and let them dissolve your stress.

 

Jon is Blue Devil of the Week, read about it here.

About Jon Seskevich RN, BSN, BA, CHTP

 

Jon Seskevich is a nurse clinician in one of the country’s foremost medical centers. Since 1990, Jon has provided a stress and pain management education and consultation service for patients, families and staff. He works throughout the medical center with patients who have complex and challenging health conditions. Jon serves as a resource for hospital staff in dealing with the challenges inherent in the changing health care system.

Jon Seskevich teaches "soft belly breathing" to a patient.Jon, a Great 100 in NC Nursing award winner in 2005-06, was nominated for the Fetzer Foundation Norman Cousin’s Mind/Body Medicine Award in 1996. In 1998 he received the Friends’ of Nursing, “Excellence in Nursing Practice” award, and the “Alumnus of the Year” award from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Nursing, Alumni Association in 1997.

Jon has given over 300 presentations, lectures, workshops and classes that teach stress reduction, mind-body, and complementary therapies to hospital patients, health care professionals, community and church groups, and high-school and college students. He is founder and president of the Flying Monkey Programs, which sponsors mind-body-spirit educational workshops and seminars in North Carolina. All of Jon’s programs are designed to help nurses, doctors, health care professionals, and peacemakers deliver more compassionate care to patients, families and communities.Jon is a Certified Practitioner of Healing Touch therapy and is responsible for bringing this healing therapy to North Carolina through more than twenty workshops and seminars in the early 1990’s.

Jon began his own meditation practice in 1972. In 1975, at age 23, he started his training as a teacher of meditation and healing under the mentorship of meditation expert, psychologist, spiritual teacher and writer, Ram Dass (Richard Alpert, Ph.D.), who wrote about Jon in 1996:
Jon Seskevich and Ram Dass“His recognition of the need for both a spiritual dimension in healing work and grounded, responsible social action in spiritual work have defined his career in nursing. To that career he has brought a creative energy for integrating, in mind-body healing, meditative practices with stress reduction, healing touch with traditional nursing practices and a spiritual perspective for patients facing traumatic illness.

“The integration of spiritual dimensions in his work is very personal for Jon. His own inner work takes the form of being fully present for both patients and fellow staff members, and offering a very warm, heart-full human dimension to what are too often impersonal medical procedures.”

To read a 2006 interview between Jon and two yoga teachers click here.

“Jon is truly a brilliant example of compassion in action. He not only serves his patient community, but seems tireless in his willingness to share and teach, and to explore innovative techniques for humanizing nursing for nurses and patients alike.” Ram Dass (Richard Alpert, Ph.D.)
 
 
 
 



Links to Jon’s websites:

httpshttp://ManageStressNow.com    Building resiliency website; promoting a greater quality of life & improved physical functioning.

http://FlyingMonkey.ws   Chanting, music, CDs, & books

http://BlueGrassKirtan.com   A cool east-west musical fusion, combining sacred mantras with old-time Appalachian fiddle & banjo tunes.

 

http://FromBindutoOjas.com  A visual/audio history of the classic book Be Here Now by Ram Dass & the Lama Foundation.

 

Here is a March 2017 update from Jon Seskevich on his current activities:

Currently, my work at the hospital continues with seeing about 8 patients a day. A nurse works with me 6 days a month to help with the growing consultation requests. I present 20 talks a year on stress management and mind-body healing approaches to medical, nursing, patient, student and other groups. I am interested in taking my experience with these building resiliency practices, out into the larger community. The science of mind/body medicine is building each year. My experience with working with people with major health problems and having the benefits witnessed by thousands of health professionals in the hospital has been another outcome to demonstrate the value of this work.

For my personal stress management, I like singing and playing the harmonium. My newest CD is called Chanting is Universal! It is available on Itunes, Amazon, and Spotify. Chanting provides a protection for my mind and opens my heart.

In terms of politics last summer and fall, with the uncertainty of the Hillary email saga, I was actively helping organize a Triangle Nurses and Healers group for the elect Hillary effort.   Post-election, my personal stress management has included realizing, that now with one election over, it was prime time to look towards the 2 US Congressional competitive swing district races near us; NC-2 (around Raleigh) and NC-13 (Greensboro and southwest) in 2018 with the www.swingleft.org the people.