Empira

12/31/2025

What Really Matters to You in 2026?

As a new year approaches, there’s a familiar pressure to do more, be better, set bigger goals. But before we rush into resolutions, productivity systems, and five-year plans, there’s a quieter—and far more important—question worth asking:

What actually matters to me right now?
Not what should matter.
Not what matters to everyone else.
Not what used to matter.

Clarity doesn’t usually come from answers—it comes from asking the right questions and sitting with them long enough for something honest to surface. The questions below aren’t meant to be rushed. You don’t need to answer all of them at once. Think of them as invitations rather than assignments.

Grab a notebook, open a blank document, or take a long walk and let these questions work on you.

Before you can decide what’s important next, it helps to understand what’s shaped you so far.

• What moments from the past year stand out most strongly—and why?
• When did I feel most like myself?
• When did I feel drained, disconnected, or misaligned?
• What did I say “yes” to that I secretly wish I’d said “no” to?
• What did I avoid that I know mattered?

Values Beneath the Surface
Goals change. Titles change. Circumstances change. Values tend to linger.
• What values do I want my life to reflect, even if no one is watching?
• What makes me feel proud of myself—not impressed, but proud?
• When I feel conflicted, what value is usually being challenged?
• If I had to choose only three values to guide my decisions in 2026, what would they be?

Time, Energy, and Attention
Your calendar is often more honest than your intentions.
• Where does most of my time actually go?
• What consistently gives me energy—and what consistently takes it away?
• If my energy were a budget, what am I overspending on?
• What deserves more of my attention than it’s currently getting?

Relationships That Matter
Few things shape our lives more than the people in them.
• Who do I feel safest being fully myself around?
• Which relationships feel nourishing, and which feel obligatory?
• Who do I want to be more present with in 2026?
• Are there relationships I need to redefine, repair, or gently release?

Work, Purpose, and Contribution
This isn’t just about careers—it’s about meaning.
• What kind of work makes me feel useful or alive?
• What problems do I genuinely care about solving?
• If external validation disappeared, what would I still want to work on?
• How do I want my work to feel in 2026—not just look?

Growth, Not Just Goals
Growth isn’t always visible—but it’s always felt.
• What kind of person am I becoming?
• What patterns or habits am I ready to outgrow?
• What skill, mindset, or quality would make my life noticeably better?
• Where do I need to be more honest with myself?

Letting Go to Make Space
Sometimes knowing what matters means knowing what no longer does.
• What am I holding onto out of fear, guilt, or habit?
• What expectations am I carrying that aren’t actually mine?
• What would my life feel like if I released the need to please, prove, or perform?
• What would I stop doing if I trusted myself more?

Imagining 2026 (Without the Pressure)
Forget perfection. Think alignment.
• If 2026 felt deeply satisfying, what would be different?
• What would an “ordinary good day” look like?
• What would I regret not prioritizing if I looked back at the end of the year?
• What one word do I want to define how 2026 feels?

A Final Thought

You don’t need to turn these answers into a rigid plan. You don’t even need clarity on everything. Often, knowing what matters is less about certainty and more about direction.

Let your answers be messy. Let them evolve. Let them surprise you.
Because when you’re clear on what’s important, your decisions get lighter, your boundaries get stronger, and your life starts to feel more like it belongs to you.

Here’s to a 2026 that’s not just productive—but meaningful. 🥂🕛🥳🎩

12/24/2025

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas! 🎁

12/01/2025

The Secret Power of Colored Noise: Which One Do You Need?

We’ve all heard of “white noise,” but did you know there are multiple noise colors—each with a different effect on your mind and body🤔

Just like colors on a palette, white, pink, brown, and green noise each have their own “vibe,” and you can actually use them to improve your sleep, focus, calm, or to impact your daily mood.

Here’s how each one can help:

🤍 White Noise — Static / Fan
Great for blocking distractions, especially if you live with traffic, kids, pets, or noisy neighbors. Perfect for: work, studying, or sleep in loud environments.

🩷 Pink Noise — Rainy & Soft
Gentler than white noise. Think rain on a car roof or a distant waterfall. Often used for sleep, calm, and relaxation.

🤎 Brown Noise — Deep & Rumbly
Warm, low, and soothing—like distant thunder or an airplane cabin.
Many people say it helps with focus, grounding, and ADHD-style overwhelm.

💚 Green Noise — Nature-Like
This one feels like the outdoors: rustling leaves, soft rivers, gentle wind. Great for relaxation, mindfulness, and stress relief.

Each noise color supports your brain in a slightly different way. The magic comes from finding the one that fits your energy, environment, and daily needs.
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Here’s your challenge:
👉 Pick ONE noise color today.
👉 Use it for sleep, focus, or calm for at least 10 minutes.
👉 Then come back and comment which one you tried and how it made you feel.

11/27/2025

Happy Thanksgiving.
May the holiday bring you good things in abundance that stay with you all year long.

11/22/2025

Heading into the busy holiday season, it is more important than ever that we prioritize self-care!

At our monthly OARS Consortium meeting, we asked our OARS PIPP leaders what self-care looks like to them, and here is what they had to say.

What does self-care look like to you?

Apple Valley Village, Moose Lake Village, Hastings Senior Health & Living, Lakeside Generations, Haven Homes, Redeemer Health & Rehab Center, Park View Senior Health & Living, Elim Wellspring, Carondelet Village, Boutwells Landing, Waverly Gardens, Saint Therese of Oxbow Lake, Saint Therese of Woodbury, The Homestead at Rochester, The Homestead at Anoka

11/19/2025

Congratulations to our partners at Saint Therese of Woodbury and Saint Therese of Oxbow Lake on receiving an Honorable Mention in the 2025 Mather Institute Promising Practices Awards! We are proud to see the OARS Program recognized for the impact it is making on onboarding, engagement, and retention across our Empira communities.

We are honored to partner with skilled nursing communities from Saint Therese, Presbyterian Homes & Services, Cassia, and Volunteers of America National Services as we continue to strengthen the workforce and elevate the employee experience together. These organizations' commitment to implementing OARS with intention, consistency, and heart is what brings this work to life. Thank you for your leadership, your collaboration, and your dedication to creating stronger, more supportive workplaces for those who care for our residents.

11/11/2025

This Veterans Day, we pause to recognize the brave men and women who have served our country with courage, sacrifice, and unwavering dedication.

10/10/2025

🌿 Today is National Mental Health Day.

It’s a reminder that taking care of our minds matters just as much as taking care of our bodies.

When we know better, we can do better — for ourselves, for those we love, and for the people we work and live alongside.

Mental health isn’t about big gestures or expensive fixes. Often, it’s the small, simple things that make the biggest difference.

Here are 3 no-cost, realistic things you can do today to care for your mental health:
✅ Go for a walk. Even 10 minutes outside can shift your mood and clear your thoughts.
✅ Call a friend. Connection is one of the strongest antidotes to stress and loneliness.
✅ Limit news & social media. Protect your peace by stepping away when you feel overwhelmed.

Taking a moment for your mental well-being isn’t selfish — it’s essential. 💚

Let’s keep the conversation going. What’s one thing that helps you feel grounded?

09/29/2025

Join Cara Silletto, from Magnet Culture, and Heather Johnson from Empira on November 14th for a free webinar!

Learn what Empira is doing to increase workforce retention and decrease turnover.

In Magnet Culture’s upcoming webinar, retention expert Cara Silletto will sit down with Heather Johnson, Executive Director of Empira, a quality improvement organization, to discuss how her organization reduced nursing turnover by 38.4% across 15 senior care locations in just over a year. During t...

09/28/2025

Powerful reminder.

I know the exact pressure it takes to crack a rib during CPR. But last Tuesday, I learned a patient’s silence can break a doctor’s soul.

His name was David Chen, but on my screen, he was "Male, 82, Congestive Heart Failure, Room 402." I spent seven minutes with him that morning. Seven minutes to check his vitals, listen to the fluid in his lungs, adjust his diuretics, and type 24 required data points into his Electronic Health Record. He tried to tell me something, gesturing toward a faded photo on his nightstand. I nodded, said "we'll talk later," and moved on. There was no billing code for "talk later."

Mr. Chen died that afternoon. As a nurse quietly cleared his belongings, she handed me the photo. It was him as a young man, beaming, his arm around a woman, standing before a small grocery store with "CHEN'S MARKET" painted on the window.

The realization hit me like a physical blow. I knew his ejection fraction and his creatinine levels. I knew his insurance provider and his allergy to penicillin. But I didn't know his wife's name or that he had built a life from nothing with his own two hands. I hadn’t treated David Chen. I had managed the decline of a failing organ system. And in the sterile efficiency of it all, I had lost a piece of myself.

The next day, I bought a small, black Moleskine notebook. It felt like an act of rebellion.

My first patient was Eleanor Gable, a frail woman lost in a sea of white bedsheets, diagnosed with pneumonia. I did my exam, updated her chart, and just as I was about to leave, I paused. I turned back from the door.

"Mrs. Gable," I said, my voice feeling strange. "Tell me one thing about yourself that’s not in this file."

Her tired eyes widened in surprise. A faint smile touched her lips. "I was a second-grade teacher," she whispered. "The best sound in the world... is the silence that comes just after a child finally reads a sentence on their own."

I wrote it down in my notebook. Eleanor Gable: Taught children how to read.

I kept doing it. My little black book began to fill with ghosts of lives lived.

Frank Miller: Drove a yellow cab in New York for 40 years.
Maria Flores: Her mole recipe won the state fair in Texas, three years running.
Sam Jones: Proposed to his wife on the Kiss Cam at a Dodgers game.

Something began to change. The burnout, that heavy, gray cloak I’d been wearing for years, started to feel a little lighter. Before entering a room, I’d glance at my notebook. I wasn’t walking in to see the "acute pancreatitis in 207." I was walking in to see Frank, who probably had a million stories about the city. My patients felt it too. They'd sit up a little straighter. A light would flicker back in their eyes. They felt seen.

The real test came with Leo. He was 22, angry, and refusing dialysis for a condition he’d brought on himself. He was a "difficult patient," a label that in hospital-speak means "we've given up." The team was frustrated.

I walked into his room and sat down, leaving my tablet outside. We sat in silence for a full minute. I didn't look at his monitors. I looked at the intricate drawings covering his arms.

"Who's your artist?" I asked.

He scoffed. "Did 'em myself."

"They're good," I said. "This one... it looks like a blueprint."

For the first time, his gaze lost its hard edge. "Wanted to be an architect," he muttered, "before... all this."

We talked for twenty minutes about buildings, about lines, about creating something permanent. We didn't mention his kidneys once. When I stood up to leave, he said, so quietly I almost missed it, "Okay. We can try the dialysis tomorrow."

Later that night, I opened my Moleskine. I wrote: Leo Vance: Designs cities on paper.

The system I work in is designed to document disease with thousands of data points. It logs every cough, every pill, every lab value. It tells the story of how a body breaks down.

My little black book tells a different story. It tells the story of why a life mattered.

We are taught to practice medicine with data, but we heal with humanity. And in a world drowning in information, a single sentence that says, "I see you," isn't just a kind gesture.

It’s the most powerful medicine we have.

09/11/2025

Today, we pause to remember the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

2,977 lives were lost that day. Among them were 343 firefighters, 23 NYPD officers, and 37 Port Authority officers who gave the ultimate sacrifice while rushing in to save others.

We honor their bravery, selflessness, and the resilience of a nation that came together in the face of unimaginable tragedy.

May we never forget the lives lost and continue to live with gratitude for those who protect us every day.

09/01/2025

Wishing you a safe and beautiful Labor Day!